A Tribute...

 This is Big Boy....the world's meanest rooster.   This picture  was taken in the spring of 2006, and he was about 5 months old.  Today--March 8, 2010-- he breathed his last breath and crowed his final cock-a-doodle-doo.  He was a beautiful specimen of the old heirloom breed of Rhode Island Red. He got really big, weighing in at about 12 pounds.  Last winter he managed to get frostbite...on one foot and his comb. He must have had the one leg  and the top of his head sticking out the door of the coop  is all I can figure. So for a year he has been all gimpy, but he still managed to rule his little flock of hens. He started getting mean around a year and a half old....before that, he would let me walk into the chicken run and pet him and talk to him. Suddenly he didn't want anything to do with me, and would as soon rip my face off as look at me.   We had several close calls. Once he threw himself at me from the doorway to the chicken coop (which sits up high).  I was walking away from him, and he hit me square in the middle of my back and knocked me down. Luckily I had a full gallon water jug in my hand and I turned and knocked him ass over teakettle with it as he got ready to come at me again. He stood up, shook himself off and started at me and I yelled at him and threatened him with the jug again and he backed off. We had a few more encounters before I started just staying away from him as much as I could. He ripped my hand with his spurs a couple of times inside the coop when I was gathering eggs.

  For about a week he has been acting very listless and dug himself a shallow pit in the chicken run for a dust bath...I found him laying there this morning looking pretty rough.  Early in the afternoon the hens were making a lot of noise and I went back to check and there he was...right in the center of the run, dead.  I said a little prayer and thanked him for taking such good care of the girls, and we laid him to rest.  His crowing every morning will be missed, mostly by me, as I'm sure he drove the neighbors crazy.  He was really beautiful and had the heart of a warrior.  I've seen him take on snakes and he even caught a mouse once. One night a baby possum managed to slink through the chicken wire and he raised hjoly hell until we came and got it. He stood right there, lunging at it, making sure it didn't hurt his girls. When an occasional cat would jump on top of the fencing, he would gather up the hens and move them inside the coop where they would be safe.

   He was moulting here, but you can get an idea of how much he'd grown in just one year. (2007)

 Here he was when we first brought him home from the farm store....what's not to love?

So, here's to the memory of a rooster who lived his life to the fullest, gave it his best, and breathed his last breath  in the bosom of the Mother Earth.  R.I.P. You will be missed....

Namaste.

WHAT ?!?!?!?! Wednesday already?!?!?!?!

From a cave somewhere in Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley....

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I don't know how I have lost 2 days this week, but there'll probably be more times like this. I get so busy this time of year that I start falling asleep at the keyboard ! So, I'll just apologize ahead of time and hope for the best...lol

It's been a lovely day of taking a meeting to a woman who's just had a surgery. Got busy early and made a big salad with all sorts of wonderful ingredients, garnished with eggs from my Rhode Island Reds and pickled beets (from my garden, of course), and radishes and cucumbers. We had a wonderful time and she was delighted to have company. I remember how it was when I got hurt, and was so blessed by women coming by with lunch and a Big Book...I am grateful to be able to return the favor.

The itchies are abating, I think. I still have a handfull of blisters on my right hand, but the neck and face are clearing up, thank goodness. I just hope I learn my lesson from this little incident...
never again will I weed without gloves -- at least not along the fencline like that. (Made a solemn promise, with and without an oath...)lol.

We are having a dessert potluck tomorrow night at the women's meeting monthly open speaker meeting. I think I will make the pie again, only blackberry this time, with the fancy crust. I still have quite a lot of blackberries from last year in the freezer, as we had a record crop. I hope they do as well this year, and I'll make jam again as I'm about out. We always have lots of different desserts that people bring and it's always fun trying other peoples recipes.

Little Caylee is asleep here by my desk (her favorite place at night). She is growling softly in her sleep and her muscles twitch as she chases the elusive rabbit in her dreams. She is a very good dog...always comes immediately when I whistle for her and stays close to home. As opposed to the other 2 dogs, who roam the world over and are often outside of earshot.

I was thinking today about how easy it is to not notice all the blessings around you...how easy it can be to take life for granted and not appreciate the subtle graces and gifts that surround us every day. I think it was Einstein who once said "There are 2 ways to look at the world. One is as if nothing is a miracle and the other is as if EVERYTHING is a miracle." I choose the way I look at my world today . Like gratitude, I get to choose this every day, if I so desire. I look for the miraculous in the mundane, the joyful simplicity in the details of my life. I can experience the awe and wonder every minute, if I want.

How cool is that?


Namaste.