[northfifeduckling]

Is there a course about how to overcome the killing inhibitions? I just can't do the thing of growing animals for meat, especially not once I've cared for them, fed them etc. I do feel really torn about this issue (glad I'm not alone).

[doganjo]

No, you're definitely not alone, Kerstin.  I can't do it either - I've often said I'm happy to eat other people's animals but not my own.

[Hilarysmum]

I need one of those genes too, have to pluck and gut the 3 cockerels we finally managed to dispatch.  Tissues please....       

[MrRee]

I don't think there is a course to "get over that feeling" and if there was,would you really want to go on it?  I spent 15 years working as a mercenary and have,at certain stages throughout my career,had to kill. ( I have to add that it was only in self-defence) As hard as I try,I've never quite got to the stage of total emotional detachment. When killing out our meat birds,I just concentrate on making it quick and painless,I feel like crap after and I hate the thought of doing it before. It is my choice to eat meat and I don't wish to be a hypocrite,so I raise them happy and dispatch them with care!

Today,I shall rebuilding the wall in the bathroom I knocked down last night. Didn't plan to start for a week or so,just got curious with a hammer when it started to rain. The "mother of all" shower cubicles is arriving on Monday and I need to knock down another wall and rebuild (to extend the room) get the plumbing/wiring sorted,buy a new toilet and sink and choose the flooring. Have 10 people coming on the last May Bank Holiday for the weekend,so it all needs to be finished by then!
       ...... Ree

[sellickbhoy]

I think that's the point, raise them with care, give them a good life and get the job done as quickly/humanely as possible.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who refused to have any of the 1st bird i had killed myself. She would happily eat the cheapest intensively reared chicken from tesco, but not a good healthy bird who'd had a much better, longer life. I couldn't get my head around it - especially as it wasn't her who was doing the deed or who had cared for it's upkeep whilst alive.

some folks attitude to food baffles me!!!!

Today, i've a load of glass to move out of the van and i've to show face in the office, argue with thomsons and Morgan about over charging my postage on my FREE items, sort out a new mobile phone provider, and continue to empty the stables pre demolition

not really too much in the garden - certainly nothing i'm looking forward too!! Though the sun is just poking it's head through the clouds now, so might be quite nice in 20 mins or so.

[Lizmar]

I am so jealous of all of you.  I am sitting in my office at work and once again reading the site.  I want to be out there in wellies doing dirty things and talking to the animals - yes I'm another one who couldn't kill anything I look after. 

All I can do is wait for the weekend when I'm putting together my raised beds - seeds will be grateful they are outgrowing their pots and trying to arrange my field so that it is manageable.  That means me trying to move a stable which the last owners put on the hill and it leans very ominously down, so need to get it straight and in a sheltered place.  Chicken Ark will be with me in mid May.

Main problem is still training my Jack Russell - Colin.  He is a menace to anything that moves with wheels or legs. I could tell you some stories about him that would make you laugh or cry depending on your point of view!!!

Anyway back to work - please carry on telling what you are all doing I love to think it may be me soon

Oops here comes another pile of papers - back to work!!!

[doganjo]

Main problem is still training my Jack Russell - Colin.  He is a menace to anything that moves with wheels or legs. I could tell you some stories about him that would make you laugh or cry depending on your point of view!!!

Try a water pistol.  Usually works fro barking etc, if he really persists get the hosepipe on him at full blast.  A few times being prepared and ready for him should do the trick.

[carl]

I am at work at the moment. but have had the oppertunity to do an egg transaction, swapping eggs for preserves from someone who wants to make lemon curd. also in the middle of renovations back at the barn. our carpenter friend is helping us fit a better kitchen. i am doing all the donkey work in the spare moments I have. didn't get my evening meal till 10.30 last night.a bit more before work and again tonight etc. should be ready in 3- 4 weeks. why do you always have to undo over peoples bodge jobs before you can get sorted? wires and pipes are very shoddy, bordering on a death trap. still thats why we could afford the place.

[Lizmar]

Its not the barking thats the problem, its the 'etc'. He has scared a sheep into some wire and removed all the wool from its behind trying to help it out!! Fortunately the farmer thought it was the funniest thing he had seen, but did warn about the lambs, so Colin stays on the lead at the moment. 

He also loves cows especially when they moooo! He barks at them, they do what every 'normal being' does when scared and he rolls in it while its still hot and steamy. 

Lastly there is the tractor, which if he's not carefull will kill him one day - he likes to bite the tyres while its moving. 

He is the sweetest thing unless he gets fixated on something. I tried the starving idea and only fed him when he did what he was told - he whipped out when someone opened the door and went straight down a rabbit hole and pulled himself out a nice rabbit and proceeded to eat it in the middle of the field!!!!

We start classes in a few weeks - lets see how he likes that

[carl]

i'm sorry but I think Colin is real class, a proper JR. My lad and me are now taking next doors JR jack on his evening stroll as his ma & pa get home from work late. we love it. he is such a charecter. OH will not let us have a JR as her sister has two and she won't copy? . He drags th wee lad along at such a pace I have to jog to keep up. so we all get the benefit. I am trying to get alex to work on his mother to let us have a dog, so i am hoping he is still as keen when we get a little bit wet on the walks.

[doganjo]

The water squirting should work on the chasing too, not just on barking.

[HappyHippy]

I know it's been a while since anyone posted on this thread, but I've been out of action since the wee man arrived and haven't done much except sleep, feed him and housework.........................until yesterday !
I managed to get out into the garden and have now done all my weeding in the rockery (which looked like a dandilion exibition) and got my seeds sown and tatties planted, I know I'm really late with the tatties but hoping for a long summer to get them going well. So everything in the garden is rosey, or at least it was yesterday.
We woke this morning to go and feed the guiniea pig with the girls only to discover he'd popped his clogs in the night - cue massive crying fit from Rebecca who's 5. She had 2 of the critters originally, one died very shortly after we got them, but this one had been with us for over 2 years. So today has been spent making a cardboard headstone and dad got roped into giving him a funeral service - she made sure there were 2 carrots in the box and when we asked her why she said 'when he gets to heaven, Boydie will be hungry and the other one's for dado (the first guniea pig) Boydie will give it to him'. We were expecting a day of tears and depression, but luckily dad's new mobile arrived and the free wii console that arrived with it has taken her mind off things - not looking forward to bedtime though!

[northfifeduckling]

So sorry about the guinea pig - they don't get much older than that I think. I still remember when mine died (I was 10!), I cried and cried and cried. The first time is always the hardest...
Well done you that you got any gardening done - when mine were wee it went all downhill! Took a few years to get it all back to a certain standard - mine!

[sheila]

It's a long thread this one and very entertaining. Today I have been on a course learning how to be a volunteer beach watcher. (blue flag)
As I have two broken feet at the moment I am relying on others to deal with the lifestock so not much to report but I hope others will continue to entertain me.

[doganjo]

Goodness, Sheila - how did you manage to break both feet.  That is dreadful for you.  I hope they mend soon.
You're right about this thread - quite interesting!