Watermelons always remind me of my Uncle Lee's watermelon patch at the other end of Springhill Road from where I grew up in Swartz. He and my Grandmother Murphy always had a huge garden, but Uncle Lee's specialty was watermelons. I remember my sisters and I going and picking out a watermelon that we were too small to carry. Usually we would just drop it a few feet from the patch and eat it right there. Just scooping out the juicy heart with our dirty fingers or biting it from the rind and letting juice run down our chins. It actually took me a long time to like watermelon cold; since I grew up eating it right out of the garden.
So this summer I have shared watermelon with the grandkids, goats and chickens. The first time I cut it, it is room temperature. The remaining slices are saved for the next day so they are ice cold. There is an advantage to cold watermelon when it is 108 degrees outside. I have learned to enjoy those slices as well. I'm glad my grandkids like it. My children and their dad never really acquired a taste for the red juicy melon. I think the red ones with seeds are the best. I have never seen the kind my uncle grew. He called them Sugar Babies. They were round and very dark solid green.
I've discovered that Dottie Belle will not eat watermelon cold. At first I thought she just didn't like it, but when I offered her a warm piece, she gobbled it up. Gypsy will take it anyway I give it to her and she will even jump on the table and take it away from me. She only weighs about 40 pounds now, but she is going to be a force to be reckoned with when she is grown and 70 pounds of pure determination. |
| Omelet is eating while Little Ace is waiting. Dottie should just leave. |
I find it very interesting to watch the 4 hens and rooster, Big Foot sharing a slice. This is where the pecking order really comes into play. Big Foot, of course, gets all he wants. Hens #1, Omelet, and #2, Little Ace take turns in that order.
That leaves #3 Dottie and poor #4, Sunny with not getting any until I let them out of the coop by themselves. I try to even things up around here.
