nominated for Eco-vaggie awards 2010

Its been too long since I wrote anything for the blog so sorry for that if there are any readers left out there after this extreme slackness. I have been really busy though. This weekend we are at Brighton Eco-veggie fayre and I could not believe when I saw it but Brackencraft has been nominated for the Eco-veggie awards. When you see who else has been nominated we have about zero chances of getting anywhere but just to be nominated is amazing. And in the second year of trading too so very promising really. I was so excited when i saw it. No idea who nominated us or how many people but thank you so much if it was you. I was starting to be really worried how I am going to mamange to pay for everything - MOT for van, safety assessments for new products which perhaps I should not have done but I will not do any more for a few years after these I think - tho already have 2 new things in experimental stages! still may just keep them for friends! and also I now have to make a real living since all savings have run out. Infact they ran out a few weeks ago now and its surprising how little you really need to get by on but life right now is hard not fun. So getting nominated for anything would be pretty fantastic but the fact I have been trading such a short time it is just like a dream. How it has happened I really do not know. I need to find out who choses and how many votes are needed etc but either way its brilliant for the business since if nothing else its publicicity and rght now I cannot afford to advertise at all. The 2 adverts I went with were a waste of money - one just gets me invites to school and brownies events which is very nice and they tend to be enjoyable to do, but small things like this are not going to make me a living. The other - Midlands green pages is proving to be a complete waste of money. Well both were really. I need to put an ad in Off the hoof I think but have no money right now to do this. Its a catch 22 situation so getting listed in something like the Eco-veggie awards and for my soap!! is brilliant since if nothing else sme folks will read about me/brackencraft. Well spent yesterday getting a local lady to look after the chickens when I am away and tomorrow poor dogs go in kennels - hopefully they will behave themselves! And its just a lonely cockateil in the house poor girl till sunday midday. I am worried about the chickens to since I think we have a Rat!. No definite evidence other than a tunnel that keeps appearing in their run but I think its bigger than a mouse hole so I have ordered a humane rat trap off the internet. I actually asked the local garden centre if they sell them or can get them intending to go to the local business and support local trade etc. I got a lecture on how it was wrong to release rat back into the fields and not fair on farmers! As if there are no rats there already. Its not like I intend to release it into a barn or something. Finally when explaining to nasty woman behind counter that I do not want to kill it since had 2 lovely pet rats not so long ago and "there but for the will of god go I" etc ( not that I am at all religious but it seems this particular expression does work on church types when talking about the murder of such creatures as rats.) Anyway I may just have to boycott that garden centre from now on. They cost more than places like Homebase and B&Q and if they insist on being so nasty then whats the point of supporting them - after all this rat trap has cost me £23 on the internet with shipping so they could probably have charged me £25 for it and made and kepts their nasty gobs shut. Besides surely if you want customers you should keep your stupid out of date oppinion to yourself and if they dont its fair they lose me as a customer. Since they are closer than anywhere else - just about any shop infact- I have been a reasonably regular customer despite things like compost being a fraction if the price at big stores like Wickes which is 10 miles away but this is unreasonable and she was quite nasty and very disaproving and I reckon from now on I shall save money and use slightly more fuel but still save overall and buy from the big stores where infact they will probably also stock humane rat traps. Yes I may have to resort to poison but if at all possible I want to attempt to release the unfortunate animal into the wild - just well away from where we live and in the middle of some fields. Apparently if you release too close to home they will find their way back. I feel bad enough depriving the poor creature of its familly since there are probably quite a few of them and since it will probably never see its familly again once released and do not see that it will achieve a great deal to murder the poor animal just because it decided to make a meal out of the food my messy chickens throw all over the floor. And also I could end up poisoning wild birds, my dogs, moles etc if i use nasty murderous chemicals to kill it. And after all this ranting does this small creature have less right to life than anything else just because it happens to be a rat?