It had just rained when we arrived a little late to the Bantam Swap. Maybe many years ago it was a sweet bantam swap but no longer. The fairgrounds were heaving with the most curious and slightly terrifying mixture of peoples and animals. Hundreds of animals, birds and people. Cages piled up everywhere you looked. 
It really was a market, a flash back to an old way. Everything was for sale. People were wandering about with turkeys and geese and ducks under their arms, literally under their arms. They would buy them, and pick them up and walk away. 
They sloshed through the mud dragging their cages on trolleys filled with little pigs, or baby chicks. There were even a few bantams. Llamas, horses, a sweet jersey cow. All tethered or caged. This llama watched me and kept turning and posing for the camera. I don’t have enough money for you I whispered to him. I am so sorry. He turned his head silently and looked away. 
Goats, sheep. The massively ugly and heart wrenchingly beautiful. 
The animals and birds were wet and terrified. They were for sale. They waited in tiny cages. Anyone could have them for money. I cannot find a word to describe how we stepped into another world from another time. This was the dirty end of the basic desire to grow your own food. The incredible idea that you can have power over your own food. As we walked about we became quiet, over come by the myriad of caged animals and birds. All watching. This wee goat was incongruous in his little jersey. He did not belong in this filthy place.
All the farmers had driven their vehicles into the grounds and lined them up in rows and heaved their animals out into the pathways. This fair could have been staged 100 years ago and only the hemlines and trucks would have been different. As we walked, it became obvious that here were the real people who grew their own food. And there were the people buying these animals to raise for food. These people were not pretty, or well dressed. Their lifestyles were muddy and gutsy and visceral. They did not have hobby farms or read designer magazines or have good hair. They were selling animals for the money they needed to feed their other animals. Many languages, many hard tired faces. Much laughter and ribbing across the aisles. Tough. Dirty boots and trousers held up with string. I felt the oldness of it. The struggle. The realness of this market compared to the pretty pictures we see. The pretty pictures I take. 
And then I saw Kupa. He was in a cage with three other male peacocks. And he watched me watch him and ducked with my every movement as I circled his cage taking photos of him. He and his men stood amidst the baying of goats and screaming of pigs, the clucking and squawking and screeching of chickens, the shouting of men, the wild laughing of children, the squelch of mud, the honking of ducks and the gobble of turkeys. This cacophony of hysteria. A man walked past carrying a screaming piglet. Screaming at the top of his lungs. The peacocks just stood and watched. Still.
I said to John I think we will take this one home. Our John, who has said NO we are Not ever getting a peacock, about a hundred times in the past, quickly agreed. Happy to bring something bright and live out of this fierce market.
The man who had brought these peacocks all the way from Michigan was happy to barter with me and so a deal was struck. Kupa was carefully transferred to my dog box and set in the car. This man was gentle with his birds and had a wide laugh. We are hoping that next time he will bring some hens so Kupa can have a mate.
This morning Kupa is sitting in isolated splendour in the large enclosure which has been waiting for the turkeys. Last night when we finally released him into his finished enclosure in the barn, a cat came to look at him and he turned and honked at it. He sounded like a mournful foghorn, a sound from my child hood days. Hmm, John said, thats unfortunate. Well, they do get a wee bit noisy I confessed, but mostly I remember the screeching from the farms at home. What screech, said John. Um, reluctantly, it sounds like this and opened my mouth and at the top of my voice I screeched long and high like a terrified child. Kupa snapped his head to me. The cat turned tail and scarpered. The guineas peered down from their roosts. John said, Hmm. Still not convinced that anything that beautiful and that regal and that serene could make such a dreadful noise. And we went to pick the asparagus.
Good morning. All good here on this spring morning. Back home on our quiet little property. Far from those madding crowds. It feels like a little oasis after yesterday’s market. Kupa will stay in his house for a month until he knows the barn is his home, then he also will be set free. To roam the grounds. And get up to no good. Him and his mate when we find her, the man only had males yesterday.
He is a jewel of a bird, as beautiful as you can imagine.
Now I had better get out there and do all the chores I did not get to yesterday. The Matriarch and I worked furiously yesterday afternoon to get the turkey run finished while Kupa watched us from his big dog crate. So I am behind!
Good morning!
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
113 responses to “Finding Kupa”
Surely if he can handle guinea fowl and their incessant chatter, a peacock shouldn’t be any trouble!
Oh you are absolutely right and those guineas are VERY loud if they lose one another or see a hawk! It will be fine. Noise does not bother him, I had just, kind of, not told him they were noisy! c
What a great find – good luck with the new peacock!!!
