So first off, the pigs are pretty totes awesome. They run around three abreast, and if one of them gets behind it catches up with these little rabbit-esque leaps and until it thunks itself into the side of one of the lead pigs, then they frisk around as a team again. Gretchen is insanely fascinated by them, and spent the first two days we had them with her head stuck as far as it would go through the fence wire, whining and trying to get through and hang out with her piggy brethren. The pigs have been doing an impressive job of pawing away at the fenceline already, so we got the strand of electric fencing in yesterday, which seems to be a good deterrent, although I feel bad when they hit it and start squeaking. I couldn't watch when the first started running into it, although Devin had no such qualms and basically just stood there laughing. Putting up the electric wire was a bit of a struggle ... we would start stringing it and the pigs would follow us, pawing away at it and biting it. After they'd gotten tangled in the string once, bitten through it once, and had to be chased around a bunch I gave them dinner a bit early. That proved to be a good enough distraction to get things wrapped up on our end, but it was for sures a race against time.

We initially had big plans of not naming the pigs so we don't have as much trouble killing them when the time comes, but Devo came in after checking on them the first night and announced that "Goldenbutt, Mr Piggy and Mrs Piggy are all asleep in the house," so that went out the window pretty dang fast. I can already tell that it's going to be ridiculously difficult to send them on their way in the fall, but I think it's important to get a chance to see the whole process through, since I eat meat nowadays. It's way too easy to be divorced from the process. It'll be interesting to see how much of an effect it has on my eating habits, anyway.

All in all, everything is going really well here. We are estimating about two more weeks of crazy work until everything is planted, and it's definitely nice to have a time limit on it. I really love the work and love seeing things come together, but it's hard not to feel burnt out some of the time with the sheer number of hours we're putting in. Yesterday was a town day, so that was a good break. A day of driving instead of wheeling a wheelbarrow, and a good solid burrito and margarita interlude = good stuff! But, yeah, in all, I am still really really stoked. I like the valley we live in more and more every day, and I feel super lucky to get to be here. It'll be rad when more of the snow is gone from the mountains and when everything is in the garden and we can start doing some serious hiking as well.