A time with Alice.

I found this picture of `Alice` when she was quite small.  She had delivered her fist litter by now and become a pet.

I had to build many different houses for her in the next few years. When she was first pregnant we thought that it was because she was a Potbellied Pig and was just developing. as she was so small and didn`t look old enough to have young. The problem is that she came from the Wolf Sanctuary and there are a lot of boars of all sizes walking free.

When I built a house next to my stoop she used to come every morning about 6 o`clock for breakfast. She would rattle the gate until I came outside. After breakfast it was a complete bushing all over her body, it certainly made the fir shine and it calmed her down when she was in Estrus. She would then walk with me round the small holding boundry like a dog, except I never tried a lead. She grew to be a huge pig but was always active. As you can see in number 4 she grew a long mane during the winter, which she didn`t mind me holding her back with when we had problems.If strangers came onto the property she would chase them barking like a dog, but would always come back when I whistled.Going from the gate to the house which was over 250 meters she could keep up with my car doing at least 30 km/h.

It was Alice`s morning ritual that got me into photographing the sunrise every day.

I`ve heard of a Dog in the manger but this looks like a goat.

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Joking about blogs.

There are many people now who consider blogs as jokes and the only thing in their life seems to be Facebook, twitter and all their variations. Although I have seen quite a few younger people writing blogs, the only problem has been commenting on their blogs because they want them sent to Facebook. When Facebook first started I started a page but don`t use it anymore as it takes too much of my time and dongle megabytes. Twitter and the other social sites seem to me that they are for people that use smart phones to text as they seem restricted by volume. I know that some blogs, mine included, seem to rehash the same subjects over and over. I do it just for fun and have quite a restricted area in which to photograph.

it doesn`t take long for the sunrise to change as these were only minutes apart.

There are quite a few people t5hat email and ask to see things that they are unable to see as they are land bound. This is the reason for the sea life.

Orca teaching the calf to breach in the bay. These are not seen very often so close to the beach, maybe once a year.

This year the boats have had to go further out to sea to get shots of the different Whales.

i still like this one as it reminds me of the one below:—

I have never tried to feel the whales nose but the pig had a very soft nose which I found remarkable as they can dig quite hard ground with that nose.

Even though the whales are not in the bay now we still have a lot of dolphins.

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Trolling the HD again.

Clearing out a hard drive is about the same as trying to un-clutter your cupboards. It`s quite disappointing when you look in the cupboards to find something and there is so much clutter that it takes forever to find what you want. I have tried to sell things but it seems that they are only worth anything to me. Well now I have my solution, everything that hasn`t been used for 2 years gets thrown out or given away. But with a hard drive some of the old photos have to be kept because maybe that shot wont be taken again.The thing I do is make it 500 pixels wide so it can still be seen on the screen. At least they only occupy a few kb instead Mb`s.

I always take the sunrise in the morning as that starts my day taking photos. i now have thousands of these of which most have been reduced like this one.

Situations like this are quite rare, I only managed this twice with different frogs.

This fetus was taken from a dead Sperm Whale that washed up on the beach a few years ago. i also made a video of the flensing that was done by a Taxidermist who was going to re-assemble the bones for a museum.

A few years ago I had an Artistic moment and made things from some of the old wood we found in the  forest. They have all since been given away and this is the only reminder. Sometimes we have to keep these reminders even if it`s just for ourselves.

The reason this is still around is because all these were found while taking my brothers dog for a walk, when I stayed with him in the UK last year. They tasted great and I used to fill my pockets every day. There were fruits also if you wanted to pick them because the ones on the ground were over ripe or had maggots in them.

I like to keep a record of Alice`s life as I saw her through several years of her life when I stayed on the farm. She wasn`t looked after by anyone so we took her under our wing. I built her a house next to my stoop and she would walk with me around the bush. She was very protective and loved to be brushed when we got back, then she would sleep for a while.

I hope this tour wasn`t too boring, but I have sorted a lot of photos out. All the best Leo

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Public holiday digest.

I didn`t even know it was another holiday until i went to the Chemist and found it closed. Then I came home and switch the TV on but the news was full of JZ stating it was a day for the oppressed workers, couldn`t see his point so switched off.

Well with that over I think it was better when I woke up at least the Sunrise was better.

I did a bit of gardening while my Wife sowed some seeds. today was good for harvesting the Carrots, Turnips and a few late tomatoes. The Chinese Cabbages seem to be overgrowing as we haven`t eaten so many lately. Every time i turn the soil over there seems to be more Mantis around, some of them are brown which seems a bit unusual.As for spiders they are prolific at the moment, maybe looking for warmer places. although if the Butcher Bird sees them they are breakfast 🙂

My Daughter is selling the Whale Watching business so I won`t be getting so many whale photos for my blog. This is one of my favorites maybe because it was the first time I got up close at a Breaching. Before most were Videos and were taken from the cliffs in Hermanus. a whale washed up on the beach there and i was asked to film the whole of the Flensing operation because they just wanted the bones for a museum exhibition.

I think a few of the old jokes may liven the day. Have a great weekend.

I miss our little feral cat.

To all those who inquired about Alice.

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Router or Browser ??

I did his as one of my off the wall experiments and was surprised at the response, as I never told anyone. The writing of blogs on `Word` worked OK but I couldn`t get .gif files to upload and work.

This is Alice making a wallow.

I still don`t know whether to call Alice `Router` or `Browser` 🙂

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Around and about.

As I said before, te sunrise is not so impressive on days when rain is on the way. The clouds seem to be like mountains and it gets light before you actually see the sun.

The sun also goes behind the hills now before the sun sets, also not very impressive after the rain.

This pigeon has decided to make a nest in the entrance to my friend’s house amongst the Orchids. Last time we had a strong wind it blew one of the roofing sheets off so I think that was when the pigeon decided it was a good place to live. When it was raining earlier it was still on it`s nest with rain dripping on it`s head and back but didn`t move. I think it`s keeping it`s eggs warm so I climbed on some steps and fitted a plastic roof above it. During this time it never moved, but just kept a wary eye on what I was doing. She does come for food and walks around where we sit , but will only eat seed or bread crumbs if they are scattered.

We were going to see Alice today but the weather was rather wet and being at the sanctuary in the rain is not the best time to see her as we like to take our time. All the food and treats are ready so we will go tomorrow morning. I have just cleared out my veggie garden so all the pigs will get a treat tomorrow. They love greens as there is not much grass or other greens for them to forage.

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Noodles and Alice.

 

This is a story of Dog meets Pig 🙂

The farm has been a bit busy this last few days. The addition this week has been two pony`s for the grand-kids to ride. They are going to get a saddle today so they can carry on with the riding lessons.

 Some friends of ours came to stay on their way to the Eastern Cape and brought their dog ” Noodles “. She is a very curious dog and had great fun herding the chickens,I have never seen a dog move them as a collection. Normally when I disturb them they run in all directions.

 The dog got on very well with the other dogs and cats on the farm but was very curious about the pig. Alice was OK until the dog wanted to share pigs house. Then they circled like two boxers in the ring until Alice lay down and waited for Noodles next move.

They had a bit of a standoff as Alice was not used to such a small dog being so brave.

They then circled each other like boxers for a short while.

 

As usual doggy protocol won through and Noodles though she would find out if the funny dog was friendly or not.

After Alice had been brushed she decided to have a rest, but Noodles wanted to find out if she was dead or sleeping.

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