The chicken did last the night but by lunchtime it was clear that she was suffering rather than recovering so after a quick debate Ady took her outside and did the deed. A few tears were shed, more for the events leading to her passing than for her passing and we all said goodbye and thanked her for the eggs. While Ady plucked her and brought in a very gorgeous looking oven ready free range corn fed bird the kids and I talked about being meat eaters, compassion for lives, hunting for sport, animal ownership and responsibilities and the differences between being a parent, a pet owner and a livestock rearer and how you deal with the lines getting blurred inbetween.
Bonnie has been mostly indoors with us aside from supervised outside time - the kids took her on an adventure this morning out in the woods and Dragon took her off to do some tricks and training this afternoon. She is suitably worn out infront of the fire this evening and until her long lead and ground spike arrive we will continue with this pattern and try to up her mental stimulation quota each day too.
In other news we are looking at different building options while our house goes on the market to free up funds to build. This weekend I spent time editing and putting together a community newsletter which I distributed today. On Saturday it is one year since we came to Rum for our interview for the croft and were told yes, we could move to Rum. The rollercoaster had already started moving before that but it certainly starting picking up speed then. In some ways I can't believe that was only a year ago - tonight I got called 'a local' for the first time and Ady and I commented a while ago now that nowhere else has ever felt more like home than this despite us not actually having a proper home just yet. In other ways it all still feels very new and slightly temporary - again I guess the lack of actual house may contribute a fair bit to that. We've had some floor plans drawn up to get quotes from kit house manufacturers, I've got a couple of books coming from amazon in straw bale builds and other alternative building methods. I veer between wildly enthused in crazy ambitious plans for large scale volunteer projects for inspirational buildings and just wanting to pay someone to sweep in and throw a house up for me so I can lie in a bath and listen to a washing machine on spin cycle while Ady and the kids watch TV as soon as possible. I suspect all four of us will not easily forgive ourselves if we don't follow our hearts and dreams and create something amazing but in February when you have just ordered new pillows and duvets for the third time because they keep going mouldy due to your damp living conditions and you can't remember the last time you left the house without needing wellies it can be tough to maintain all your ideals.
A friend is staying on the mainland somewhere fairly local just now and it is hugely frustrating not to be able to see her knowing she is so close but she posted up a picture of Rum from afar complete with our current dusting of snow on the peaks and it looked so beatiful.
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