{"id":5664,"date":"2014-02-07T13:53:45","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T18:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=5664"},"modified":"2014-02-09T12:39:21","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T17:39:21","slug":"and-now-for-the-not-so-cute-barnyard-animal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2014\/02\/and-now-for-the-not-so-cute-barnyard-animal\/","title":{"rendered":"And Now, For the Not-So-Cute Barnyard Animal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2359.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5670\" alt=\"DSC_2359\" src=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2359.jpg\" width=\"625\" height=\"898\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2359.jpg 625w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2359-208x300.jpg 208w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2359-624x896.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsixburnersue.com%2Fcooking-fresh-eating-green%2F&amp;media=http%3A%2F%2Fsixburnersue.com%2Fcooking-fresh-eating-green%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F02%2FDSC_2359.jpg&amp;description=Rooster\" data-pin-do=\"buttonPin\" data-pin-config=\"above\" data-pin-color=\"red\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/images\/pidgets\/pinit_fg_en_rect_red_20.png\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<!-- Please call pinit.js only once per page --><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/js\/pinit.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\nActually, I wanted to title this blog post, \u201cBe Afraid. Be Very Afraid.\u201d But you know, I didn\u2019t really want to scare any one.<\/p>\n<p>A few days ago, I posted this warm-and-fuzzy blog about <a href=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2014\/02\/too-cute-a-little-girl-baby-farm-animals\/\">our new kitten Barney<\/a> and other cute baby animals that we\u2019ve encountered on the farm. (Barney is doing great, by the way. He has discovered curtains, my keyboard, the laundry basket, Libby\u2019s stuffed animals, and even his first mouse. He especially likes to sit in Roy\u2019s lap while he\u2019s reading the newspaper, helping him to turn the pages with frequent pawing.)<\/p>\n<p>But we have this other creature on the farm of whom I am not so fond. In fact, most days, I do battle with him, and currently I have a scrape on my leg that he managed to give me through my blue jeans. It\u2019s Paulie, the Silver-Laced Polish Crested rooster. I\u2019ve mentioned (and pictured) him before, but I bring him up again now, because he has found a new mission in life: He protects the ducks.<\/p>\n<p>And attacks me when I go in the duck pen. Roy, not so much.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2351.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5669\" alt=\"DSC_2351\" src=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2351.jpg\" width=\"625\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2351.jpg 625w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2351-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2351-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Paulie was a lonely rooster. He never got along with the other baby chicks when he arrived as our speciality \u201csurprise\u201d chick with the batch of Aracaunas last spring. Roy didn\u2019t want to get rid of him, though he also didn\u2019t want him in with our large groups of laying hens, so Roy built Paulie his own little coop and pen. Paulie regularly got out of his pen and free-ranged around, trying to cozy up to our original six Ladies, who are very independent and wanted nothing to do with him.<\/p>\n<p>But when we got the ducks in early January, we set them up in a pen near Paulie\u2019s, and Paulie immediately hopped over and joined them. Little by little, he\u2019s made himself the Boss of the Ducks. He is so happy to finally have something to protect that he is taking his job very seriously.<\/p>\n<p>Every day he seems to get a little bolder, and lately he\u2019s taken to charging at me like a bull running through the streets of Pamplona.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2339.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5668\" alt=\"DSC_2339\" src=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2339.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2339.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2339-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The only good news about this is that now I am prepared (or at least forewarned). The other day, when I went into the pen to grab the water bucket, I didn\u2019t realize that Paulie was stalking me until he latched on to my leg and started hammering away at me.<\/p>\n<p>When I told Roy this later, he said, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you just swing the bucket at him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oh, right. You know it\u2019s funny what boys automatically think of doing that doesn\u2019t necessarily occur to a girl. Although, I think that probably would have just made Paulie angrier. Paulie doesn\u2019t attack Roy, because Roy has been handling him on a regular basis since he was a chick.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking about this, I went back this morning to read a piece I remembered really liking in <i>Edible Vineyard<\/i> magazine by Kate Tvelia Athearn, who lives not too many miles down the road from us on another small farm, and writes lovely pieces about small farm life. <a href=\"http:\/\/ediblevineyard.com\/index.php\/stories\/article\/barnyard_bullies\">Her story about Chickenzilla<\/a> made me feel like I could keep working to improve my relationship with Paulie.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2320.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5665 alignright\" alt=\"DSC_2320\" src=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2320-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2320-300x255.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2320.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I could just let Roy feed the ducks, which he does often anyway. But he\u2019s got the 500 hens to deal with, and my route between the six Ladies and the 20 Aracaunas takes me right past the duck pen, so it makes sense. Later this spring, we\u2019ll probably let the ducks free-range a bit, so that might change the dynamics.<\/p>\n<p>But it would be okay with me if Paulie disappeared. I know, that\u2019s terrible, isn\u2019t it? Roy wants to show him in the Fair this year. Fine. Maybe he will get kidnapped. Or, since he can\u2019t see very well due to the mop on top of his head, maybe he could fall off the back of the truck on the way home from the Fair, and he wouldn\u2019t be able to find his way home. I wouldn\u2019t do that though, either, because then my friend Joannie Jenkinson, the town animal control officer, would get one of those calls to come rescue a rooster. And, unfortunately, she already gets too many of those.<\/p>\n<p>So I guess I\u2019m going to have to learn to put up with Paulie. Or not.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2335.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5667\" alt=\"DSC_2335\" src=\"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2335.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2335.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DSC_2335-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actually, I wanted to title this blog post, \u201cBe Afraid. Be Very Afraid.\u201d But you know, I didn\u2019t really want to scare any one. A few days ago, I posted this warm-and-fuzzy blog about our new kitten Barney and other cute baby animals that we\u2019ve encountered on the farm. (Barney is doing great, by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[111,115,103,6],"tags":[153,104,152],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5664"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5677,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions\/5677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}