Wished I had been able to get in there and take some close-ups of these beautiful "game cocks". I wouldn't "besmirch" the reputation of the man who owns these chickens, but I suspect they're really "fighting chickens". Be that as it may, and no matter what one thinks of that practice (banned in 49 of the 50 states, I believe--I will come back and verify that) they are still gorgeous creatures.
Since I couldn't get too close to them, I had to use some telephoto. I caught this one in mid-crow.
That's not hard to do - catch one in mid-crow - because there were at least two dozen or more roosters in the lot and they were ALL crowing. Not five seconds went by without a crow, it must really be loud out there when the sun comes up and all that chicken testosterone gets to flowing.
The birds I wanted to photograph, the ones closest to the fence, were scared of me. Some roosters aren't scared of anything; I used to work for a man who raised (and fought) them and he had a particularly mean hen that used to attack me every chance she got when I helped him feed and water. She wasn't sneaky and ambushed like some of the meaner roosters would do, but would see me and come running down the row, kamikazee-style. The pecks were annoying, but a chicken can really "gaffe" and it hurts. My boss thought that hilarious and even moreso when he and his wife invited me over for a Sunday lunch and we had her with dumplings. The chicken, not the wife.
She was a little stringy, but I would've expected that anyway. The chicken, not the wife.
I've seen all sorts of "houses" and these are pretty good ones, cut out of some sort of barrel and plenty of room for the rooster to roost on the top.
The first rooster didn't have an enclosure; perhaps he was tethered up outside of one for the off-chance that a hen might come within the rope's distance.
From all the loose chickens running around, and esp. the little ones, I'd say that's probably the plan.
August 16, 2007
Fightin' Chickens
For the Horse Lovers of ToTG
Or perhaps that should read: "For the lovers of horses here in ToTG"
I "posted" this horse just for you.
Horse lot west of Pampa city limits
August 15, 2007
Celanese facility to be converted
From the KVII-TV website:
Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 4:10 PM
PAMPA, TEXAS -- Babcock & Brown has acquired Celanese's Pampa, Texas facility and intends to convert the world-class infrastructure at the Celanese facility into a new Pampa Energy Center for commercial power generation, as well as evaluate possible future renewable energy projects at the site.
With transmission access available to reach Texas' vast ERCOT market, we intend to develop the site to its full potential, including up to 800 megawatts of coal-based electric generation, to complement our planned 1,000 megawatts of wind generation in the central Panhandle.
New transmission infrastructure is essential to allow all Texans to access the world-class wind resources of the Panhandle, and to allow the existing Celanese infrastructure to help maintain adequate electric generation capacity reserves to meet growing demand.
Free Cowboys Wallpaper
If you're a Cowboys fan, there are some great wallpapers on the Dallas News website.
This is some schedule wallpaper I'm using right now, with Tony Romo. 
There are other Cowboy stars from which to choose, such as Marion Barber, Julius Jones, Jason Witten and others. (even T.O.)
Here's one of Tom Landry I plan on using during the offseason.
(or DURING the season if Wade Phillips has a meltdown)
For some reason, they still offer up a Drew Bledsoe wallpaper:
Drew last played for the Cowboys near the middle of last season and was let go shortly after the season ended and now is out of football.
His wallpaper shows him running for his life towards the sideline and getting creamed by an Eagles linebacker.
Appropos
Tyson the Skatingboarding Bulldog
You've probably seen this dog on America's Funniest Videos or similar shows but now Tyson has his own website.
Not a lot on the site, but there are some short videos (in Quicktime format). It looks as though it's set up mainly to sell Tyson the Skatingboarding Bulldog merchandise.
What else is new?
Tyson the Skatingboarding Bulldog
