Wayward Chicken

We lost a chicken.


There I was, working out, and the husband went out to feed the chickens.  Our house is set up in such a way that we have a projector room in the basement, in the room that leads out to the back yard.  We have a curtain that covers the back door so that it's possible to run the projector in the day time.  Thus, the husband had to sneak past into the back yard and flash some light on my work out.


I was happily air boxing to the Wii, and it takes about ten minutes, and I had just started. It normally doesn't take that long for the husband to feed the chickens, so when I was finished, I went to the door to let him know, thinking that he didn't want to disturb me.  He was all the way past the fence and into the wooded area of the yard, but he still heard the door open and he looked over to yell, "We're missing a Rhode Island Red!"


"I'll be right out!" I responded.


I ran back inside, threw on some more clothes, because it is winter and I wasn't dressed appropriately.  I hurried outside and began helping my husband search.  We've gotten rather attached to these chickens and a number of horrible scenarios went through my mind.  In fact, I was convinced that something horrible had happened and I went searching for her, because if she wasn't yet dead from whatever had befallen her, I was going to make sure she didn't suffer.


The husband and I searched for some time before finally giving up and heading back up the hill to the house.  When we got past the trees and into a clearing, the mom was at the top of the hill and she yelled, "I found her!"


The husband is much faster than I am and he took off towards the mom while I yelled out, "Is she alive?!"


Mom responded, "I think so!"  That spurred the husband to move even faster and I had no hope of catching him.  I huffed my way up the hill.  On my way, I saw the missing Rhode Island Red run from the mom and the husband, looking very disgruntled.  Then I heard both of them laugh aloud in delight.  


"What is it?" I managed.


"I just found nine eggs!" the husband roared.


We'd been under the impression that egg production was down as we were only getting three eggs per day rather than our standard five or six.  Turns out our enterprising chickens were hiding them under a fallen tree and the "missing" chicken was attempting to brood them.  This would be a fine plan except for the fact that they go into a coop at night and the temperatures have been well below freezing for several weeks.


Needless to say, we were thrilled to find our chicken alive and well and to get the early Easter bonus of nine eggs.  We have some awesome, though nutty, chickens.

Back By Popular Demand

Five different people have asked me what happened to the blog and were they missing updates? I had no idea that many people were actually reading this thing, so yes, it's enough for me to feel popular, and I really do wish to keep those of you who are interested, informed of our goings on.

For awhile, not much was happening.  I didn't have the heart to write blogs about how the husband and I spent the day at our respective computers waiting to get some money in the bank.

Then we were swept up in Christmas which included having lots of family and friends over as well as giving the husband the American experience of going caroling. A good time was had by all, even though I would have preferred snow to rain.

It is now January, and we are fast approaching our first festival.  We still haven't narrowed down exactly which one we will do first, but we have narrowed down a menu.  So I'm busily calculating all the costs and working on the supplies needed for our first outing.  Next month, I'll be taking a food safety course, both for information and for regulatory purposes. The month after that, we have the delightful event of serving dinner to a group of six - a dinner that we auctioned off for a charity that helps domestic violence victims here in the valley.

In other random news, the husband has the mom and I on a really healthy diet.  By diet, I mean nutritious food that tastes good, not deprivation and calorie counting.  Essentially, we use portion control and exercise.  We've both been a bit spotty on the exercise, but it was enough to keep us from gaining weight during the holidays, and we're experiencing weight loss here at the beginning of the year.  This makes me particularly happy where the mom is concerned, as I hope to keep her around for another few decades, and I'd like her to be enjoying those decades.

I promise to work harder on keeping this blog up to date.  I guess that's my one New Year's Resolution this year.

Hope you all had a fantastic holiday season.