These are not my first bruises, cuts, scrapes, etc. from living on the homestead or with animals in general. They are inevitable! Fences have cut me, nails have gone through my boot, chicken/turkey/rabbit feet have scraped me, my head has been bruised from knocking it on fence posts or beams form things we are building, and yes….oh yes…my rooster has attacked me. 🙂 It is quite amusing though watching him flap his wings and get all riled up, sort of floating into the air spurring his sharp “talons” at me (or the girls) in effort to make us go away. Unfortunately, “going away” means inside the house, and that is not satisfactory as there are things to do outside! Another reason for the Chicken Tractors! Anytime Roo fusses (every few weeks), I simply grab him by the feet and let him hang upside down. I have tried kicking him away, but that just makes him way more arrogant. Better to nip it in the bud. I have walked outside to take my girls to school, holding coffee, and this little b****rd jumped me from behind! I spilled my coffee on my shirt and since I had to turn around and go back inside he had the nerve to crow over and over again upon his victory! Ugh! 🙂 So, the other day when we were building some tractors outside, he go me through my jeans, and the bruises came a couple of days later. This pic is of the outside of my right thigh. He got me with both feet at the same time. It honestly didn’t and doesn’t even hurt (unless you poke them like my husband likes to do to torment me and my easily bruised skin!) but I thought I would share some of the adventures of owning a rooster…this was exactly what I warned my husband about when we discussed it a couple of years ago. Now the chickens are all put up in a tractor..except for Roo. His predecessor has taken over the Throne of the Barnyard, and now his time on the Crab Homestead has ended. He will be processed soon, but in the mean time he still looks to terrorize sporadically..probably all the pent up….umm…frustration. And he hangs out by the chicken tractor anyway. I kind of feel bad for him because he was “shut out” but he can still visit with them. Then I look at my leg and think, “No I don’t feel bad.” 🙂

Either way, I still can not be mad at Roo b/c he did a damn good job defending our ladies from skunks and hawks. And he stands up for the little biddies to the hens who like to peck. Overall, he will always have a special place in my heart as all of our animals do. And so for that, We Thank You.