Easter 2009

[PeeWee]

Well, this really IS PeeWee, though.

I thought I ought to clarify just what my Easter Holiday avatar is all about - that's our long since gone pet rooster "Tjipp" (pronounced Chip - that was the sound he made when he was just a yellow little ball of down)..., I figured he'd fit right in with the season!

He looks a bit dorky here, as his real feathers haven't all grown out yet, and the extreme amount of feathers down by his feet - typical for that particular kind of bird - look almost like an extra set of wings. (They DO function as something like that, too - you should see a bunch of them start jumping around, picture rubber balls with feathers on them, it's hilarious!)

Tjipp was rescued from a certain death right after hatching, his stupid father tried to peck a hole in his head, thank GOODNESS my father came into the hen house when he did!

He could never move back in with the others after we had rescued him, his father had NO love for him WHAT SO EVER and would attack him every chance he got, so after living indoors with me and my daughter for about ½ a year, he moved out into a special built "single room apartment" in the upper part of the garden - the hens and his brute of a father hung out in the lower part of the garden, and Tjipp watched them from a safe distance..., sometimes the hens would come up and say hello, but as soon as Tjipp saw his father coming closer, he would RUN up the stairs to the deck and hide under one of the chairs...

His favorite pastime was flirting with me, cooing around my feet and bringing me little munchies (I turned down his gifts though, as I have never really had a taste for earth worms and ants), and he also enjoyed chasing after my Dad's red lawnmower whenever it was time to cut the grass.

One day he was out with my daughter in the garden (she was swinging and he was looking for something to munch on underneath the swing tree), when suddenly my daughter heard a "SWOOP!", saw a big, brown thing shoot by and then all that was left of our beloved pet rooster was a pile of feathers.

There is an old owl couple that lives in the woods right behind the house, and THAT particular day they had themselves a REAL FEAST!!!

Oh my - this post got a lot longer than I had first intended..., all I REALLY was going to do was wish everybody at TMR a "Glad Påsk" - Happy Easter!

[WindowDressing]

*sob*

Dear PeeWee that is so sad about Tjipp. Poor little dear bird never had a chance. I'm glad he at least got to have some time in his garden at least without his own father bumping him off. Animals, they are wild, aren't they?

Frohe Ostern!

Love and Hugs,
WD

[Isis]

sorry about your pet. My grandmother had a rooster that used to chase me around the yard. I would be screaming and he would fly at me with his talons. I hated that bird.

[WindowDressing]

sorry about your pet. My grandmother had a rooster that used to chase me around the yard. I would be screaming and he would fly at me with his talons. I hated that bird.

Oh nooooes! How scary!! Were you just a toddler then?

Yanno some folks don't realize how wild animals are sometimes, even farm animals. Roosters are dangerous!!

We had some friends years ago who worked on a chicken farm up in the mountains, and the stories they'd tell us about a day in one of the chicken houses, yikes! They had 10,000 hens and 1,500 roosters, in only two houses. Talk about scary. At the peak of the season, those hens could lay 12,000 eggs in ONE DAY!

Not a job I would want to do.


Sure loved getting to pick up fresh eggs though. We traded garden produce with them. Wish they hadn't had to move away.

Love and Hugs,
WD

[Isis]

I was probably more like 7-8, but all her roosters were like that. he was a free range dude and had a couple of dozen hens.

going to my grandparents farm was always treacherous. I saw a large milk snake eat a chicken whole. Grandma chopped up a tarantula near her well that I was playing with. Grandpa's horse took off with me sitting on his back (no saddle, I had to use his mane as a bridle) he ran into his stall and tried to knock my head off. I snuck through some barbed wire fencing and had a bull chase me back over it. (ouch) I drove my uncles car into a ditch at around age 12. Played outside in the rain while lightening was hitting the rods on the top of house. Got a nasty chigger bite in my navel that was infected and I even got to see 4 tornados form and touch down.
Got on the truck bumper to see grandpa's fish catch, and a huge gar flipped up and almost took my face off.

Life on the farm isn't easy on a kid.

[WindowDressing]

I was probably more like 7-8, but all her roosters were like that. he was a free range dude and had a couple of dozen hens.

going to my grandparents farm was always treacherous. I saw a large milk snake eat a chicken whole. Grandma chopped up a tarantula near her well that I was playing with. Grandpa's horse took off with me sitting on his back (no saddle, I had to use his mane as a bridle) he ran into his stall and tried to knock my head off. I snuck through some barbed wire fencing and had a bull chase me back over it. (ouch) I drove my uncles car into a ditch at around age 12. Played outside in the rain while lightening was hitting the rods on the top of house. Got a nasty chigger bite in my navel that was infected and I even got to see 4 tornados form and touch down.
Got on the truck bumper to see grandpa's fish catch, and a huge gar flipped up and almost took my face off.

Life on the farm isn't easy on a kid.

Them garfish are mean beggars aren't they????

Yep, all my greatgrandparents and my father's parents had chicken farms. Truly scary places. Fortunately for me, we didn't live nearby, and so only visited rarely. I did remember picking berries at my great-grandmother's farm and being scared of the bugs. Of course, my strawberry appetite overpowered my fear at the time as I recall.

Yanno what used to scare the p-dookey out of me? Not the pike in the lake, but the danged LEECHES that would latch on to ya if'n ya hung around the dock too long. AAAAAAAAUUUGGGGGGHHH!!! AAAAAAAAUUUGGGGGGHHH!!! AAAAAAAAUUUGGGGGGHHH!!!

Sorry. A bit of PTSD there. My big bro would pull the rotter off and smash it with a rock. So gory. He was my hero. He wouldn't do that for the brat.

Childhood, such a great time. Not.

We are lucky to have survived it, aren't we?

[entryreqrd]

[mvisek]

Happy Easter! Heading to Mass with the family and then it's probably drinking and UNO Attack at Grandma's!

[attila]

Top Five Easter Movies...

Big Hollywood Blog Archive Top 5: Easter Weekend Films

[booboo]

Happy Easter everyone. Off to mass here in a few minutes...