Yum Yum Has Six Babies :)

November in Te Mawhai...

 Yum Yum, our Kunekune Princess has finally had her piglets and like the other mama's...she had them during the night.

 Here are all six piglets having brunch today :) Yum Yum was our first sow but the last to have babies.  We are very proud of her and they don't look like Kunekune pigs...they look like their daddy, Boss, our handsome bushpig.

 My nephew Treo and my daughter Kassa holding two of Yum Yum's babies.  What an awesome day :)

 Our fale poaka has been blessed again with six beautiful little piglets.  

Mauri ora!

Our ever growing pig whānau

November in Te Mawhai...

...piglets outside ALL day...

 Taken this morning...you can see Boss (bush pig daddy) standing up in about the middle...he'd be taller than me and I'm 5ft 11inches...and there's Christmas poking her head out on the left...

 Yum Yum in the foreground...she is due to give birth tomorrow and by the size of her titties...we're forecasting around 7 to 8 babies :)

 Two of the older boys from Little Pig's first litter of three...one has moved to my brother's place :)

 Some of the little piglets mingling with their big brothers and Yum Yum...

 All eleven piglets :)

 All eleven piglets their mama :)

 Yum Yum ready to have babies herself :)

Will report back when Yum Yum has her babies!

 

 

Christmas has her babies

November in Te Mawhai...

This was a double rainbow on 12.11.2012 taken on Te Mawhai Road looking East.

 ...and again from the back of my section looking East again on 12.11.2012...

 This was taken during the Solar Eclipse on 14.11.2012 of our fale poaka and it was quite dark...

 My attempt at taking a photo of the eclipse...there were too many clouds...

 ...so I took a photo of our Kunekune Princess Yum Yum who is heavily pregnant...

 ...then we were blessed with the arrival of 11 little piglets...Christmas is the new mummy...

 ...and is Christmas...the new mummy having a well deserved breakfast after giving birth to eleven piglets...

 ...Christmas and her babies all huddling in the background...

 ...and the new little babies again...one thing that amazes me is the fact that the babies are up and running around to fast.  We attribute this to the father being a wild boar :)

 

We are extremely grateful and feel blessed for our new arrivals and are proud of Christmas because she is a beautiful Mum.

A September Friday in the Life of Our Piggies

September Friday...

 Boss and one of his offspring.

Mama Little Pig and two of her boys...the one with the darkish markings is our runt and will be kept to be the next 'daddy'.  He has black markings like his Dad but has long ears like his Mum.

 Daddy Boss ~ he is the man.

 Little Pig and the 3 little piggies.

 Here's one of my 'friends' making an appearance in this shot of the fale poaka...one of our Tiwakawaka or Fantails that inhabit the tree that is casting the shadow in this photo.

 Boss chillaxin'.

 Boss and his boys.

 Boss getting down and dirty.

And here are the three baby boys coming right up to the camera to get at some feed used as bait.   They all have different personalities and have a lot of bush pig mentality.  They bristle up when the dog barks and are constantly humping each other lol...that's because bush pigs are extra randy and hoha to the girls.

Update 05.08.2012

Another beautiful day...

Don't you just LOVE it when you're looking out your window at your pigs and you see Uenuku (Rainbow)?  (My Grandfather always used to tell me that this was a good sign for our Waipa area.  Uenuku stands in the Te Awamutu Museum which is about 7 minutes drive away from here).  So I rush to get my baby's camera phone and run outside to get a shot of this beauty.

Uenuku is just starting to appear and I'm unaware at this stage that the rainbow is going right into our pig fale...(this is because I usually take the fuzziest of pictures even with flash cameras and was focusing really, really hard on taking a good photo).

Now I'm thinking after my second shot that this is as good as it's going to get...

I bend down to take a photo of Christmas on the left who is 'due' in mid-November and Little Pig on the right who just gave birth to 3 little boars.  And away in the background is Yum Yum, our Kunekune Princess who is also due a week after Christmas (our pig).  Apparently Kunekune in Tonga have babies a bit quicker...so we shall see...

So I stand up because our dog Rusta is trying to get cuddles and won't let me bend over and Uenuku is looking more vibrant and I take another shot...

