Chicken Intervention

I want chickens really, really badly.  I have wanted them for years, but as with the goats, I've been waiting for the right time.  Last year, I decided that this year would be the year for chickens.  We've gotten the goats through their baby stage and are in a really good routine with them.  We're still learning, but I feel pretty comfortable caring for goats.

The amazing thing is that I ever talked Brian into chickens in the first place.  When I first started talking about chickens--probably about 10 years ago--he was a firm 'no' on the chickens.  The smell and the possibility of attracting rodents (the only thing my fireman husband is really afraid of!) were his biggest concerns.  But he loves to build things, so I appealed to his building nature by talking about the sort of chicken coop we could build.  And somehow I talked him into the chickens.  As I've said before I think I am more persuasive than I realize.

The Chicken Plan was in place.  We would get the baby chicks from Bay Hay & Feed after our Spring Break camping trip.  Bay Hay & Feed offered a chicken class called Chicken 101 that I signed Brian and I up for.  He actually agreed to go with me and took a lot of teasing from his friends about going to "chicken school".  Brian was paying more attention to our instructor's chicken shirt than to what he was actually saying, but I learned a lot at chicken school.  We left the store with me looking longingly at the baby chickens, really excited for when we would bring ours home.

And then something happened.  I was out to dinner with three of my best friends and I was telling them of the crazy week I was having.  Actually the crazy month I was having.  The combination of working as a gardener in the spring time, my oldest daughter being on a water polo team with a very grueling schedule, Brian's shift work--I could go on.  But what my friends were hearing from me was that I was really tired and overdone.  So one of them asked me if I was still getting chickens.  I answered that of course we were getting chickens.  That is the Plan.  I was sooo excited about the chickens.  The idea of walking outside and collecting a few fresh eggs for breakfast really appeals to me. 

Now these friends of mine care about me and were seeing something that I wasn't.  And they announced that they were doing a Chicken Intervention.  We laughed pretty hard about it, but I still said no, I was going with my Plan.  But they weren't done with their Intervention.  They gently asked me if perhaps I could postpone the chickens, or at least think about it.  This was all in good humor, but as the days passed after our dinner together, I realized that they were making good sense.  I was really tired--I did have a lot on my plate.  Maybe the Chicken Plan should be put off for a while.

Since these friends of mine know me so well, they were surprised that I actually heard what they said, and even more shocked that I ended up agreeing with them.  They know how tenacious I can be when I have a Plan.  And the truth is, I'm glad that I've put the Chicken Plan on hold.  Three weeks have gone by since the planned date of bringing home baby chicks, and realistically looking at my busy life, it has been a good thing that I didn't add something else to care for.

I still really, really want chickens.  I have this weird love of growing my own food--not that I'm hugely successful with that endeavor.  But I love collecting my own fresh vegetables and fruit.  During the summer months the most satisfying day for me is one where I have made a meal out of food that we've grown.  It is some ancient pull in me that I can't quite explain.  So I know that eventually we will get our baby chicks and build a coop.  This Spring just wasn't the right time yet.  The right time will come, and in the meantime I am grateful for friends who know me, and love me enough to hold a Chicken Intervention.