Monday, June 25, 2007

chooks



we've got chooks.

they are very exciting. Chris built a chickencoop where the bottom rows of monkey island used to be and after nurturing the chicks through their early months, Linn brought them up to their new home.

There are four chooks and about ten names. Originally, Linn's seventh grade girls named them Grimia, Einstein, Dina maybe? and I forget. (no, i really do, that's not the name). Pomme thinks she should get to name them since Chris built the coop. So she has her own names for them all. Dad can't call anyone by their right name, and certainly not the chickens, so he's got Benjamin, Jessamia, and the little guy. Amy calls the aggressive piggy one Jezebel. I named the runt Pigeon (same word as Dove in Puerto Rico, and Paloma's most despised creatures) and then dad and I changed it to Pigelina (mixing in Pomme's middle name). We think we're funny. Paloma, oddly, hates it . The naming wars continue but I imagine it will settle out eventually. Or not. I guess Jesse's dog has at least5 different names: Sasha, Salsa, ratdog, X-dog, wiggles.


Anyway, Dad makes oatmeal each morning and takes it out to the coop. Like everyone up there, the chooks are very snobby about what they'll consume. Is that parslane organic? they wonder. I went out to observe the morning meal. Dad sat down on the ground in the breakfast nook, put Pigelina on one shoulder, Jezebel on the other, and fed them all breakfast. Benjamin is apparently the gross one. She seemed more interested in picking at dad's burn scabs on his arm than the oats. It was a funny scene. Dad looked like St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds. Probably more worthwhile than preaching to anyone else up there.

No pictures yet of the chooks, so i put up dad with the wall of roosters behind him.

2 comments:

Don said...

lore as the bird man of sky... i cant wait to see this myself...

db

Ryan Mlynarczyk said...

awesome style of writing Skyla. it sounds similar to Thoreu writing about Walden Pond...kinda sorta. :)