A really big fat 'Thank you!'

Well, we've done it folks.  We've now got more than 240 MP's to sign off on Early Day Motion 581, which calls for lower stocking levels for egg and meat hens.  This has been driven by the fabulous Chicken Out campaign, which has now secured in excess of 160,000 consumer signatures - a voice that's getting increasingly harder to ignore.  The EDM also calls for clearer labelling standards, so that people can be sure exactly what conditions their Sunday dinner has been bred in. 

If you're one of the beautiful people on the list, well done and from the heart of my free-range chicken shed, thank you.  if you're not, don't worry, there's still time!  Just click on the link above, enter a few short details and job's a good'un.  (You'll also get to see your name in lights as the tally clocks a new signature!)

If you don't know what all the fuss is about, come round to my house some time and I'll make you an onelette, just like we had for tea tonight.  It was bright yellow, just the way yolks are SUPPOSED to look!  It was absolutely gorgeous to the tastebuds, a real treat.  Just goes to prove that you really do reap what you sow - happy, naturally fed hens = happy, natural eggs.  It's not rocket science really, is it?

The Pursuit of Happiness

I used to gather inspirational quotes into an old diary when I was a teenager.  One of the gems I hoarded went something like "Searching for happiness is a fruitless voyage, for the more we seek it, the more it runs away from us".  I was blissfully happy with life and thoroughly sheltered from all the hardships in the world, and thought it to be quite an odd statement to make.  Now, with the benefit of ten years of marriage, 23 years total parenting and twelve years living away from home experience, I see the world, unremarkably, through very different eyes.  I see the truth of that curious statement, both from my own and other people's experience.

A new report out today concludes the last three years' work of 11 family experts and scholars.  One of the strongest staements in its summary pages is this:  "The aggressive pursuits of personal success by adults is now the greatest threat to British children". It cites family break-ups, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and income inequality as being big contributing factors.  I've not sifted through the hundreds of pages of research and conclusions, nor do I doubt I ever will, but from what I've seen of it, I do sincerely welcome the report and the boldness with which it seems to have been written.  Firstly, it was an independent inquiry, which presumably has no hidden agenda - it's authors are not trying to sell formula milk or win political seats.  Secondly, it seems to inequivocally call a number of prominent agencies and bodies to repentance ask them to seriously re-think their entire philosophy.  In this day and age, that can only be a good thing; on the one hand, they'll change, on the other (if they don't), they're exposed as morons who are set in their unhelpful ways. Anyway, I digress.

This all got me thinking.  Another of my favourite teenage quotes was from a ancient American writer called Nephi.  He lived around 600BC and was an ancestor of the modern-day North-American Indians.  In a time of great turbulence and civil unrest, he took as many as would follow him away from the great cities and wandered into the wilderness for "the space of many days", how ever long that was.  They came upon a land of plenty and settled down, establishing themselves a new society, free from the persecution and wrong-doing of the old one.  I'm often read and re-read what exactly it is that they do next, because Nephi goes on to say that "we lived after the manner of happiness".  So what was it that they did?  There are 12 practices that Nephi's people follow - and perhaps unsurprisingly, searching for happiness is not one of them:

1)  They followed God's teachings.

2)  They worked hard to sustain themselves and their families.

3)  They shared a common goal.

4)  They built-up defences against anything that would distract from their common goal.

5)  They engaged in a variety of manual labours, working together on common aims.

6)  They each sought to gain as much education as possible.

7)  They constructed centres of worship and worshipped there.

8)  They became an industrious (hard-working) people.

9)  They appointed good men as their leaders.

10) They acknowledged God's hand in every aspect of their lives.

11) They kept personal histories and passed on their culture and history from father to son.

12) They were 'pleased with the things of God'.


Now, compare their society with ours.  According to the experts who published today's report, the selfish pursuit of happiness is the biggest threat facing our children.  May I be so bold as to suggest that this because we are too busy looking for happiness, instead of studying the success of the ancients and doing what they have done?  There is a distinct lack of respect for the wisdom of the elders in our society, an arrogance which assumes that we know better and can figure things out for ourselves.  True it is that our challenges are not theirs, but we are doomed indeed if we consider to be rot all that our forebears have learned before we were even thought of.

In the spirit of that thinking, what can we learn from the 'ancients' about this business of happiness and child-rearing?  I would suggest a great deal more than could be coped with here.  Instead, let me offer three small tidbits of wisdom, penned by the inspirational Gordon Bitner Hinckley in 1995:

1)  Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each
other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3).
Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and
righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and
to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments
of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and
wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the
discharge of these obligations.

