Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

Eager_Elephant

moo2moo wrote: »

Its non-stop fun here. Woke up to a letter from the dog owner contents of which can't be discussed as they're marked Without Prejudice. Still it is a response, even if its taken over a week for them to get round to it.

and breathe.

I see Inter has quoted your original post before you changed it to this.

I think the problem is they thought if they gave you £50 or some other small amount it would keep the peace.

Chicken owners do not seem to be aware of the cost of chickens and associated gubbins.

Hope you manage to get this sorted soon. Prehaps now is the time to have the police/dog warden do something?

EE

moo2moo

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

I see Inter has quoted your original post before you changed it to this.

I think the problem is they thought if they gave you £50 or some other small amount it would keep the peace.

Chicken owners do not seem to be aware of the cost of chickens and associated gubbins.

Hope you manage to get this sorted soon. Prehaps now is the time to have the police/dog warden do something?

EE

But I still have to live here at the end of it all and involving the police and dog warden will only result in more flak.

They still don't get that its not about the money. All thats preventing this from happening for a third time is a cheap nylon clip collar. Its slipped it three times that we know of in the last six months. Twice we lost birds, the third time we were outdoors to shoo it away.

Feel like banging my head against a brick wall.

moo2moo

Left the church fair £10 lighter with two happy children and a stack of novels... I know I know.... it will keep me quiet for quite some time though.

moo2moo

Another day, another 5am start. Is it really so difficult to turn the alarm clock off rather than b*****ing off downstairs for a cuppa having hit the snooze button? Still at least its an improvement on yesterday when I awoke to a phone call at 6:30am because work was quiet and OH faniced a chat. Turns out "What?" is not the greeting he was expecting. Ah well. I'm not at my chirpiest pre caffiene kick.

Plans for today involve yet more domestic drudgery. Bathroom smells like something is decomposing within it. Should really blitz it and track down the source but have settled for emptying the bin and pouring soda crystals down the plug holes. Lazy yes but the sun is shining and by mid morning it will be too hot to venture out. We have tomatoes and seed potatoes to plant... clearly its far too late in the year to be doing this but they were muchly reduced to give away prices and DD2 can be almost as persuasive as her mother. Confining the chickens to a vastly reduced area has led to a weed explosion so will be aiming to clear a bed a day in the hopes of keeping on top of it this year. Need to do some serious pruning in the herb bed too otherwise I'll be left with huge woody plants and very little in the way of green sprouty bits worth eating.

Have replied to the natives with a series of compromises. Less money for us, more hassle for them. Will be very surprised if we get a response before the end of next week. Trying to stay calm about it but failing miserably. Its very frustrating.

hypno06

I'll be going for the lazy option too today - there are far too few summer days that I can take advantage of, so I am jolly well going to make the most of it while I can. Housework can certainly wait!

Have a good one!

moo2moo

Found a letter on the doormat from the natives. Seems that two can play at the letter writing game although instead of vague mentions of legal threat I find it usually helps to include specific pieces of legislation. Still no admission of fault on his part nor apology but perhaps he'll take more care in future. Matter closed. The DDs are already perusing the chicken books to decide what to splurge on.

lucielle

Good result Moo.
L

moo2moo

Tis gloriously sunny yet again making it the perfect day to spend pottering around outdoors. Most definately not the sort of day to be indoors polishing widows and replenishing toilet roll and doing a multitude of other mundane monday morning tasks at work. Will be escaping from the asylum as soon as humanly possible. At least I can find plenty of things to do outdoors whilst I'm there. Not in the right frame of mind for being at work though.

Mopped all the downstairs floors last night so the house doesn't look too bad this morning. The DDs have spent most of the weekend outdoors so the level of devestation is minimal. Seem to have done even more laundry than normal so the ironing pile is ginormous. The constant water pistol fights haven't helped. DD2 seems to have been inside every 30 minutes for a dry t-shirt.

DD1 has decided she wants to find a very friendly brown chicken who is identical in every respect to her favourite hen as shes really missing her. Clearly thats not going to be easy. Not many hens want to sit on your shoulder like a parrot, or stay on your knee whilst you read a story or come running up to you in the garden and be content to sit at your feet and have their head scratched before following you around like a sheep. Could make for a few interesting phone calls.

Still undecided about restocking. I'm not convinced or even reassured by the measures taken to secure the dog and am pretty sure he'll be back again eventually. At least if we only have 8 he can only kill 8. Not sure I can face going through that again. Have promised the DDs that we won't rehome our remaining hens but for the minute everytime the dogs name is heard shouted across the field the DDs assume hes escaped again and panic. I guess thats going to happen for quite some time. At least DD1 is approaching it sensibly. She materialised in the house and asked if she could do some target practice in the garden. When asked what targets she'd like.... we can print of several hundred different ones..... she declared she'd like a dog shaped one. Had to explain the finer points of the regulations governing the use of air rifles and the RSCPAs view of cruelty. As far as shes concerned it falls neatly ino the category of unwanted vermin and can be disposed of. Sadly the law doesn't quite see it that way.

makeup

Hey moo

Areyou the only chicken keeper in area? Perhaps banding together might be easier??

If the dog can't easily get to your chickens then I'm sure it will head off to someone elses to feed!

It might not be your chickens to go next time....

moo2moo

Great minds think alike makeup. Next nearest chicken owner is also a shotgun owning smallholder with ample room to let rip with both barrels and legislation on his side as hes also registered with Defra and so can legally shot a dog as his animals are classed as livestock. Needless to say a mug shot of the dog in question is already with him. Hes been fully aware of the events that have unfolded as they've happened. Relatives of the dog owner have kept him up to date. Should the dog venture in his direction its lifespan will be rapidly terminated.