Are you chicken?

Thanks to my parents, my kids are learning to connect with the earth.

My mom and dad grew up in the country.  In fact, my father grew up on what his grandmother called "the plantation." (She was from Kentucky. Around here we call it a ranch.)

Some of my favorite books are Gone With the Wind, The Good Earth, and The Grapes of Wrath. So, I'm all about connecting with the land...I just don't really know how.  What little experience I had was hard work, so that's a deterrent. My husband is worse off than I am.  For years he thought the "sale barn" we passed on the way to the lake was where "sails" were made for boats.

Every once in a while, my dad gets an itch to do something out of the ordinary. A nearby Amish community hosts an enormous sale of just about everything under the sun. My hubby, son, and father went to buy...chickens.

Happy boys after finding chickens.

My husband said some of the animal conditions were enough to make him turn vegetarian, but my father purchased some happy, healthy, and dare I say? pretty chickens. (The first batch he wanted to buy were all roosters. Oops! He read a book to teach him everything he didn't already remember from his childhood, but there's nothing like on-the-spot training, right?) 

Now, what do we do?

I know! Let's feed them popcorn!

"Hey! I can do that myself."

Hi there, chicken!

 I'm not sure who is more excited.  Max and my dad think it's fun. Garrett can practically taste the fresh eggs. My mom and I hope the eggs are pretty. And the dogs...well, we're keeping a close eye on them.

Check out the special chicken house. The wheels on the left and wheelbarrow handles on the right allow it to easily move and "fertilize" different areas.