Was a slow start obviously ;). The children were reacquainting themselves with toys, telly and unlimited drawing resources. I did most of the holiday washing and even got most of it dry and have been dipping in and out of catching up in various online places along with flickring all day.
Just before we went away the hen who was sitting on (not her own) eggs hatched one and the second one had hatched either Friday or Saturday. Dad comes to feed the cat and chickens while we’re away and he’d arrived on Friday to find the first chick dead and injured outside of the run. No idea why of course – but I wonder if the fact that so far 2 out of our 4 hen-hatched chicks have died is more indicative of nature rather than the incubator method of cosseting them along until they are fully feathered and completely able to cope alone.
Anyway on Saturday Dad had arrived to find the second chick also injured and lying outside of the run. He tried to put it back in the box with the hen but she attacked it visciously so he removed it and they rang me to find out what to do with it. They were determined to intervene (I’m not sure what I’d have done to be honest) so with guidance from me they took it home to their house and made up a brooder with lamp, put water in a shallow dish and gave it some egg to eat. I didn’t expect it to make it through the night and it has sustained a nasty head injury (pecked I assume) but it did and made it through a second night too. So today the children and I went to collect it from their house and bring it to ours. I was half hoping my Mum would ask if she could keep it as she was talking about hand rearing it, which realistically isn’t something we are able to do – aside from anything else we are away lots these next few weeks and the plan was never for the children to get over emotionally attached to something with such short life span and little reward in the way of keeping as a pet anyway. If that sounds callous it possibly is but we went into the chicken keeping from a smallholding point of view rather than as chicken fanciers or bird lovers or wanting them as family pets.
We called into Sainsburys on the way to my parents for various food essentials and got Scarlett some black trousers for Badgers next term. This makes life so much easier for Badgers as it negates the need for socks and means if she has to have black shoes she can have boots if she likes instead of the most un-Scarlett-like dainty shoes she has had up to now and has grown out of.
We got home with the chick who the children have christened ‘Winky’ on account of his habit of only opening one eye at a time. It is still not eating or drinking or indeed showing any signs of wanting to so I suspect it is a matter of time before it gives up but we’ll have a go with it. It is very cute and has fought this far.
We had lunch and then walked across to the doctors for my smear test. The plan had been for Ady to nip home for lunch and stay with D and S while I went but he got sent elsewhere and couldn’t get home so after some deliberation I took them with me. The nurse seemed utterly unfazed by their presence and chatted away to them about various things. She was very nice actually, introduced herself properly and chatted generally and of course specifically about all things gynaecological. I introduced her to the mooncup which she’d never heard of and wrote down to find out more about. I am still amazed by how little most women know about the choices of sanpro available. I’ve convinced at least 3 women to try a mooncup and am still working on persuading more onto washable pads :).
It was a straightforward procedure, easily the most straightforward I’ve had done which was good. Davies and Scarlett stayed their own side of the curtain so they remained ignorant of exactly what had gone on and surprisingly for them didn’t ask many questions about the full details. I suppose I can expect them to still come back to that though – Davies asked me in the car on Friday morning out of nowhere how exactly the seed gets from the man to meet the egg in the woman. And actually I remember sort of saving up various questions about things I sort of knew were slightly embarrassing and then asking my Mum at the right moment having worked up to it even if that right moment came out of the blue for her!
We came home and they did some more drawing. Scarlett got out an old Letterland book and did some of that. She seems to like them every so often so I really should sort out a shelf of them she can access as we have a load of them around. She is asking us to spell things out for her to write lots at the moment and I’m still amazed at quite where she has learnt all the letters she knows as I’ve certainly never sat down with her and told her.
Ady and I watched a really interesting programme that we’d heard talked about on the radio when the man in it was interviewed talking about it on the way up to Kettering on Thursday. It had me shouting at the tv and crying along with the people in it. Can’t read, can’t write. Very interesting and moving stuff.
And that about brings me up to date. Hurrah!
damn, forgot to watch that – Tim said I would have enjoyed a good rant at it. Ah well.
Comment by Jax — 22 July 2008 @ 9:00 pm