Chickens Have Arrived!

Snapped the front door key in half trying to change a tyre on the mountain buggy. Not the smartest move, but then we all have our moments. In hindsight, I should have got Noah onto the job – he’s 5 and would have made a better job of it, but someone might have found out and that would have been embarrassing. Obviously snapping the front door key – the one of which there are no spares – wasn’t ideal either.

Anyway, I got the tyre changed – in the end. Went on much easier than it came off. Stuck with it, persevered – that is the key in life, much more important than the key for the front door. At least, that is what I told the children who wondered what on earth I had been up to for about 30minutes. Casulaties aside, it had been a triumph in the end. Give the kids a solid grounding in self-belief – no matter how hard the challenge, anything is possible etc.

“So, if we believe enough, can we become anything in life when we grow up Daddy?” Sheba sweetly asked.

“Absolutely, anything at all. Set your mind to it, stick with the plan and go for it 100%, no problem.” I replied, metaphorically pumping my fist in the air.

“That’s great Daddy,” She said, bright eyed.

“So what are you going to be when you grow up Sweetheart?” I asked.

“A Penguin Daddy”.

So having convinced my daughter that she can be a penguin when she grows up, and snapped the front door key – in a mere 40minutes, I feel my powers growing daily. Who knows what I’ll manage next weekend.

Another big event was the arrival of 7 chickens. Rescue chickens in effect, as Mr. Lock, who lives down the road, is reducing his flock and these fine birds were looking for a home. Nice guy Mr Lock, dry sense of humour, twinkle in his eye. We were going to have 6 but we found a sick one so that came with us as well. Of course.

Our best layer is currently Jonathan – or so I am assured by the children – he laid 4 eggs today so with chickens and Christmas looming, it is super exciting in the Gamble household. Giddy likes to climb inside the chicken coop, which was funny the first couple of times he did it. Entirely my fault as I may have helped him initially. Possibly not quite as amusing now, especially not for the chickens, but he’s growing fast so the odds on that lasting long are diminishing with each additional millimeter.

Work wise, it’s all powering on as well. The team have collectively decided that wiping rabies from the world by 2030 is a worthy ambition so it’s all go in the shed of power, as we plan and stress over the next campaigns. Having presented the Mission Rabies project to the WHO, OIE and WSAVA in Paris a couple of weeks ago (no – I’m not sure what OIE stands for either), the gauntlet is now firmly thrown down so impossible to go back at this point. In way too deep. Like changing the tyre – got to see this one through. Only this time, going to make sure we have a few spare keys handy….