Hopefully I will not upset the bleeding hearts with this blog.

It was during the 1950’s and pocket money was mighy hard to get.

My brother and I came up with a great idea to make a bit of cash.
We would trap rabbits. There were hundreds of them about the farm.
They were a pest, so Dad was pretty keen on our idea as well.

First we had to tee up a buyer. Easier than we thought.
Our bus driver was keen to take any rabbits we caught.
5 shillings a pair he said. Wow, that was a fortune to 2 young kids.
 
Dad provided a heap of rabbit traps for us, so  first day after school we set out on my trusty horse and found a spot.
Setting the traps was a bit harder than anticipated. Lots of fingers and toes almost trapped.
After a while we got the hang of it and soon had the traps set.

The next morning, at sunrise, we set off out over the hills to check our booty.
What a shock!  Absolutely nothing.
We couldn’t believe it.  Not one single rabbit in our traps.
With heads hung low, we returned home, had a quick breakfast and changed ready for school.

The bus driver teased us, “how hard is it to catch a rabbit “he  boasted.
Dad was a little more sympathetic and volunteered to come out and check  on how we had set the traps.

I suspect he knew we had done it all wrong.
Sure enough, we had put the traps in the wrong spot, and forgotten to cover them so the rabbits would be unaware of the lurking danger.

Nothing to it, after we were shown the right way.
Next morning , out we went again. Wow, 8 rabbits!
My brother, who was only 6 at the time, swiftly killed the bunnies and gutted them.
My stomach did not like seeing this procedure so I duly reset the traps .

Poor brother had the task of holding the dead rabbits, as well as balancing on the back of the horse.
I took off at lightening speed only to have him fall off, rabbits and all.
Never mind, a quick uturn and he mounted up again.
This time I put my arm around the back  and held him on.

We came up with a better way of transporting the rabbits after that mishap.
Brother would stuff them all into 2 of Mums stockings, and then hang the stockings around his neck.
That was he could hold onto me and not ever fall off again.

For weeks and weeks we did the same thing each morning. Usually getting 3 or 4 pair of rabbits.
This worked out to a lot of money for us.
My brother bought a new pushbike and I bought some gear for my horse.
All in all it was great being a kid on a farm way back then.

These days though, I could never kill an animal no matter what.