2)  Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on
principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love,
compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

3)  By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love
and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of
life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily
responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred
responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another
as equal partners.

I would be deeply interested to leave 'society' with its endless list of hazards and issues and establish a Nephi-esque culture.  It would be a delicious experiment to see how the two groups would differ after, say a year.  I know which one would propser and which one would not.  I know exactly where I'd like to be.  But short of separating ourselves physically from the rest of society, is there a way that we can apply the same principles in our own homes, for example?  I believe there is, and what's more, I believe that we can be different even whilst we live amongst the rest of society.  Not only that, I believe we owe it to our kids to make sure that we do.

Politics, n: [Poly "many" + tics "blood-sucking parasites"] ~Larry Hardiman

I feel profoundly grateful to those who died in the Great Wars, so that I can enjoy the freedoms which are mine. Since being a teenager, I have been very aware of their sacrifice, often shedding a tear or two on the eleventh of the eleventh. My Great Uncle Wheaton, serving in the Navy, survived a variety of sorties and exchanges in foreign waters, only to be killed by a mine as he arrived home to his heroes welcome at Portsmouth. Such a tragic waste of life.

The thing is, the tragedy isn't so much that Wheaton died trying to save his country - in a way that has been a noble and worthwhile pursuits since time immemorial. The real tragedy, I feel, is when those freedoms for which he fought are trodden under the foot of those who ought to know better. I, as a healthy, white, straight man, enjoy a delightful array of freedoms in the green and pleasant land: I can study what I like, read what I like, say what I like, wear what I like, drink what I like, drive what I like, do whatever job I like. Yet a child has no such rights, not even the right to live, it emerged yesterday.

The green is seems not so green and the pleasant not so pleasant now that the oafs in Westminster have rejected the cry for the sanctity of life. I know someone who has just had twins, born at 22 weeks, one of whom has survived and is now gaining strength after some worrying weeks in hospital. This is a living, breathing baby girl, as beautiful as she is tiny, and SHE HAS A RIGHT TO LIVE! To me, allowing the murder of babies at 24 weeks is a vile and criminal practice, one for which criminal penalties should apply, the same as it would for the murder of a person of any other age. In other countries, men and women of strength and cajones have stood against abortion and their countries have benefited from its abhorrence of this evil practice. In this country, however abortion has been culturally and politically embraced as an effective method of contraception. So much so that more than 60,000 infants are broken, scraped and vaccuumed into seeming oblivion.

Last night in the House of Commons, a vote was held and a proposed drop in termination date was rejected on the grounds that "there is no medical evidence to support the proposal". There was no medical evidence to suggest that murdering a million Jews in the concentration camps was morally repugnant, but when we hear about the idea, we just KNOW that it is wrong. To add insult to injury, the same buffoons that approved this, also gave the green light to "hybrid embryology" last week, whereby human genetic material is being mixed with animal in order to create hybrid embryos. So what can be done about it?

"People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant." Helen Keller was right on the money there. We have become a society of non-thinkers, people who DO without first thinking about what they are doing or even why. What happens when your child reaches 5? You send them to school, right? Did you actually THINK through your child's educational options and arrive at the course of action you felt was best to help him or her to fulfill their unique potential? Or did you just send them to school because that's what everybody else does? Bingo.

The problem with living in a nation of sheep is that there inevitably come wolves in sheep's clothing. Enter Mr Abortion Law. Enter Mr Hybrid. How many people live in Britain? About 60 million. How many are of voting age? About 40 million. How many idiots sit in parliament? About 450, I think. Do you see where I'm going with this? How can they possibly hope to govern the country, unless they know the country they are dealing with? had they actually listened to any of the home-educating families that I know, they would never, ever have even considered rejecting this proposal, in fact they may have even outlawed abortion altogether. Had they bothered to consult with those families, they would realise what an impact their proposed new change to parents staying at home would have. So what is to be done about them?

Do you not realise the power of your own voice? Do you not realise that the things that are abhorrent to you are also abhorrent to a thousand other people around the country? This is the day and age where opinions matter, where voices really can be heard - where the voice of the people saying "You cheap, amoral morons! Stop this evil at once!" can resound in the ear of every politician, every local councillor, every decision-maker in every business. We have a right to breathe clean air, to drink clear water, to take walks in the beauties of this land, and unless we stop this silence, we will soon lose them. The first mistake would be to believe that politicians have the nation's interests at heart. The second is to do nothing to stop them.

