Country Lesson 2 - In order to eat meat you have to kill something first!

Well the day dawned bright and sunny. Hubby went over to have a word and say thanks before he took Sausage and Bacon off to piggy heaven. Now I am under no illusion where meat comes from, that is why we named our pigs Sausage and Bacon - and they have had a fantastic life compared to some of the pigs that are intensively farmed to produce our pork and bacon....BUT it was actually harder than I thought this morning saying goodbye to them. I have not got as close to them as Hubby as he has done most of the feeding, but when I saw them driving off the vision that kept on springing into my mind was of their little ears flopping over their eyes as the followed me around the edge of the field. I loved the way they used to wiggle their bums as they scratched themselves on their pig ark, I loved the way they used to squeal when they heard the gate open or the car on the gravel as this usually meant that food was on its way, I also loved the way you could hear them snoring from our garden. I am not getting too sentimental though as this is yet another lesson in how to live the Good Life in the country. Something has actually been killed to produce the meat on our plate and this will be happy pork it will have the fewest "air miles" on any pork that I have ever eaten, it will have had a good pampered life, and it will have no chemicals pumped into - still Hubby and I did have a little sigh and I have to admit I had a little tear in my eye when we looked at the empty ark. Streaky and Smoked are about to be born shortly though so time to move on - how did Son cope with all this you may ask. Was he upset by the stark reality of the country way of life - Oh No! When asked if he felt a little sad he replied "No just tell me when can I get my black pudding!".

Why are the weekends longer?

I have noticed over the last few months that despite working one extra day (yes won't let Hubby forget that) the weekends actually seem so much longer. When I go back to work on a Monday I feel like I have been away for absolutely ages and ages. I am not aware that I enter some kind of black hole when I return home on Fridays or that my car transforms into a Tardis so why do I feel that way. I think it is down to chilling and not having to rush around doing things so the weekend starts as soon as I leave work. When we used to come down to the cottage a lot we would be packing up and then driving and so the weekend didn't really start until we arrived at the cottage at 10.30pm. We then had to leave at 1pm on the Sunday to see the rellies so that ate into the weekend too. Wierd really, but in a nice kind of way!