Ah Lost Weekend, a song that always reminds me of a friend who I don’t think even reads this blog any more.
Saturday we met the boat and Paul asked Ady if we were up for an early beer at the shop. We decided we were so at 5pm we fed the animals and all went down to the shop – so lovely for 5pm to still be daylight 🙂 The kids played on the computer in the hall while Ady and I had a beer or three with Paul, Lesley and Thalassa (student type staying here for 3 weeks, she was here shortly after we arrived doing a newt study and is back for some volunteering). It was a good couple of hours with lots of laughs. We’d put jacket potatoes on very low in the oven and I’d batch cooked a load of quiches earlier too which meant we were eating at a very respectable non Goddard o’clock hour too 🙂
On Sunday we had a fairly traumatic day when Bonnie attacked a chicken. She almost killed it, Ady lost his temper with her, the kids were really upset and it was all very fraught. After everything had calmed down the chicken was put in a calm quiet dark place, Bonnie was dealt with and then Thalassa came up for a cup of tea which put things further on hold. Eventually by about 5pm we had eaten dinner, watched some episodes of Robinson Crusoe on dvd, the chicken was in the house making squawking noises with a proper discussed decision made on it’s fate.
Today was another fairly hectic one – I was off out to the trust office to print off the newsletter when Vikki arrived. I left her and Ady drinking tea and went down to do that and have a chat with Fliss. I walked home with her and then back to the croft for lunch. After some inspecting we decided the chicken was going downhill rapidly and highly unlikely to make it and that we were prolonging suffering rather than perserving life so Ady took her outside to deal with her returning half an hour later with an oven ready free range corn fed bird. Davies and Scarlett have decided they don’t want to eat her as she was one of our first birds and they feel odd about it being a forced decision to kill her rather than a considered one which we had long discussed about birds coming to the end of their laying life or cockerels. I understand and respect their take on this and we talked a lot about how we all felt about it. We all cried a little when saying goodbye to her when Ady took her outside and it once more brought into sharp relief the differences between parenting, pet ownership and livestock rearing and the different levels of responsibility and emotional attachment. Ady and I will eat her feeling at least then it was not a waste of a life although we all feel very sad that it was as a result of Bonnie’s attack that she died. We have also talked about dog ownership and the responsibilities that brings and some harsh lessons have been learnt this weekend. The result of which is increased time spent with Bonnie for everyone and a lot more mental stimulation and training. Fortunately at just a year old and with a pretty obedient nature that should be more a case of time and attention than any real tough stuff.
I went down to the shop to put in our veg order and meet Fliss for a beer and ended up staying for a few hours chatting. It was a good evening and it ended with Jinty really upset about various things which Fliss and I have offered to go down and help her with tomorrow morning. Times like that remind me what community is all about.
I got home later than planned so my evening was more about eating dinner at Goddard o’clock of old and then reading for half an hour before the kids went to bed.
Earworm. Double pneumonia on a single bed. One of best songs ever.
Comment by Chris — 14 February 2013 @ 3:55 pm