WE are the nation, not THEM. I am not inciting you to violence, nor to extremism of any kind. I do this in the same spirit that Christ threw the money-changers from the Temple - I do it with vigor and urgency, because human rights are sacred and ought to be protected with every resource at our disposal. Even if that means laying down our lives like Uncle Wheaton did. Let whatever we sacrifice for the rights of our children, never go to waste like his did. I don't know how to do something about this. I hope that you and others who read this or who talk about it, will come up with the answers to that. perhaps you'd be good enough to share your ideas in the comments section, so that we can DO something. Winston Churchill, one of my all-time heroes, said the following: "All it would take for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing" So what are WE going to do? you and I. What are we going to do about it?

Community

I generally don't like it when someone starts to rant about a problem they are willing to offer no solution to. Having said that, I'll try my very best not to actually 'rant' about this - more sort of 'ponder all over my keyboard'!

I love it when old people talk about the war. I could quite happily sit there for hours and listen to them going on - and often have done - about rationing, Churchill's great speeches and the Blackout. But the bit that most fascinates me - I mean really, really draws me in - is this spirit of community which they all talk about. It doesn't seem to matter where in the country you were at the time of the war, the Brits were just struck by a feeling of 'togetherness'.

And here's where the ranty bit starts.... I don't think we've got that any more. I honestly don't know what happened to it, but it seems to have gone, faded away into the same oblivion that swallowed up home-gardening, beef dripping and 'make-do-or-mend'. Perhaps it fell victim to the post-war economic optimism that seduced America in the 50's: work harder so you can buy more 'stuff'. Perhaps we lost our sense of focus and got so carried away with the after-parties that we forgot those values and practices that brought us through the conflict in the first place.

Whatever the cause may prove to be, I'm starting to feel optimistic that it's not beyond repair. I rejoice - and I do use that word deliberately - to see events like the Bush Moot being organised again this year, where hundreds of wilderness lovers gather from around the globe to share their skills and crafts with each other. Academics such as Andy Munzer are using their influence to rekindle the flames of story-telling, sharing messages, morals and histories with future generations. I'm heartened to see the number of people doing extraordinary things to raise money and awareness for issues that would otherwise have gone unheard. Children in Need, for example, raised what I consider to be a staggering amount of money in their annual appeal last year, a total of £36million. (And bear in mind that this is all against a backdrop of credit-crunching and petrol pirates).

I feel really chuffed to see the astronomic growth of social networking sites such as Facebook.com, where communities of friends and strangers are able to share common interests, keep in touch in easy and entertaining ways, and build whole new communities, based not on geographical proximity, but on common interest and shared values. Add to this the enormous and wonderfully inspiring progeny of Linus Torvalds and the whole Open Source movement, and you really start to sense that community spirit only appears to be out for the count.

What is actually happening, is that borders, barriers and limitations are being torn down everywhere we look. I feel that it is culturally comparable to the Berlin Wall coming down. International communities are enhancing and complementing local, geographical ones. Data and culture sharing are becoming regular, everyday occurrences in so many people's lives. We are no longer merely citizens of the land we happen to live in today, but citizens of Planet Earth, connected to and interacting with millions of un-met compatriots, each of us concerned with and affected by the systematic rape and pillage of the earth's finite resources.

I feel that our generation owes a tremendous debt to our forebears, not only to continue their fight for freedom - and indeed to exercise and benefit from the freedoms for which they gave so much - but also to carry that torch of community spirit and 'togetherness' onwards. I'm reminded very much of the Olympic torch, being passed from one neighbour to another, year after year, its flame never being allowed to be blown out. Perhaps we would all do well to embrace the same concept: to burn as brightly in our own circles of influence as we can, and to teach others to do the same.

The Chooks of Hazzard

(Sorry, that was awful I know! I couldn't resist!!)

So here we are, another fortnight gone by, and time to clean out the hen-house again. Our neighbours on one side built a 6 foot fence the other week, so Linda and I decided to let the chickens be completely free-range, even when we're not in the garden to keep an eye on them. They've thrived since then, and the taste of their eggs is just exquisite.

But then of course, there's the 'other' stuff that comes out of that pipe... and that's not as pleasant to deal with!! When you read articles entitled "How to start with chickens", they reassuringly tell you that you'll ;just know' when they need to be cleaned out again. And oh boy, do you!! We have four females (hence the eggs.....) each coming up to six months old, and they certainly know how to poop!!

Go on, have a guess. Four hens, about the size of a curled up cat in your lap. I clean them out every two weeks. Be brave now - how much poop do I scoop out of their coop? (Now that was actually quite clever, and completely unintentional!!) A breakfast bowl? A side plate? Maybe even a dinner plate's worth? (I hasten to add that I don't actually use any of those receptacles, lest you should ever fear eating here again...)

