Dinosaurs

FTLComm - Weekes - June 6, 1999

It was time to go check on the chicks. These are the chicks, Phillip and Pauline Lindenbach are retired from the field work of farming but four hogs and two lots of chickens are still part of their lives. The chickens are of two varieties the light slim pure white ones are egg layers and at the bottom of the picture is one of the more robust version who will in time be Sunday supper. For Phillip and Pauline these chickens are positive activities for them and at the same time the excellent eggs and tasty roast chicken have some other benefits. I couldn't help but think of dinosaurs when I peered into the little building where these life forms are growing up. Many are short a few feathers and Phillip pointed out that you have to keep a close watch on them because as he referred to them, "they are cannibals". He said that if they draw blood when pecking at one another they become more then excited and in short order there is a dead chicken. To prevent this from happening some times it is necessary to clip off the end of the birds beaks to reduce their ability to damage to one another. I explained to Phillip my impression of his dinosaurs. It is only slowly sinking in to us all, but the fossilised remains of the creatures who once dominated this planet, long indicated that there was a connection between the T-Rex and all those other big guys and the birds of today. But the discovery in China of clearly feathered dinosaurs is the overwhelming evidence that the Dinosaur did not become extinct when a huge object from space punched a big hole in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan peninsula and within two years the dinosaurs that roamed the country side of the planet were toast. However, it is now clear that the birds are direct relatives and of the same line as the monsters of the past. As one of the pollutes flew up to the cross bar holding the heat lamps Phillip wondered if there were flying dinosaurs and of course I pointed out that indeed there were several types of massive flying reptiles without feathers but the ones we were looking at are living proof of the aviation ability of the supposed extinct residents of planet earth.