Sunday, April 23, 2006

No Rest For The Weary

The rain finally let up yesterday afternoon. Today I prepped the tomato rows, although it will be a few more weeks before I can put them in the ground. I'm planning on Mother's Day. We've been pulling radishes out of the ground and I harvested a bowl of baby lettuce and spinach today. The rather warm weather is pushing up the asparagus before I was prepared to eat it, but I'm not complaining. If this rather warm weather continues, it will be time to plant beans, corn and squash soon.

A Little Barnyard Tragedy

There is a dark cloud over the henhouse tonight. Although they could be celebrating for all we know - who really understands the avian brain? We were all down by the henhouse this afternoon - Big Daddy was working on the Turkey Extension, I was cleaning the coop, and Monkey was picking flowers. All was sweet and country heaven-like. The chicks were outside enjoying the sunshine. The grownup birds were free-ranging. Biscuit was laying on the sprouting carrots, Chelsea was soaking up sun in the middle of the yard, Gigi was whining because I was in the henhouse and she couldn't see me...

Mooney the Rooster made a fatal mistake. He attacked the Monkey. We're not talking a slight peck. He flew at her, scratched her arm, her neck, her nose and cut her lip. There was terrified screaming. It was not a sound I (or probably any mother) want to hear. Ever.

When Big Daddy rushed to get him off of her, he flew at B.D. I took Monkey to comfort her and told B.D. to catch the rooster and I would end it right then and there. (Big Daddy can be a little sqeamish about the whole killing thing... Well, B.D. threw his hammer and hit the foul bird in the head. It was the end of Mooney. Rest In Peace. (I have to add that while Mooney frequently was aggressive to others, he hadn't attacked Monkey before and never attacked me.) Like I said, who understands the avian mind? I don't know why Mooney would attack and continue to attack one small little girl picking flowers. I felt some remorse, but nobody messes with my Monkey. Nobody.

We weren't feeling that practical nor farmerly (I know it's not a word, but I'm using it anyway). No one wanted to stop what they were doing to clean and process the dead wacko rooster, so B.D. took him into the woods to bury him. That's when he discovered these...














Morrel mushrooms. Springtime Woodland's heavenly treat. I'm so excited. I'm just upset that for two years, they've been there and we didn't know it. Lost a rooster, gained some mushrooms. I'll call it a fair trade. And I'll be spending a lot of time in the woods for the next several days.

7 comments:

  1. I'm so glad Monkey wasn't hurt worse!

    Although I am no specialist on the workings of the avian brain, I'm pretty sure what your chickens are thinking is "Okay, who's the new lead rooster?" How many others do you have? I've lost track.

    What a score on those morels! I should take a walk around and see if any turn up. I've never seen them here, but we *did* just have that big rain...

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  2. Anonymous7:29 AM

    Ooooh the mushrooms! I reckon they're easily worth the loss of a psychotic avian friend. Or non-friend, as he seems to have been... And I second Jamie - poor Monkey. But good mushrooms!

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  3. Those mushrooms are worth way more than some nasty old rooster. Excellent score! But poor Monkey...glad she's ok, though.

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  4. It was April last year that the word "evil" was used while talking about Mooney. Glad Monkey is fine.

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  5. Anonymous12:03 PM

    Maggie--

    I hope that Sophie is OK, and am glad that the rooster met his match.

    Remind me to be extra-nice to Charlie when he's carrying tools of any sort.

    Great blog site. Do you know about the Blog Asheville folks?

    http://www.blogasheville.blogspot.com/

    Ciao--

    James Atkinson

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  6. Why James, Howdy! I'll have to check out the Asheville Blogs
    Jamie, KW, Liz- we've had more rain, so I may head back into the woods today.
    girlonaglide, Welcome! You must have googled Mooney references. I guess my friend, Kristin, was right about him. I have another friend who has a Hamburg rooster and says he's the meanest. Anyway, now Rufus has no rival and is truly king, for a while at least.

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  7. Maggie, No googling... I was just really into reading your blog and had the time to do so! I started way back and read to present so the Mooney thing was still fresh in my memory.

    I used to live in Hickory and loved traveling to your part of the world. I miss your area like crazy. I imagine it's hard to find rural land around there for an affordable price. I want SO badly to move out of FL and be where the land is fertile and you can see hills and mountains on the horizon. *huge pitiful sigh*

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