Even if you had guessed a moderately-sized saucepan, you would still have been found wanting, for my little treasures produce two tightly packed buckets of poo every fortnight. Now bear in mind, there's wood shavings in there too, but by and large, the amount is indeed large!

So bearing in mind that there are only so many times a day you can eat eggs, no matter how good they are (and did I mention that they really are good?), I started to have a niggling fear that this might not be paying off - that it might still be cheaper to buy them from the shop. So I worked it out:


We get four eggs a day x 320 days a year (on average for this breed when kept free-range) = 1,280 = 106 dozen eggs.

Even as I write, Tesco will happily relieve you of £1.44 per half dozen = £152.64 per year

The hens cost me about £7 a month in feed, plus whatever gets left over from our plates, which we risk our lives to take out to them!! So that's £84 a year, plus about £15 a year in shavings. That makes the total cost of keeping them £99 per year.

So already we're saving in the region of £53 a year. BUT (or should I say BUTT) (Sorry about this...) Let's not forget the pure, unadulterated and beautifully potent chicken manure we (well, they, technically) produce. At around £4 a bucket-full, we save an additional £208 a year on first-rate plant grower.

So yes, on the financial side, the chickens definitely earn their keep. They also dig over anything I let them walk on, saving me hours in the garden, and fertilise it as they go! We throw less food waste away because they eat it all, and they are marvellous companions. There really is nothing quite like the feeling of wandering around bare-foot in your own Garden of Eden, to feel the tender pecking of a sharp beak against your bare flesh, then to discover that you've recoiled into a pile of what didn't make it to the litter tray!!

Yes, chickens are fantastic. So fantastic in fact, that one day I'm going to write a book about them, in which I solve everybody's dilemmas, allowing everyone in the whole world the unbridled, unrivalled joy of husbanding the most useful creatures the Lord ever made. Anyhow, it's about time I tucked them in for the night and read them a story. (Don't worry, I was kidding about the story part). Then again.......

My new blog

Hello there fans! I've started a new blog so that I can separate earthworms and children from poetry and fiction. I'd be REALLY grateful of any feedback and comments that you have on it - as you know, I'm just starting off, so I need all the guidance I can get my hands on. So what are you waiting for? Come over to the dark side today! (And don't forget to subscribe to the RSS feed so that you get updates):

http://richardswriting.blogspot.com/

See you there soon!

Soliloquy from 'Romeo & juliet' (my version of...)

The universe, spectacularly aligned to seal my fate!
Pierced by longing, like a worm boring through a heart content,
now the dull throb of a once-sprained leg
which no hands can restore to vigour.

A hunger growing, cancerous, expanding,
replacing healthy tissue with emptiness -
nay, not inactive emptiness but active yearning,
searing longing for that which the Gods deny me!

Why I? The hail of each sore with life -
why this flesh so cursed and tortured must be?
What folly shall I have raised?
What immortal displeasure have I incurred,
that I must suffer and writhe in the agony of my remaining?

And why she?
Can Gods not be patient too,
but missing her, they invest their omnipotence in theiving souls
too soon from this world,
an angelic pilgrim torn from the bosom of natives,
who cry with arms raised, "Return her here!"

Why must she tatse the wine of untimely ends?
Why she, be so tortured and wanting of esteem
that such apothecary only solace could lend?
What cause, great Gods, be so urgent as her theft can fulfil,
while earth moans and souls die at her demise?

And less of Gods, yet what of I, my soul
or the ash that remains,
whose lifeless, greying mass no form entrusts?
Is life henceforth?
Can breath hold true, for seems me, there is less air tonight.
Was ever point or sense or cause
to wage the ongoing war of continuance,
when ere was joy and laughter sweet as birdsong,
now gives way to the thundering quietness of loneliness.

These lips I press once more 'gainst mine.
Erst pink as roses, now bilberry blue
and icicles on a face -
how swiftly life is sucked away through those fading eyes
as death takes on life breathing its silence
into once reverberating lung.

Sweet Juliet, in my heart already wife,
now distant, tragic torn from this scene,
make space for me where torment no longer grinds.
With wide arms greet me, with flowing hair as branches on a spring bough
welcome me,
sweet Juliet.

My steel so cold, uncaring here,
will bring me to you.
Arise, oh love of my heart,
take place again with your love,
as rising again from the flame,
love lives again
and in dying, love is born again
on wings of eternity -
on bright bounteous wings
together we at last shall fly!