Construction conflicts

10-19-03
Mr. G finally decided (after much nagging and begging on my part) to re-do the chicken coop and make nest boxes I could access from the outside. Sam, of course, did not know what was going on except that Mr. G was tearing down his house and making a lot of noise in the process, what with saws and drills and hammers and such. Sam decided to deal with the whole mess by crowing alllll day long- every three minutes, it seemed. For most of the day, Sam and the girls were in the run, which is attached to the coop.Sam, curious bird that he is, kept trying to get in the coop- so we stuck a big flower pot in the doorway to keep him out. Suddenly, Mr. G saw the flower pot coming towards him with Sam right behind it, hackles all raised and ready to fly right at him. Mr. G. fought him off with the flower pot, replaced the pot in the doorway, weighted it down with bricks and went on about his sawing and nailing. I finally decided to let the critters out for their evening walk about. Everything seemed fine- except it was starting to get dark and Sam and the girls wanted their house back. But everything seemed calm enough, with Sam and the girls scratching around in the garden, so I came in the house. Then Mr. G decided he needed an extension cord, so he hauled out the big yellow utility cord, plugged it in the greenhouse and proceeded to drag it across the yard towards the coop. Evidently Sam thought that cord was some humongous snake and Mr. G was the snake's head. Sam ran full throttle at Mr. G, with his hackles standing straight out. Mr. G grabbed a hoe, and said he had to fight Sam off with the hoe, 'cause Sam was coming at him with his talons. When I went back outside, everything seemed normal, but Mr. G says Sam is a mean bird and if he runs at him again he'll end up in the stew pot. I told him Sam was just traumatized by all the noise and having his house torn up, but he kept mumbling stuff about Sam that I can't repeat here. I dunno why Sam gets like that around folks, but his days may well be numbered....Mr. G. didn't finish the coop today, he finally had to put a temporary closure on it to keep the chickens in tonight. I sure hope things go smoother tomorrow, when I'm at work. But I'm kind of afraid to leave those two alone together...