..and I took another shot just to be safe...just in case my hand was a bit shaky...

...then I panned right to get another shot of the two hapū ladies...

...doesn't Little Pig look like she's got a little bit of a smile there just starting to happen?  I watched this family on River Cottage last night who were looking after pigs for the first time.  They were going through heaps of issues like, 'falling in love with the pigs...'.  I love my pigs but I'm not in love with them and it's only easy for me because of my Tongan mate.  We are truly blessed! 

Then when I had a look at these photos I realised that Uenuku was flowing right into our pig fale...AWESOME Blessings thank you IO and am very grateful for everything and for giving me a steady hand to take photos :)

Fale Poaka

  Fale Poaka ki Te Māwhai

Tēna koutou katoa

(Greetings to you all)

This is the first time I've had the pleasure of seeing pigs being raised since my very Māori upbringing so the experience has been a wonderful remembering and learning curve for me and my children.

Our first pig was a wild boar called 'Boss' who had been purchased by a family member as a pair of brothers for a spit roasting session.

 

But Boss was spared and destined to become our first 'daddy' pig. Now apparently bush pigs are notorious for trying to mate with all the females and he is a hoha (annoying) all the time to the girls, but he shows genuine love to his 3 brides.  Of course he treats the first lady the best and gives her the best of the tidbits.

Then came Yum Yum, our Kunekune Princess.  If you are unfamiliar with this breed, they are a short, stoutish and barrel shaped pig with a fat neck.  We are hoping the mix of wild boar and Kunekune produces a much leaner pig.  We shall see because she is due in mid-November.  She was the last of the pigs to mate and again my mate tells me that Kunekune are 'like that ALL time' in Tonga so thanks to Boss and his constant hoha.

  Then came Little Pig who was impregnated first and just gave birth to 3 little boars on August 16th, 2012.  We do not know her proper breed but were told she could be a mix of Duroc, bit of Wild Pig and Large White also so our pigs are real mongrels but they're our mongrels.

And last but not least came Christmas who is my nephew's pig but we are looking after her for him and she is now hapū (pregnant) too and due in mid-November.  We have no idea what breed she is but she is now going to be a 'mama' so she may have been spared during this Christmas as she will still be feeding her babies.

Here are the 3 new boys and we are keeping the one furthest away with the blackish marking on his back to one day become the next 'daddy' pig.

This is a wonderful opportunity for my children to experience rearing pigs and to understand that they will eventually be sold or used for food one day. We make them part of the whole process to teach them about the continuing circle of life. 

And this is our humble pig pen or pig fale which we prefer calling it seeming it was built by my Tongan friend with the help of neighbours, whose way of life is very different, but reminds me of how my Dad used to do things with whatever is around and lots of hard work.  His wairua (spirit) brings us protection because if anybody is aware of 'OtuFonua' or the 'Offering of Tonga to God' by King Tupou I, you will understand how 'deeply' religious Tongans are.  They understand that God is the only protection they will ever need and have warded off many attempts of other countries trying to invade and colonise their beautiful kingdom.  They believe they are truly blessed and show their love by their hard work.   He is our provider of kai maara (food from the garden) and kai poaka (pork) and the skills of a much older soul, and we are very blessed to have him with us.

We have another bit of paddock in the photo of Boss above, and we are letting the pigs dig it to create this year's garden.  Hoeing and fertilising as they go along rooting the earth up which is another beautiful way to be 'interacting' with Papatuanuku (Mother Earth).  We are recycling scraps back into the whenua (earth) through the pigs' natural fertiliser producing units, their puku (stomach).

My family and I are enjoying this journey of learning how to live in unison with the whenua, and to share the blessings our Creator is providing for us from our kai kāpata (food cupboard).

We're giving one of the piglets to my brother and sister-in law and another to our friend and whanaunga for bringing us pig kai.  We also get scraps from our local Fijian-Indian vegetable shop owners and because they don't eat pork, we give them talo leaves which is our koha (donation) for their kindness.

Mauri Ora!

(Life Force to You!) 

...which is at best is a very loose translation of the entirety of 'Mauri Ora' and it's full meaning but hopefully you get my drift?