Sutphin Clan: April 2010

I've been wanting a few chickens for our backyard for about 2 years now. Partly because chickens have always intrigued me, partly because I have good memories of hunting eggs in my grandmother's chicken coop, and partly because I'm trying to be more aware of where my food is coming from and being more self sufficient. None of my reasons matter, however, because my propery isn't zoned for chickens. Well, Trevor and I went to Murdoch's a couple of weeks ago to buy a spring for his science project (which was due the next day mind you, but that is an entirely different story) and there in big, shiny bins were CHICKS - hundreds of them. I wanted them - BAD. So, I went home and researched how to build my own chicken coop, how many and what kind of chickens I needed, and read the statute about zoning to see if there was ANYWAY around that pesky rule. I even almost signed Trevor up for 4-H thinking they would allow us to have chickens if he was doing it for 4-H. Right? Well, then it occured to me that my great sister-in-law has been wanting backyard chickens for a while now too and she actually lives somewhere that allows them. So, of course I called her up and asked her if I bought chicks and let my children name them and get attached to them if she would raise them (and do all the work) in her backyard - 50 miles away. My sweet brother said that would be wonderful and he'd move the shed and convert it into a coop and I should go right ahead. Awesome. 2 days later, I fed my children breakfast and loaded them into the car and drove to Murdoch's where a very, very helpful saleslady guided us through picking 10 little chicks. The fact that I took all 5 kids out all by myself to a store with live animals proves how desperate I was. Since the twins were born I've tried to avoid taking them all out by myself at all costs. I've gone grocery shopping at 5 AM. I've gone without food for days (powdered milk isn't so bad). I've worn maternity pants because I only own 2 pairs of pants that fit and they were dirty (you only need 2 pairs of pants anyway, right?). But, I digress. We got 10 sweet, peeping, pooping, scratching, fluffy chicks. So cute! They've been here 5 full days and I still love that chirping over in the corner. So, Julia, here are your 10 new little ladies. Thanks for letting me "feed my need" vicariously through you!