the new arrivals

Like I don't have enough going on... I'm really kind of starting to freak out about moving. There is so much to do, I have no idea where to start, blah blah blah, etc, and so forth. I don't want to get into that today.

But in the midst of all the craziness, I went and got more birds. Peafowl. Am I insane?!?! It's quite possible, I admit it.

Friends of mine who live about a half mile down the road have a pretty large flock of peafowl. I've house-sat on numerous occasions, and became increasingly charmed by these birds. I know they're loud. Really, I know. But I got to thinking that having a few when I move might be kind of fun. They'd have plenty of room to roam, trees to sleep in at night, they'd keep the grasshopper population down, they're supposed to be pretty wicked snake-hunters, and well, they're really pretty! And besides, I'm moving to a place where there are horses, cows, dogs, chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl... really what's another loud animal?

So when my neighbors offered me a deal on a trio if I would help them sell off a bunch of their other ones, I agreed to make that trade. I took photos, posted ads, and the within a few days the birds were nearly all sold. I wasn't planning on getting mine til I was moved and settled in, like maybe in May, but they asked if I'd take them now so that they wouldn't accidentally sell the ones I wanted.

Eeek! Well, I have an empty 12x30ish aviary, so I went ahead and picked them up last night. They will have to stay cooped up here, and then they'll have to stay cooped up on the new place for at least a month before I can let them out to free range. The two females are totally calm already, but the male is still endlessly pacing. Oh well...

Anyway, I now have peafowl. My brother says this cements my white trash reputation. Here I am sticking my tongue out at him: :-P I really hope I haven't made some big mistake, I hope they don't become totally obnoxious.

I opted to give them names that would represent their Indian heritage. So the male is Omar. He's a two-year-old India Blue. He won't get the really long feathers til next year. The females are Nara and Jovita. Nara is a one-year-old India Blue, named after my beautiful bellydance teacher. Jovita (pronounce the J, it means joy) is a one-year-old Black Shoulder peahen. I'm excited about them... I hope I stay that way! :-)