The Chickens

Again, it is very late in the night or very early in the morning, whichever you wish to call it, and I can’t sleep.

A few weeks ago, a very dear friend of mine called me to say she had a surprise for me and could I stop by her house? Wow! I am excited. She said it’s for the farm. My thoughts exploded, going from one thing to another, finally settling on a pair of overalls. You know the type -- bib, the perfect thing for a farm girl. Yup, that’s probably it.

When I arrived, to my surprise I was escorted to her basement. There in a dog cage were two chickens! Yup! Live ones! Brown Chickens? Boy, chickens… huh! Ah… two chickens! Organic… huh! Gosh-wow, chickens! Gee, thanks a lot?

So after I recovered, the chickens and I drove back the The Abbey in my two-day old brand new vehicle!!

At first I thought I would put them in with the alpaca. The paddock is wire fenced and I felt that nothing could harm them. But to my dismay the fencing just did not keep them in. Do you know that chickens can fly? Yup, I was surprised too. As time went by, the chickens found their home in the barn and kind of just wondered around. At any rate we have eggs.

Our first egg arrived the next day -- a nice brown egg. I brought it in from the barn and placed it gently in the egg carton with the other white eggs.

My daughter and son-in-law were staying at The Abbey that evening, so for our breakfast the next day we decided to have eggs. As I brought out the carton and opened it, all eyes settled on the brown egg. There it was … the little brown egg amongst the white ones. We stared at the carton of eggs in total silence. You know, eggs come from the cooler, at the store, and they’re white, only white. Something is just not right about eating a brown egg; especially an egg that came from the barn, our barn, yesterday, from our chickens. We decided to have scrambled eggs.

Slowly, I found that when I went to the barn in the morning I could cluck for the chickens and they would come. Can you imagine a grown woman clucking like a chicken? There I was clucking away and waiting for an answer. Life just seems to settle in doesn't it?

Well, it’s just another day at The Abbey, hope yours is settled too. Ruth