Pig plowshares

"Pigs plow a field with their face.  If that doesn't seem remarkable to you, try it sometime." - Forrest Pritchard, Gaining GroundIt's really laborious to move the pigs right now, at least a morning's work.  It's really three jobs at once: moving the pigs, clearing alders,  and cutting firewood.  At least that's what I tell myself.I'm trying to win back some of the field, and using the pigs to do it.  I'm moving them along the edge of the present field, which is a good 50´, maybe more, grown in from where the field used to spread.I certainly wouldn't be pegging away at it like I am unless I had these greedy little snouts pressuring me.  They LIVE to root.  They will wait to eat fruit, if there's some fresh rooting to do.  They're in the ZONE rooting, focused, concentrating, pretty quiet.  Trouble is, they turn over a patch so fast I feel like I'm constantly working for them, to give them new space.To create a loop that the fence can be set up, that encloses some "trees" for pig shade, a swathe needs to be cut out for passage.  Then after the pigs have been through and killed every sprout and twig, their shade needs to be cut down and cut up, and then the nicely tilled, though lumpy, ground seeded.The alders stretch out long arms before they grow up, but still, they're easier to deal with than the buckthorn, which tangles, and tangles, and tangles, so you can cut loads of it, and it's all still standing up, because it's so tangled together.  Mix them together, the sideways swooping alder, and the straight, thick branched buckthorn- wow. An amazing volume of material comes out of even a small space that didn't seem so dense when it was all standing up.The nightmare buckthorn at least burns nice; it's a hardwood, dries fast, doesn't need to be split.