Django the Destroyer?
July 2nd, 2013 · 4 Comments · Posted in Blog, farming
Rooster would rather be under the truck
Is it too much of a coincidence that I developed a profuse leak around the fuel tank of pickup truck two days after our new rooster, Django, took up residence there?
Django still shows no interest in our 30 Rhode Island Red pullets or the coop we built for them. He’d rather hang out around the wood pile or under a lilac bush, but he especially likes to roost in the undercarriage of my Ford pickup. In fact, if I plan any trips off the property, I have to rouse him from under the truck to make sure he doesn’t end up, say, at the post office in Cambridge.
Yesterday I started smelling gas around the truck. That seemed unusual. But even more unusual was when I got to the Hannaford’s supermarket in Greenwich and noticed the quarter tank of gas I had in the truck when I last parked it just two days ago was gone. The “low fuel” light was lit.
I quick drove to the nearest gas station. An examination of the truck’s underside confirmed my fears: fuel was dripping heavily from the edges of the fuel tank. Three more gallons from the pump barely got me the eight miles from there to the repair shop in Cambridge.
I had to call for a taxi to get me back to the farm. You could say I’m now stranded here with the sheep, the chickens, the cats, and all the chores that need to be done. Django, meanwhile, having lost his favorite hangout, is back to skulking around the wood pile. And I don’t know if he’s found shelter from the rain. It poured again in the afternoon, then last night. I don’t think there’s been a day in the last month it hasn’t rained. It’s driving the farmers crazy, and now Django has another reason to curse me for taking him away from his previous home.
I guess we’ll learn soon enough whether he had anything to do with the leak in my fuel tank.
I hope Django settles down, it takes a while to integrate a single bird – especially one of a different age/breed/sex. Can you put food down for him and introduce a few of the pullets so he can show them the food – one of the main roles a rooster has.
It’s so much easier with a rooster that has been handled from hatching (I learnt the hard way).
Celia, I was going to try moving the pullets closer to the rooster but now my trucks in the shop and the ground is soaked. So that will have to wait. Looks like we’re going to learn the hard way as well.
All my roosters have ended up in the stock-pot except for Cheep who was hand raised by me in my studio… I’m still his ‘mum’ so he’s a big softie and lovely to watch looking after his ladies.
Hope your truck get fixed soon. We had a shower of rain overnight, good but not enough – the water barrels are almost empty :-/
Celia, the rain we had last night alone would probably have refilled your rain barrels. This year has been something for the record books where rain is concerned.