Complimentary faux pas
From time to time we occasionally get lazy and decide to order our groceries on-line, rather than trying to make sure we arrive during delivery times at the local supermarket. (There's only so much one can carry home on a bicycle.) This morning one of the on-line deliveries arrived.

In general, the on-line deliveries are well packed, and the items in good condition. The on-line grocery merchants know that customers will leave if they're dissatisfied, so the fruit and veg are usually top notch, and we've never had a problem gaining refunds for goods damaged in transit (taco shells are easily broken).

It would also appear that sometimes complimentary items are also delivered. These items are clearly marked "with compliments" so you know they're not something that's fallen in by mistake. That's good, because normally I would consider a serve of chicken liver pate delivered to a vegetarian household to be a mistake.

I'm sure we'll be able to find someone to take it off our hands.

Banking
The bank has the card. Hurrah. I don't need to report it lost.

Chickens
From time to time it's desirable to inspect chickens to make sure they're free of parasites and disease. One of the most useful parts of the chicken to inspect is politely called the vent, as most parasites and many diseases will manifest themselves around this area.

To perform the inspection, one usually needs to lay the chicken on its back, and hold its legs up with one hand. It's kind of like changing the nappy on a baby. Most chickens will protest strongly at such undignified treatment, although a little grain or bread afterwards usually goes a long way to patching things up. Most of our other chooks ignore the chicken being inspected, they just line up hoping for food. This makes it easy to inspect one chicken after another.

Today Jacinta was inspecting our broody to make sure she's in good health. Parasite infections on broody chickens are very bad, because some parasites (or their eggs) usually remain in the nesting straw, so persistant problems are common.

Now, as I said, most chickens ignore the protests of another chook who's being inspected, and all our chickens show noticable ire with our broody because she's either hogging the nest, or pomping herself up. She's not really the flock's favourite right now. However, during the inspection, Sofie (who is one of the lower chickens on the pecking order) actually payed attention and attacked Jacinta.

I now hold Sofie in much higher regards. Keeping backyard chickens means I'm often concerned about cats who might try their luck, and knowing that we have at least one chook with the pluck to agressively defend the flock will help me sleep easier at night.

Besides, watching a little fluffy hen try to attack a full-grown adult human is very, very cute.