DAY 1: measurements, mugginess, and making calls .

Weather: sunny, azure skies, low 80s (felt like way more, as the first day in the 80s always does)

Sows: Ice Cream weighed in at 553 lbs. and Maple was quite a bit less at a mere 512. The calculation I used was (GxLxL)/400, with G standing for girth (and L for length).

Piglets: ADORABLE, as usual. Oddly enough, the auburn colored ones, who are also some of the biggest, like being pet/scratched behind the ears the most. I guess I always knew redheads were the best :)

Decisions: The piglets fate will be: 4 slaughtered on-campus in September by Dave McCoy. One of which will be given/sold at a modest price to the church in Craftsbury for their monthly community meal, another of which will be the feature in a Welcome to the Fall Semester pig roast, and the last of which will be sold to the Sterling College Kitchen. 1 will be (tentatively) traded for a heifer with Heartbeet Farm. And the remaining 3 will be slaughtered off-site in February. Their pork will be sold in one of two ways: Either directly to low-income people (if their production cost was low-enough) or, more likely, some will be sold to higher-income people at full-cost + profit, and this will subsidize the donation of some pork to nearby food shelves.

Upcoming: Fence training! The wetter outside the better, as it'll provide a good, clean shock.

Question: Dunkin' Donuts seconds, ethical pig feed, yay or nay? (almost all the other surrounding bakeries I called this afternoon are fully tapped by either pig farmers or food shelves. which makes me proud of the NE Kingdom, but running low on options...)