The pond looks ragged but I am too tired when I finish working for the day to do much with it. I walked around it for a while before the sun set and the little birds were being characters. Just noticed that what I have been grouping as sparrows are several species of birds. They all have a main brownish color, but very different sizes, markings, other coloration, and sounds. The crane-like birds are still here, but I have only gotten close to them one time.
I have been working on Camron's house and he sometimes helps. Today when we had finished and were walking to his Grandfather's, he was carrying his coat and turned and said "this coat was made from a living animal"(it's a black leather motorcycle jacket). I didn't encourage a conversation because visions of a PETA infatuated teacher flared in my head and my own confused position started surfacing. He already knows that although all of us eat fish, none of us have ever eaten any from the pond. It would be like eating a pet, and those very words have probably been spoken in front of him. At the same time he knows that some of the people who catch the fish are going to eat them, and that we don't regard those people as cannibals. Has he noticed the potential ethical dilemma in the fact that although we would never eat one of our pets, we apparently don't mind if our friends do? This could seriously damage role model credibility.