Pig Training.

Much brighter today though by the end of the day it began to feel a lot colder. 

Down at the zoo I soon shed my coat and spent the morning working in a fleece. My first job was to finish weeding the gravelled area which I hadn't quite finished last week. 

Then after a quick hoeing of some wood chip through which many tiny seedlings had appeared I moved closer to the goats and went over the whole of the smaller play area. (The lighter section was weed free so didn't need digging over.) It was very quiet at the zoo, only one young couple with their toddler while I was there. Lots of maintenance is being done, I think there are extra workers on a govt. scheme, and the whole place is looking better.

On my walk around afterwards I stopped to watch another volunteer who has started training the pigs. Being Mangalica pigs they are part wild boar which makes them more unpredictable but like all pigs they are highly intelligent. Training them makes them easier to handle and should also help to occupy their minds. Here my friend is clicker training Tilly to touch the tennis ball fixed on a stick. She says 'Touch' and when Tilly puts her snout on the ball she gets a click and a reward of some pumpkin.  The next step will be to get the pigs to follow the ball/stick and then who knows? Sit? Stay?

When I got home there were a couple of parcels waiting for me. One was the posh dish drainer I had ordered and so far we like it. The other was a book I'd ordered.

Our standard wire drainer has been making it it difficult to get to the hot tap. Having chosen such a large sink the draining board side is smaller than usual so a smaller drainer sounded like a good idea. And when not needed the bottom part slides underneath. 

After a quick sort out and putting the contents of my chest of drawers back (do the people advertising chester draws on-line really think that's what they're called?) my last job of the afternoon was to work on the Christmas letter. I've given up trying to write with the television on and Speedy on my lap and got on much better sitting at the table without even the radio to distract me.