Finally, as far as Emi was concerned, school started. Emi has settled in with amazing ease. She refuses to wear the pc unisex option shorts/trousers and insists on dresses everyday however we have had her hair cut into a fetching bob since this photo was taken because the battle to put her hair up every day was just getting too much for both of us. The year is flying by with the usual amazing speed. We have been attempting to spend Sunday afternoons/evenings having picnics on the property in a what feels a very colonial ritual - complete with the picnic table and chairs in the back of the ute...all we need is white linen tablecloths to complete the picture.
Letitia joined us after we discovered that we do indeed have a fox problem with our lovely pigs. For a month or two we had been wrongly blaming some of the sows that farrowed in the large field for very small litters. Unfortunately for the fox he got greedy and took an entire litter one night and then almost another entire one quite soon after. Letitia was left with a nasty injury and one other sibling. The other sibling joined another (safer) litter and Teesh came down to the house where dutifully did her 2 hourly feeds around the clock until she was a week old and in the words of Emily "she decided not to die". After a while we became a bit concerned that she was sure she was a dog and so she was put up with Britney and a litter of the same age who adopted her fairly readily. She still comes running up to the fence for her bottles but at least she is getting some pig play rather than having an identity crisis.
Jazz and I are venturing out and about as much as we possibly can... we have joined the local dressage club and will join the shiny and expensive horses whilst we bounce fatly around and attempt to look as though we know exactly what we are doing!