The chicken wars (otherwise known as 'chickengate')

One thing about living in a very small town (where excitement is sometimes defined by whether there is a new type of vegetable for sale at the deli) is that there's always some kind of contentious topic that people seem to become preoccupied with. And if you're not really involved or don't have an opinion either way then it's a good source of amusement and an excellent macroscopic study in people relating (or not) to each other. 

One current subject of suspicion seems to be the keeping of chickens in townsite. For a few different reasons it's apparently very controversial. One reason is that sometimes baby chickens become roosters and wake up very early in a loud and obnoxious way, if you're inclined to be woken up at that hour. This leads to tension amongst some neighbours and the occassional untowards threat of a violent nature directed towards the said young  cocks. So then said roosters invariably need to be returned to the village where they were sourced from, probably to end up in a large pot. Another reason is that if you let your chickens be free range then that means your neighbours can't let their dogs be free range. And something else about certain plants being eaten in a garden (I didn't pay enough attention to find out the specifics about that one). I have to admit, I love looking off the deck along the escarpment at the chickens who have their freedom scratching around under the paw paw and banana trees. I accidently voiced that opinion to someone in the anti free range alliance, and unbeknownst to myself at the time ruffled a few feathers (excuse the bad poultry pun and any others that I feel the need to use in this story).

But if it's not 'chickengate' then it's probably some other 'gate' that's the talk around town. Legendary in townsite folklore is the tale of 'strawberrygate' and the ladies who used to hide fresh punnets of (hard-to-come-by) strawberries in the back of the deli freezer whenever they made a rare appearance, leading to much strawberry-less angst amongst those who missed out on their rare berry fix. Apparently the culprits were shamed and their names were forever covered in mud for their fruity faux pas. This and other island tales sometimes lead one to wonder what will be the next 'gate' that is hatched.

Notice chickens under paw paw trees, making the view from our deck more visually appealing (disclaimer- in my opinion).

View of prime chicken scratching real estate looking towards our place (under large palm tree).

Chickens (or roosters) attempting to camoflage selves (unsuccesfully) in attempt to escape threats to have their necks broken after particularly early wake-up session.