it didn't dry up all the rain exactly but it certainly reminded us that it doesn't rain all the time.
Bird news first - the chicken didn't make it. She made it through the night and appeared to have perked up having been brought inside and squawked through the evening making my jump every time. She failed to eat or drink though and having already started laying again we knew she would have a partially formed egg inside that unless she managed to lay would start to turn bad and cause problems. By lunchtime she was fading fast and after another family conference Ady took her outside and within half an hour we had an oven ready corn fed free range chicken. If that sounds flippant believe me it is not and tears were shed by all concerned but the fact remains we are meat eaters rearing livestock for consumption as well as egg production and although that was far, far from the way we wanted life to end for any of our animals it makes far more sense to put a suffering animal out of it's misery AND ensure the life was not in vain too.
The injured duck is thriving, has made a total recover and as the scab of it's back wounds starts to lift we can see new skin grown underneath. I don't know if the feathers will totally regrow or not but it's managing just fine without them anyway and has been swimming on the river and back with the flock with no long lasting ill effects.
As we are doing bird news I'll update on Margo and Jerry the geese too. The goose we knew as Jerry and assumed was the gander is infact a goose. Star watched her lay an egg! We're keeping the names that way round anyway - gender confused geese are the least of our non conventional lifestyle worries! The sad news is that having constructed a nest and laid her first egg and been protective enough of it to bruise Star's chin with a go-away wing flap the hooded crows (known locally as hoodies) mithered her off the nest and stole the egg. Grr.
Bonnie news - we've been keeping her in with us unless we go out and ensuring she gets lots of supervised access and plenty of stimulation in training and trick teaching. Yesterday the ground spike and very long lead (30m) arrived which is not thrilled about but means she can be outdoors unsupervised without getting into mischief. The plan remains that she is simply with us most of the time and as such is given lots of company, stimulation and entertainment but for the times when that is not possible we no longer have to fear for our livestock, her safety or the wildlife on the island, not to mention tourists walking the nature trail that borders the croft on three sides!
We feel it's a harsh lesson learnt and dealt with as best we could.
In other news I've edited and produced a new community newsletter which has had some positive feedback - we have lots of vital community information to circulate each month but I've mixed it with some frivolous and fun content and hopefully put together something interesting to read. We've had pancake day complete with pancake race, meetings about the community bunkhouse project, ferry review consultations and been sending off rough plans for our proposed house along with sitting out on the sporran debating what life is all about.
Today I found my first white hair - I think Star was more disturbed by this than me, she couldn't quite get her head around how I got to not be a grown up yet even though I am showing signs of proper old age!
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