It's A Guy Thing

"Oh, man, that's cool!"  "How'd ya get those feathers spread like that?"  "What d'ya think about this strut?"  "Wow, dude, that'll make her pinfeathers flutter!"  These are just a few of the fifteen or so young toms that were showing off just for each other in the front yard yesterday morning.  Not a hen in sight, they obviously were practicing how they would impress the ladies.  They also, I might add, were all gobbling at the top of their lungs at the same time and they were loud!  Bessie Anne took one look and gave the flock a wide berth as we walked out to the feed barn.

Bess and I made a quick trip to the feed store (or, as she calls it, the cookie store) in the afternoon and passed a herd of maybe ten deer grazing off the side of the road.  It's been years since I've seen so many deer together.  Bessie likes to go to the cookie store.  The proprietor keeps an open box of small milk bones for the many customers who travel with their dogs.  Darned near every pickup truck has at least one canine companion on board.  Bess checks me out before I can get into the truck, sniffing for her cookies.  I put two on the console between us.  She rests her head on them but won't take even one.  At home, she'll wait until I unload the grain and then stand in front of me so I can't move until she gets her cookie.  She eats the first one, comes back again for the second, which she takes and hides for a snack later.  Funny little girl.

Not quite daylight.  I hear "da boys" coming up the drive.