Excitement is reaching fever pitch here as Christmas becomes closer - at playgroup on Thursday the local police drove up with sirens wailing and one of the local policeman had obviously been made to dress as Santa as punishment for some misdemenour or other at work. Despite having no beard and looking fairly unconvincing to most of the kids (they mobbed him like a pack of dogs) Felix was completely speechless and sat staring up at him waiting for his present with a look of amazement on his face. Emily was similiary affected and couldn't believe that Santa was able to get a police escort. Within a couple of minutes Felix however had turned his attention to the other policeman and somehow had them showing him their batons and handcuffs and running alongside the policecar with its lights flashing.
Today Archie, the handraised piglet above seems to be fighting fit - everytime I say this and think about putting him back with his mother however he has one of his turns and tries to die so I am not sure which way it is going to go. Woody is doing very well and yesterday almost got trampled by both the goats and one of the sows. Like a true farm dog he was then tied to the wheelbarrow with a piece of bailing twine when I had to go into the paddocks which he thought was completely unacceptable. He then decided to show me how helpful he could be by helping to bring in the geese, much to my disbelief. I expected it to be a couple of months before seeing any herding type behaviour unless he really is part dingo and is actually showing the signs of a ruthless and efficient hunter (with my behaviourists hat on I could draw many similarities but will spare you from it so fear not). However, he locked on to the geese and crept up next to them and was a great help, he then chased the chickens into their run - something which usually has me running and swearing and promising the errant chicken that he is the one that will end up in the pot if he doesn't do what I say. Overcome with the fun of it all he then ran into the middle of them scattering chickens everywhere and ate their food - so I guess an 8/10 all up. A trip up the street yesterday and the post office completed his education and I couldn't wake him for about 2 hours afterwards.
We are off to see some Wiltshire Horned Sheep today - which one of the locals who is far more knowledgeable than us has told us not to touch with a barge pole as they are worse to keep in than goats. The attraction is no shearing/crutching/mulesing, however I am not sure if the escaping thing levels the scales and we should maybe get a more traditional breed (or none at all?). James and Fiona are going to plough the bottom field and plant rather a lot of garlic which apparently is a surefire money making idea as it is very hard to find local garlic... I will be sure to post photos.
Woody is eating a chair so I guess I had better go to sort that out and the kookaburras are laughing at me so I guess I can take that as a sign to finish.