End of the Chicken Era, Beginning of a New Era

Snow is falling outside the window on this Christmas Eve as I sit here typing. I remember back one year ago to December, when I was stuck in the chicken coop with our two Rhode Island Red hens (that story here). Looking back, urban, backyard chicken keeping has been a wonderful, learning adventure, but we’re taking a break from that now. As of this month, we said bittersweet adieus to Winnie and Indy and sold them to a new owner. We are letting go of some things in order to prepare our nest for a new little human – our firstborn child is due in just four weeks.

I am grateful for the past year’s supply of fresh, brown eggs with rich, golden yolks. I hope that someday we can keep chickens again. It has been a rewarding venture and feels right and just to be able to feed them our compost scraps and to receive fresh eggs daily in return. Their quirky, friendly, social demeanor has entertained me too.

One day last summer, Robert and I were out greeting the new neighbors next door, and soon our free-ranging chickens that had been happily scratching in our garden beds, took off across the driveway after us and wobbled over, which greatly delighted the neighbors’ children. The young boy began to chase the chickens but they escaped his capture with agility, scurrying this way and that, their necks jerking back and forth, enjoying it like it was a game of tag. How funny they looked as they stretched out their necks and eyed the boy, and he ran this way and that, falling down and getting back up, constant machine of energy and motion. His little sister began to giggle and squeal with a combination of both delight and fear, staying close to the safety of her mother’s arms who had crouched down beside her.

When we went back home, the scene shone brightly in my memory, and I cherished the priceless looks of the children’s faces when they encountered the animals. How can man-made toys ever inspire the same passion that burns when we encounter the wild and free, uninhibited cycle of life in the natural world?

My mind turns this scene over like a coin. I envision this coming year, being a mother, raising my own child, and introducing our child to the beautiful, wild world around them. I remember that Our Savior Jesus was born so vulnerably into an imperfect world, in a stable with wild animals and hay. As Christmas Eve 2017 draws to a close, I gaze at the sky and wonder, like the Blessed Mother Mary, what my unborn child’s destiny will be. Like Mary on the verge of a new era for humanity, I ponder my role in bringing this new life into the world we live in.

Give Us This Day

Today the chickens weren’t the only ones feeling stuck in the coop – they had me for company. I knew it would happen one of these days. The hinges on the wooden door would sling shut behind me, the rope and knot to prevent such incidents would snap, and there I’d be – trapped in with the feathered fowl, looking out at the world through wire holes. 

Meanwhile, the only human to rescue me was far away at the food market buying Christmas dinner groceries (and probably snacking on free samples), so enduring the cold in this pen could have been my fate for the next several hours. Even the chickens seemed perplexed. They cocked their heads at me and flapped their wings as if to question what to make of this uncommon situation.

As panic subsided, I put my genius to work along with the luck of finding a tiny scrap of metal, which I bent into a tool to pry the lock open…freeing myself as well as the birds as we all tumbled out into the freshly fallen snow in our backyard. 

Well, I should rephrase that. Indy turned around as soon as she saw the snow and wanted to stay in the coop. But the longer she watched Winnie fearlessly stamping around and nibbling away at the green grass poking through the snow, Indy couldn't stand being left behind and finally lifted her wings and took a leap out of the coop. 

We love dirt! Cluck, cluck.

Ah yes, another day with the chickens! As they scratched and dug their beaks into the wet, brown soil of the garden beds to forage for worms and other tasty proteins, they clucked gleefully now to be free-ranging. I watched them as large, fluffy snowflakes descended all around us from the heavens, engulfing the world in white.

Two fresh, brown eggs daily. That’s what we’ve counted since fall. And there’s no let up. These birds just keeping giving more.

And so do we. Four months into married life and counting, we discover fresh love daily as the Lord sustains, nourishes, and gives us this day all that we need. It comes down from heaven in the simple things: the daily work we do, the daily meal we share, the sweet sharing of life and dreams and humor, and the tender care received from one another after dental surgery and vicious flu attacks. As he brings in firewood and stirs the flames higher to heat up our home (it being our main source of heat), I pull out the ingredients for our next meal.

This one’s a recipe from the San Francisco quarterly called Remedy (Stories of food, recipes for feeling good) which Robert found and collected the ingredients for, so all I must do is try my hand at it: grate 2 cups of sweet potato, grate fresh ginger, mix in applesauce and add the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl; then drop a spoonful of batter into each waiting muffin cup. 

The raw mess of the baking process - didn't stage this.

Twenty minutes later, here’s the result. Only I forgot to add the sunflower seeds, so here comes the innovation. I spread a layer of cream cheese on top and then sprinkle the seeds on for a final cupcake perfection. Ta da!

Never underestimate the little things - that is what St. Therese of Liseux would say according to her "little way of love." They are the threads that hold us together like a well-sewn, maybe goofy-looking, but always lovable Christmas sweater.

We're turning the page now to 2017 and to my 30th year. To give the year perspective, we've each decided to choose one word to hang on our hearts...a word that we'll plant and watch grow over the next 12 months. My word is GIVE. Give us this day our daily love, give without holding back, give freely and with joy. The hubby has chosen a fierce word, a self-sacrificial kind of word - DENY - the word that hangs at the crux of the Christian life, in the center of the cross...Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow me...

Here's to life outside of the coop!