The Jennings 3

Well, our first stint at caring for a pet ended a bit prematurely last week when we woke up to find both Mr. Tickles and Albi dead. Not sure what happened but one had crawled under the newspaper and died and the other had just flaked out on to of the little house. I figure it must have been too cold for them, but the shop keeper said this was pretty unlikely. I did hear a bit of a mousy ruckus coming from their cage during the evening, that I thought was just high jinx, but they could have been fighting themselves to the death, getting involved in some kind of suicide pact or being attacked by something more sinister. Anyway - Buster didn't really care so they ended up in the kitchen bin and we went out and got an all together more robust male mouse called Benny. He is twice the size, twice as fast and much better at making his way through our make shift assault course so things are looking good. He has also survived over a week in our possession no so this one might last a bit longer. We'll see.
I'll post some pics of the assault course once it's structure gets finalised.
Squeak Squeak.

I guess I should start this by saying that I am still not a great fan of hunting for the fun of it - but when it gets you a fridge full of yummy pork chops, bacon and salami (and helps to control the population of what really is a pest round these here parts) then my morals soon go out the window.
Anyway - last weekend, after watching in almost total silence as England got an absolute battering from those pesky All Blacks, Craig and Campbell invited me out on an early morning pig hunt. Not one to enjoy lounging around in a warm bed when I could be up and at 'em before dawn on a frosty Sunday I obviously said yes.
The basic premise is that you drive up into the hills/forest in your 4x4 with 2 or 3 'pig dogs' sat on the back of the truck smelling for pigs. Once the dogs jump off the truck, run into the forest and start to go crazy you jump out, get your knife and gun ready then go and see what all the barking is about. Good pig dogs don't do any real harm to the pigs at all - they just chase them around till they get one cornered then 'bail' it - basically barking at it to keep it trapped in a corner.
So - this is what happened - Campbell and I jumped out of the truck and dove head first into the scrub/woods/gorse to see what was going on. After a short scramble up a hill we found the dogs bailing a smallish (120lbs maybe) pig - which looked like it wasn't going to give up without a bit of a fight (can't blame it really). So - Campbell jumps on it, I stand around looking like I am ready for action should it be needed, until Campbell tells me, whilst wrestling the brute, to get his knife. After trying to hand it to him (he was a bit pre-occupied) he kindly asked me to stick it  in the pig. He obviously hasn't met too many ponce's from Leeds so I gave him a quick speech about how I would love to but I had just had a manicure and my designer overalls weren't guaranteed pig blood stain resistant. Being the true man he is Campbell took care of proceedings, which actually only took about 3 seconds from knife in to lights out. He then gutted the thing there and then, made me eat the heart (not really) and we were off home to skin and butcher the thing.
We were back by 9am!
So - as I tuck into the most lovely roast I am in two minds about 'the hunt'. Firstly it was nice to be out and about with some friends doing something that doesn't involve babies. Secondly pigs are without doubt a pest (apparently a pair of pigs can have up to 20 offspring per year and they have no natural predators) and need controlling - hunting is a much more eco friendly way than poisoning and much more humane than traps. Thirdly the meat tastes fantastic and the local butcher will make it into sausages, salami etc. - not a lot goes to waste. So, all in all, I have no qualms.
I can't imagine I will ever be able to do the actual killing or butchering (man, the thing stank, absolutely wreaked, of cider. I couldn't work it out but obviously its down to the fruit and wood that the things munch on) and the skill with the knife Craig and Campbell have only comes from a life of contryfied living. But, the chase was fun and the rewards are mighty tasty so I'll be there offering advice and looking pretty any time I'm asked. Maybe I can get myself a bugle and some red britches what what.
Cheerio

Sorry for this post - its purely showing off. On our goggle home page we always have the Leeds and Nelson weather showing so that we can see how things compare. As yesterday was the equinox (so shortest day for us, longest for the UK) I thought I would just reflect on what mid winter looks like out here. As you can guess, pretty good. The pictures at the bottom of this post were taken yesterday overlooking the port (some more on Fickr). We are yet to have a real spell of rain (which is causing trouble for the reservoirs) but it is bloody cold at night with frosts most mornings, which Lisa relishes as she rides to work on her bike (me and Buster just crank the electric blanket up to 10!).
Just thought you'd like to know anyway 8)

Firstly, thanks to everyone for your thoughts on the dog debate. I think the sensible money seems to be on a miniature Schnauzer or a Lakeland (sorry Kay, Molly Brown doesn’t get a look in) though cousin Garry has just thrown a late curve ball with a Jack Russell – a good shout and now joint no.1 on the list. Until we get a fence sorted around the house I don’t think that we can go any further but when we do I’ll let you know whom our new addition is.

In the short term though we decided to get a couple of hamsters for Buster to play with (torment?). Trouble is NZ doesn’t allow hamsters to be imported so the choice was narrowed down to a mouse (1 yr life span) or a guinea pig (7 yrs) – the more disposable mouse obviously won. So, we now have two female mice, confusingly known as Mr Tickles and Albi. So far they seem good fun, easy to handle and play with and pretty much self sufficient other than a weekly clean out. We are in the middle of setting up an assault course al-la Copley and his hamster (think back to the 90’s craze for squirrel assault courses and you will get the idea). So far we have a ping-pong ball and an old toilet roll so some extra work is needed. I’ll keep you posted.

As you might know Buster came down with Chicken Pox pretty badly recently. The kids of some friends of ours had it first so we made sure he spent loads of time with them so that he got a good dose - and did he! At one point he was more Pox than boy but thankfully he has come through now (I'm especially pleased as he can go back to nursery!) and is feeling much better. Just thought you would like to see the pictures of him feeling very sorry for himself a week or so ago. I've just posted some happier ones of him on Flickr to balance things out a bit.

With Lisa's work being a 5 min bike ride away, and to help do her bit for the environment, Lisa is going to start riding her bike to work from tomorrow. Its been so long since she has done any exercise that we thought she had better do some training for the mostly flat biking marathon she is about to undertake, so Buster got her in the cul-de-sac behind our house for some lessons and interval training. Here is the video of how she got on (click here)