Back to the Garden

If I had one Rooster in my garden the snails would not be there, but I may not have any vegies either, and oh, that chicken poop, it never lands where it would be useful.  

I did this little platter for a neighbor who loves hens, roosters and little chicks.  I think he is a Rooster with an attitude.

Have you ever had a rooster?  They do have a very macho presence.  They will lay down their life protecting their "ladies" hiding in the hen house, because Tony the pony broke into their yard hoping to get that chicken feed.  Yep, I saw this happen.  Tony, a shetland pony, I had rescued from a child who had to get rid of him.  I paid her $100.00 dollars and she was grateful. I had been buying a bale of hay for Tony for weeks  Tony lived across the section that spread out across the street from us.  I didn't have any place for him to be corralled, so I put him in my fenced garden. First he ate all the strawberry patch, while I was on the phone trying to find some portable corrals.  Then he went into the veggies and what he didn't eat he trampled, but that was ok, because the little girl was thankful that Tony didn't go to the dog food maker, and my children were itching to ride him.  She also gave me the 2 by 4 with the carved handle she always had to have with her when she rode him.  "All you do is show him that you have this stick and he will behave himself, when he get stubborn, you just show him the stick".  This is the animal that pushed through the protective fence of the chicken yard, where the grain had been served up to the hens. Big Red, our rooster, saw this and with wings flapping and talons poised he raged at Tony, cutting and gouging at his forhead.  Tony was a wise old stubborn &%@*+$&%" pony and he knew exactly what to do with this annoying attitudinal bird, because he was a practiced *^&%_$@":<**@$ pony and he pulled back his lips revealing one of his weapons, his teeth. He stretched his neck forward and grabbed Big Red by the front of his neck, but this was the winter and the winter coat of long full feather scarf ended up in Tony's mouth.  Big Red's neck was intact but naked, which was not going to stop him from driving this 4 legged beast out of his harem's home.  The battle started like greased lightening with the little ole' green horned mother, me, running and screaming for the kids to get me that 2 by 4, as I charged out to the hen house.  The kids knew what to do too, and they already had the "stick" ready for me.  Anyway, boy to I digress.......

When I painted this little platter I was reliving that day and the incident and the Rooster who lived to tell about it in his grumbling rooster voice of complaint.  The pony?  he was very busy spitting feathers out of his mouth and for a week we would see him rubbing his forhead on the fence post.  The rooster?  would strut his stuff along the fence cursing a warning at Tony.