Mouse, the busy body of the Dedes, piled up lemons in the kitchen. “We have been quiet for too long” she muttered. “It is no good that we have been paralysed by politics. The world at large is in a grim state, but we are still alive and personally I think the only remedy is a new worthwhile project.”

To recap what happened in the last year: The Dedes moved to the countryside and into an old dilapidated house that needs a lot of attention. They are as happy as Larry in their new little environment. Around the house they have an acre with some fruit trees and three acres they lease out to the next door neighbour to graze his cattle in return for half a beast for the freezer. The first year they were busy establishing a vege garden and planting a banana grove and simply watch what ripens when. Thrifty as they are they don’t want to spend any money and they are learning a lot about how to make use of everything. Long gone are the days of only flour and water that led to the “Artist’s Survival Cookbook” project. They still make their own bread on a daily basis, but graduated from industrial yeast to sourdough.

As the Dedes are nobodies, who would be interested in their happy life? No-one, they simply assumed. However the other day someone asked what they are doing with the bones of their beast. “Broth” Mouse said, thinking that everyone makes broth anyway. “No, no” explained the person. “I make broth as well, but I envisaged you hand-grinding down the used bones to make bone meal for the garden or something!”

“Ah, right” said Mouse, “They contain a tremendous amount of phosphate you don’t want to waste. Here is what I do: First I make broth. Once this is done, I put the bones into the chicken pen for the chooks to clean up. When they are picked clean, I dry them and then I chuck them into the fireplace. In the end the go out with the ashes into the garden.”

“Do bones burn?”

“Well,” explained Mouse “the word bonfire comes from ‘bone fire’. They might not burn to ashes, but the become very brittle and are easy to break down. Your garden will love you for it.”

That night Mouse went home and discussed with Devil that, maybe they still have some tidbits to tell. Devil said, “yeah, you are right, it is definitely better than sitting around and moping about the rise of Top Dogs.”