End of 2023: Ronda and Rooster

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

Ronda

Happy New Year!  Thankfully 2023 is over and 2024 has begun here in Spain.  I am beyond excited with 2023 being over (wasn't a huge fan of 2023) and we are starting a new even numbered year.  Before going into the adventures of New Years in Spain, I first wanted to talk about our visit to Ronda, Spain.

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Ronda is about an hour and a half drive through the mountains of Spain.  We left for Ronda around 9:30am and took the twisty ride (I obviously took a Dramamine to be safe).  The little villages in the mountains heading towards Ronda are all called the white villages as every building is white.

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The white color of the homes helps reflect the heat during the summer season in southern Spain.  I am thankful I came to the Andalusian region of Spain during the wintertime as the summer would be unbearably hot.

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As usual I was in awe of all the people biking on these steep, winding roads in the mountains.  The drive wasn't too bad as we were listening to music and enjoying the gorgeous scenery on the route to Ronda.  We quickly arrived in Ronda and immediately headed for the old part of town where the famous Ronda bridge is located.

 

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

This area of the city had so many tourists and I was surprised as it is the off season for tourism in southern Spain.  We thankfully got to the city before most people were out and about which meant it was pretty easy to get the views both on and from the bridge.

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

The views from the bridge were beautiful and we couldn't have had a better day weather-wise.  After we crossed the bridge into the main part of the city, the two other people I was with wanted to have a coffee.  In the usual fashion, they got coffee and me as a non-coffee drinker of course got ice cream!

 

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We then wandered the city, got pizza at a restaurant (we can't make pizza on the farm and the other two were craving it), and then continued to wander the city, the fortress around the city, and the little shops.

 

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Pretty soon, we finished up the day and headed back to the farm to feed the chickens and get them inside for the night.  Overall, it was a nice visit to Ronda and it was amazing to see such an old Spain town situated just outside the mountains.

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

Photo by Dr. Haus

 

New Year's Eve

The last exciting moment in 2023 was a bit of a surprise as we had two roosters on the farm and for anyone who knows anything about roosters you cannot have two roosters on a farm.  The big problems with this is that the two roosters will fight to the death because they will not share the hens between each other.

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We had two roosters on the farm, one older rooster named Zoro and the younger, orange rooster we call Eddie (he looks like Ed Sheeran).  Unfortunately, now that Eddie has reached puberty, Zoro was attacking him and causing all types of problems with the hens.

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Ultimately, we could not have two roosters on the farm and Zoro needed to be removed.  Zoro was not a great rooster, he only followed the hen Maria around and did not attend to his rooster duties in the way he should.  A good rooster should guard all the hens and help find food for them.

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Zoro would scare all the other hens (except Maria) away from food and he wasn't doing his job in protecting the flock.  We decided to give the younger Eddie a shot at being the rooster for the flock here at the farm.  Of course this means we had to humanely euthanize Zoro and instead of creating waste we (well two of us) are going to eat him.

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The perks of being a vet in this situation is that I knew how to humanely euthanize a rooster and given my autopsy skills was able to figure out how to de-feather, remove the insides, and collect the meat from the rooster.

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This was a quite a learning experience and not anything I ever take lightly.  I am glad to say that I know Zoro was given a calm, peaceful end and that none of his body is going to waste.  T on the farm wanted to make chicken burgers with Zoro and I was worried about it because roosters are typically a very tough bird.  He still wanted to try and it was SUPER tough.  I couldn't eat it.  The rest of Zoro will be used in a soup to make sure he doesn't go to waste.

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The rest of the evening was relaxing with us playing cards, drinking wine, and watching a movie.  T decided to drive to a beach city about 1.5 hours away and still hasn't returned.  Seems like he probably had a fun night!  It was a relaxing New Year but that is exactly what I like!  We did want to do a bonfire but it was too windy and we didn't want to start a mountain fire.  We were surprised that we did hear some faint fireworks going off around midnight even though we are nestled deep in to the mountains.

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The flock seems to have reached a calm and equilibrium with Eddie in charge today.  I am excited to see how the flock does now that there is a new rooster in charge!

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Happy 2024!