Thank you, Jim and Mary, after his time in the barn I am really hoping he will add a lovely flash of colour to our landscape! c
Oh Celi, I was literally waiting for this post, I was so curious, and it didn’t disappoint. I love your description of the market- I think I’ve been in a few places like that. I’m always amazed at how dissimilar people doing basically the same thing (whether it’s raising kids, farming organically, or blogging) can be. And I cannot believe you came home with a peacock! I think their call is such a sad lonely sound. It always makes me think of faded aristocracy. Perhaps you will now rewire my associations. Have a lovely day!
That is an excellent point Siobhan. We are all so different. (dissimiliar people doing basically the same thing) I saw a woman on her phone, smoking in a car the other day with two toddlers firmly and safely strapped in the back seat in their little baby seats and I almost shouted out my window at her. We all do things so differently. And we all firmly believe that we are correct. I love the sound of the peacocks, they remind me of NZ, lots of farmers have peacocks at home. c
Well, you found your Bird! Congrats, and better you than me… 😉
Insightful musings about the market yesterday…we all need a dose of reality sometimes. It’s a gritty life for those who do it out of neccessity, rather than choice.
Our little farm yard is a noisy place in the mornings, i am sure the peacock will just add another note to the madness. I am thrilled with him. I hope he chooses to hang about.. and you are right Marie, it is good for me to see some real farmers every once in a while.. c
That Kupa is a lucky bird. Market days here are like that, except not normally in the mud because the markets are covered. I find the rows of cages disturbing because I’m a sucker for pretty little animals and I don’t grow my own food. We are the exception to the rule in our hamlet where everyone has a “living” larder except for us. Pathetic, I guess, but as I’m not up to killing them I don’t eat them. ( That’s not quite true, but I try not to do it often)
It really did have a European feel to it, there were Mexican people and eastern European people, so having different languages spoken behind and around me reminded me of London. And right here in America which in a way was kind of heartening.. morning Roger. c
Your description reminded me of something out of Dickens. The sounds, the sights and the descriptions of the people. It really sounded like a scene from the late 1800s.
Kupa will be a lovely addition to the farmy. Maybe since he arrived the same time as the lambs are due he will see himself in a guardian role for them. Do you expect him to blend in nd befriend the other animals or stand aside in his regal way?
Ronnie
It will be interesting to see Ronnie, though peacocks are cousins of a kind of Guineas so he may befriend them, however peacocks have often struck me as solitary birds, they do not move about as a flock.. ,morning ronnie.. c
I’m sure if I went there I’d come home with a car load full and more on the roof! What an experience. I do hope you’re able to find Kupa a mate because baby peacocks are so cute! xx
And I hear they are good mothers too, so that will be a treat! c
He´s beautiful and I hope he has a lady soon. And yes, they are very noisy! Where does his name come from, I love it!
From NZ, Kupa is a name that i like from home. c
Lovely!
The description of the market makes me wonder if you wished you could rescue every animal there. I have never been to such an event, but I expect that I would find it quite intriguing if not a bit disturbing. So happy Kupa now has a new home at the Farmy in your wonderful care.
I have to say Audrey that the beautiful gentle timeless Llama still haunts me. He might haunt me for a while I think. We will see how the retirement visits go and maybe I will get one. They are popular visitors evidently. but I will have to save and I am sure Jess will tell me to buy one from a breeder not in a marketplace!.. c
🙂
Beautiful. Touching. Spectacularly described. Interesting, isn’t it, that in the end, you chose an animal not to eat at all, but to watch and marvel at simply because he is a splendor unto himself. Good for you.
these birds are so perfect and beautiful charlotte, and as you all know i have always wanted a peacock in the garden! c
I love your description of the market and could picture every detail while I was reading! It made me a little sad to think of all those animals in their cages, fearful. But, such is life, I suppose.
Kupa is beautiful and I look forward to seeing pictures of him when he’s out and about in all his glory.
Have a wonderful day! ~ April
So far our day has been lovely.. and now i really must do some running chores then i will be back to mooch about and see what you are all doing! c
Oh Kupa is a beauty! Peacocks are just such gorgeous creatures – screaming and all. 😉 I can just envision this market, you described it so well. It sounds like one of those places that I would have either gotten away from quickly, or came home with a dozen animals because I felt so bad for them. Incidentally, Mike is the one who picks up the pet supplies at the local store for that very reason.
Hmm, I don’t like pet stores either and zoos are a no go zone for me, I know they do good work behind the scenes and everything but still they unsettle me.. c
Fascinating story in all the tawdriness and Kupa will grow up happy now 😉
I hope so, the poor fella is sat on his perch in the barn looking out the window right this minute! But he has to stay in for a while, until he knows where home is.. Morning Mad! c
Curious, what are you going to do with just one peacock? That market did not sound pleasant but the little goat was precious. t
Morning Miss T, we will find him a mate and they will swan about looking beautiful! c
I always think peacocks are shouting,
“Neil, Neeeil,”
so always thought if we ever had a pair I’d call them Neil and Neila.
Ha ha .. then they would be calling each others names,, priceless!! c