Just Arrived!

We were down to one chicken--Henrietta--a feisty, healthy Rhode Island Red. Since the passing of her sister a few weeks ago, she's been hanging out with us, aligning her self-image with the importance of the other two pets--Faye, our dog and Spiffy, our cat. She's attempted a couple of times to enter the house, but we draw the line at that, not wanting to gain a reputation as the contemporary version of "Ma and Pa Kettle."

I do feel that it's important that you know that those who have died of our original six chickens with which we arrived on the farm 3 years ago, have died of natural causes and not as a result of the need for a roast chicken dinner. Truthfully, we regard them more as pets than as livestock.
However, we really love the fresh eggs. Henrietta is still providing them for us, mostly at the rate of one-a-day.

This past Tuesday morning, I announced to Chris that I was going to "pick up chicks," which got very little response from her, other than, "I'd go with you, but I have too much to do around here this morning."

Anyway, I went to one of my favorite places, Rosedale Mills, and purchased ten little baby chicks (just in case you were wondering) of the "Red Star" variety. When they grow up, they'll produce nice large brown eggs. Right now, they are snuggled safely together in a box in the chicken coop. Henrietta doesn't seem very interested in them, which is curious, but Faye is fascinated. And so far, Spiffy doesn't know they exist or is playing it cool, perhaps hopefully waiting for us to get careless in our care of them.

There's no real deep spiritual message to be drawn from this story other than the fact that life is surely filled with delightful simple wonders for all who have eyes to see. And you're welcome to come by and see for yourselves that really good things come in small packages.