Sunday, February 27, 2011

Peace and Quiet on Sunday Morning

It's a time where people sleep in, get up and run around in their jammies until it's time to get ready for church or other activities.  No one is usually in a hurry and you can mostly do what you like on Sunday morning.
Well, maybe.  But let me preface this story with talking about something I've been meaning to and just haven't gotten to just yet.
The subject is guineas:
Here are Goodness, Ariana and Twice, who would like to kill a guinea.  We started out with 26 and are now down to 13.  A few wandered off and then we had a grisly mass murder by one of our livestock guardian dogs who decided that guineas were not the same thing as a chicken and therefore, had no right to live in her barnyard.  Thankfully, she has been leaving them alone and the guineas have taken up residence in a tree in the field, about 30 feet straight up.  They may be dumb but they aren't stupid.  :)
Guineas are noisy little things, and here is a video of them when they discovered our foster dog, Cookie, a week ago, sitting in the front yard.  Cookie can barely walk but she still enjoys life and sitting in the sun, and is very happy here:

Yes, they are noisy, they are great little watchdogs and they also eat ticks with great relish. They love any kind of relish with their ticks.  These are working birds and they work hard.  About two weeks after they came to live here, I never saw a tick and the grasshoppers were gone in about 6 weeks.  http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/ticks/tickstudy.pdf
They are ugly little things but there is something endearing about them  And now I know where the phrase "bless your pointed little head" comes from:
They sometimes fly up on the roof or roost on our front deck:


Now you know all the highlights of this very strange but funny bird.  How does this all relate to Sunday morning peace and quiet?  Well, I'll tell you.
I got up and put the dogs out this morning and was in the process of feeding them when I heard such a racket outside.  I stepped out the back door to see the guineas, who had decided that our neighbors, who moved in two weeks ago, had guineas AND Cinnamon the Rooster sitting on their back deck.  Clacking away and pretty loudly, too.  Then Cinnamon decides that they really should get up now as it is Sunday morning and they should not be late for church.  He starts crowing and he has a very loud crow.  I went and woke up Jerry (no sense in him enjoying Sunday morning peace and quiet in his warm bed now, is there?) and said "Your birds are disturbing the neighbors".  So, good husband that he is, he went out and got their food and called them. Which they ignored, continuing to clack away and then flying up on the roof of the neighbor's house.  I called out "chick chick chick" and they took notice and flew over into the yard.  Cinnamon, not a good flyer on the best of days and missing a number of tail feathers due to the fact that he walked up on Molly and pecked her in the butt a couple of days ago (and it was well deserved, too, the feather removal, not the butt pecking), came running as fast as his little drumsticks could carry him.  
I think the neighbors liked  us for about two weeks.  I think I have to make some brownies later on.

2 comments:

  1. Hey, that was really fun! Poor Cookie nearly looked about to be guinea piled on by the birds. They really are silly. Definitely should make more brownies for the neighbors, LOL!!

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  2. I do remember the corgis that you had when you were here in NE! They have grown!
    Deb Landon

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