The piglings arrived four days ago.  They are 8-week weaners, organic and pedigree Oxford Sandy and Black, two gilts and two boars; when the boars reach lager-lout age, they will be converted to pork, while the gilts will be grown on to bacon weight, near enough.  They are the "Transition Monmouth Pig Group" and two or three other Transitioners are sharing the input cost and output success - we'd like to see backyard pigs come into their own again.  Their function here on the farm is to clear the orchard of weeds - you can see the scale of the problem in the photo - so that in maybe two years' time, I shall be able to use up all my rubbish old hay as a mulch, and plant the new forest garden through it.  Well, that's the plan.
     But there's sad news; the young geese that you can see relating so charmingly to the camera in the May post vanished one evening between 6pm and 9pm, with not even a white feather to show where the fox found them.  I got the fox-man in, he says no sign of cubs around, so maybe it's a lone dog fox and the other geese and the hens will be let alone?  There are still deer in the plantation.  The local poachers invade my neighbours' farms at night, leaving all the gates open, presumably for a quick getaway in a pickup with venison on board, so round any bend in the lanes next morning you might run into a bunch of escaped ewes and lambs.  Dangerous to drivers and sheep, and criminally unfair to the farmers (and the sheep).  Chain and padlock seem to be the answer.