The pigglies

We went and collected the pigglies a week after we got here after working night and day to build their home. A lot of the effort involved was finding suitable tools and wood. We visited a lot of DIY shops and in the end the wood was not exactly what we wanted and rather more expensive. We still need to find where to buy the right wood really as we are going to need plenty more for our house.
They traveled in a cardboard box in the car and seemed to sleep happily

This picture cannot show the crazed squealing they make while being carried. Then as soon as they are put down they carry on quite happily as if nothing happened. They are chunky little b*****ggers even now so it was pretty difficult carrying them while they squealed and struggled.

While first one was being rehomed the other one went for a little walk and had to be recaptured. He wasn't interested in food (the usual way to persuade them to do what you want, just in digging.

Eventually we got them both in to their new home and they seemed very happy there. The digging seen here was done in about the first half an hour. They are keen diggers and seem to love it.

The pigs don't have names as they are going to be pork and bacon - it is hard not to be attached as they are very appealing, but we keep their purpose in mind all the time as we cannot afford to end up with such expensive pets!

We made a small enclosure with electric fence and found that they had dug this up in a matter of days. Although we knew they were going to dig we didn't expect it to be so fast. We moved them to where the veg patch is going to be and they have been working away there for the last 10 days or so. It is time to move them again soon but not far, just along to the other end of the veg patch.

Moving them was quite funny with both of us running along with buckets of feed and shouting 'piggly piggly piggly' and rattling the bucket madly when one of them wizzed off the wrong way. We had trouble getting the boy pig (he is the digging ring leader) out of the patch Doug has dug for potatoes. We didn't get photos as we were too busy herding. Moving the house was also fun as it was up quite a steep slope and it is quite heavy. The solution we came up with worked but was quite tricky to keep balanced and on track.