Sheep and Pigs

This morning we started school a little earlier than usual, so as to finish earlier so that we could accompany Nick to Sandy Bay to drop off prayer meeting lists. We left at about 10, and Nick had phoned ahead to let the first recipient know that we would be coming to tea. This was Daphne Peters, who lives with her husband William on somewhat of a farm in Levelwood, I think you’d call it. They have a magnificent view across a green valley to the green slopes and houses on the other side. It’s a big view, makes you feel like you’re in an I-Max theatre with that really huge screen. After a good chat with Daphne, I went to have a look at the pig, which the boys had seen last week already. They buy a piglet periodically, rear it and fatten it, then kill it and gut it themselves. It’s quite funny because Daphne speaks to the pig and sometimes even goes as far as naming it, so it becomes a bit like a pet, then they have to kill it, scald it in boiling water to get the hair off, then hang it up and slice it open to gut it, then cut it up and sell it. You can imagine that she isn’t particularly partial to bacon anymore. The pig is huge, about 1m long, and just lies in a dark pen and stinks all day. It got up when I looked at it and started snuffling and grunting and seemed quite skittish actually. Caleb was standing quite close to the pen, and there was a gap between the wall and the ground, so a wet pink nose came through the gap to examine the foot. While we were looking at the pig, their sheep came wandering down from the hills to an adjacent pen. I’ve never looked a sheep right in the eye before or even touched one, but these sheep came right up as close as they could without being nervous as sheep tend to be. A sheep’s pupil is rectangular, interestingly. William will be shearing them next month for the hot weather, so I might try to arrange that we can visit them to view the process – will be good for the boys to see that sort of stuff (we’ll skip the pig slaughter though).