Flying the Coop

Well... “the girls” are home....finally. At the Waldorf Egg Factory...or soon to be anyways.

Let me back up by telling you the marathon I had been running the past week or so...Literally "flying the coop" of my everyday life for a solid 7 days.
I had been out of town all last week for a work conference in Franklin, TN. (just outside of Nashville) It was great, it was fun...LOVE Franklin TN. There aren’t many places that aren’t either in the mountains or on the coast that I could say I could live...but Franklin would be one of them.

After a 5 hour trip back on Friday, I got back to my house around 3pm and literally dumped the contents of my bag out on the floor, threw some “other” clothes in the same bag, and began loading the trailer to leave to go camping in Charleston...we were meeting my brother and his wife, picking up my other brother and his friend, and then meeting another couple at a gas station on down I-26....around 5.
We got all loaded up; all 9 of us fed at McDonalds, and on the road we went in a redneck caravan headed for the coast!

We arrived at the campground around 10:30 pm...(*note: I had been in the car around 10 hours at that point) to begin setting up our camp in the pitch black. That was fun...and interesting. We were hot, hungry, and cranky. That makes for a fun combination.

But we managed and finally we set up camp and went to sleep. Finally. Sweet sleep.

Let me stop by saying that I literally had woke up that morning in a very nice bed at the Marriott, and went to bed on an air mattress in a hot tent that night...talk about extremes. But, that is how I roll.

The next few days were spent at the beach, fishing, crabbing, floating in a lazy river, eating in Charleston, sitting around a campfire, putting frogs in my brothers tent to wake him up, not washing my hair or wearing make-up or dress clothes, playing bocce ball and ladder ball, cooking gigantic breakfasts....GLORIOUS!! Seriously, one of the best times I have ever had camping. Totally worth it and hopefully it will become a tradition.

We got back to our house around 6pm Monday night, where, I had a jury summons phone call I had to make. With fingers crossed, I was desperately hoping that I wouldn’t have to go in the next day as I had already been out of the office for a week and had a rather large event beginning this week...as well as 3 on the horizon...not a good week to be gone. And I really wanted my chickens.

But not so much....SO I sat on Tuesday at the courthouse in the jury lounge for most of the morning. Then sat in a court room the entire afternoon. Luckily I didn’t get called to the stand, BUT, I did find the whole thing rather entertaining and intriguing. AND, at the end of the day, felt good about doing my civic duty.

Needless to say, I feel as if I haven’t been able to take a breath for awhile.
Now to the chickens...
SO, I had some reservations on Tuesday when I called the “chicken lady” about our chickens still being there...I had reserved them two weeks ago and was skeptical...BUT she did...and was ready for me to come and get them. *yay!* So I told her that we would be there Wed night to pick them up.

On down the mountain Wes and I went...40 min into Marion...it was a long but beautiful drive. The place we got the chickens was a total self sustaining farm and the people were very excited about showing us the barn and all the critters. I was in heaven.

There were baby flocks of animals EVERYWHERE! Including a very playful and adorable 2 month old Great Pyrenees puppy. Sheep, cows, rabbits, ducks, geese, chicks...you name it. Very cool. I turn into a big kid when there are baby anything...or animal anything. I have always been that way. And let me tell you, they had the set up.

Anyways, I followed the lady into the coop where my chickens...*excuse me, let me use the proper terminology* Pullets, were mixed in with large hens, baby chicks, and roosters...that liked to peck.
*for those of you that don’t know, Pullets are basically “teenage chickens”...meaning, they aren’t chicks, and they are under a year...I’m learning, I’m learning.*

She humored my excitement for what I was about to embark on and handed me the net to catch my own....with wide eyes, I found myself chasing around chickens...very unsuccessfully for a few min before she offered to help me out. They were FAST little buggers and I was a bit intimidated by the giant hen that kept coming at me.
*the lady kept telling me not to worry, she would be “in the pot” tonight so feel free to kick her if I needed to*

She caught one in like 5 sec flat. But when she caught the first one, one decided to run out and corner herself where I was...so with my head pulled as far away from my body, I squatted down and put a death grip on that bird as fast as I could. And like a pro, I GOT IT!
Well, my gloating didn’t last too long as I realized that she had caught the other three and had them in the cage, in the time it took for me to get my one. But, hey, I am a rookie chicken handler. I will get there I am sure. Wish you could have seen it though, I was a sight.

We got our girls home and let them explore their house. They were defiantly a bit traumatized from the whole experience. Not to mention Roxy found it very fun to chase the chickens around from the outside of her old pen. She doesn’t quite know what to think of them, but I am sure she would defiantly kill and eat one if the opportunity presented itself.

I had this fear all night that something was going to get them or they were going to escape so I found myself looking out the window every 5 min to make sure they were ok...and not eaten.

I thought for sure they were gone at one point, because I could NOT find them...seriously...could not find them...my heart dropped....finally, I walked out there and shined the flashlight all over the pen. STILL could not find them. I went to get in the pen when I noticed something at my head level...and looked up and found them....they were roosting in the corner about 5 feet off the ground on the middle bar...all huddled on top of each other.... I ran back in the house to get Wes so we could tarp the whole thing...We are going to put chicken wire on the top on Sat...We were going to do that anyways, but thought they would be fine until then. Didn’t realize that they could go that high yet.

I spent the rest of the night Google-ing anything I could on chickens. When I do something, I like to research it and learn as much as I can. Become an expert on it. There is so much information out there too. I have learned so much.

I had to go to Tractor Supply at lunch to get the proper feed we need as we had gotten the laying pellet feed and our girls aren’t old enough for that quite yet. While there I picked up a magazine copy of “Backyard Poultry” ...funny, my subscription to Rachel Ray just ran out and I think I am going to wait on renewing it OR trade it in for a subscription to “Backyard Poultry” as my attention now is focused less on new 30 min meals and more on what to feed the chickens.
*poor poor Wes...I am glad he loves me so*

I will try and get some pics up this weekend as I know you would like to see what Laverne, Shirley, Ethel, Lucy, and Queen Latifa look like. Or, as I refer to them now, “my girls”.

Stay tuned as I am sure this adventure will make for some good writing material...