Happy Pig

Today is the pigs third day at camp, and what a happy pig he is. As you can see in the pictures we had him fitted with a special harness. This means he is able to be outside all day digging holes which is what he does best. It also means that he can be trained to walk on the harness much like a dog. If he is able to do this it means he will be able to walk around camp and not be in his pen all day. It took him only a few minutes to be comfortable in the harness and he spent all day outside digging holes with his noise and finding grubs to eat. Pigs will put on a about a pound and a half in weight a day when they are piglets.

New Arrivals (Part 2)

Along with our new OE staff we have a brand new camp pet. His name is undecided as of this post (feel free to e-mail suggestions to lhastings@ssymca.org) and he is a pig! Laura picked him up from a farm near New Hampshire and brought him down for his new life as camp's composter. He will be in charge of eating the scraps of food left over from meals at camp and turning them into fertiliser for some of the new gardens around the new nature center. George, Jessie and the OE staff worked really hard building him a house which is more like a palace with a door, window and cosy bed.

Jessie hard at work building the pig palace

This was his first night at camp, after a three hour car ride he was very hungry. We were preparing to bottle feed him for a few weeks but he loves his food so much that he doesn't want milk anymore!!

Before coming to camp the pig had never been outside, in a car, with people or out of the pen he was born in. So coming to camp was a big change for him. Pigs are very intelligent, more so than dogs and are good animals to train. Were going to be spending these first few weeks getting him used to humans and his new environment. He has been living at Laura's house because he is just too little to stay alone right now in the pig palace. Here he got to meet one of her cats and they fell in love! The cats cry for him when hes at work and he gets excited when he comes home and snorts and grunts to them.

Ashley and Donna came round to spend some time with the pig, its important he feels comfortable around a lot of humans. As you can see he is adjusting to his new life just fine. He loves to sleep on the sofa or comfortable pillows.

Another important lesson for our pig is to get used to being around dogs as we have three who live at camp right now. He also got an A+ at this assignment. He was very good with the dogs and the dogs were very curious of him!

New Arrivals (part 1)

Spring has sprung at Camp and we have several new arrivals. First came the Outdoor Education Staff an intrepid bunch of instructors coming from all over America, England and Guernsey! Were very pleased to have them here and cant wait for an amazing Spring season. If you come down to Volunteer Day on May 10th you'll get to meet them and help us gear camp up for the summer!

First day and everyone is feeling a bit new!

10 minuites later camp works its magic

Ta-da! everyone has settled in well. From left to right top to bottom we have Ashley, Emily, Mary, Chloe, Jess, Ben, their fearless leader Carl, Ryan and Brian.