All my life, I’ve wanted to have chickens. I remember chickens when I was a little girl. I used to think they were out at Grandma’s farm, but my Aunt Peeps says she never had them. Interestingly, Aunt Peeps got her nickname from a book about a little chick that went “Peep, Peep, Peep!” She had that book memorized when she was a toddler and my PopPop always called her Peeps and it stuck all these many years later.

When Hubby #2 finished residency and joined a medical practice, our first house was on two acres out a two lane blacktop on the way to the ski area. We boarded horses and had a big garden that was really not much more than a salad bar for the deer and raccoons. I really wanted chickens but we lived in a subdivision with covenants. The developer of the property said we could have them if the neighbors agreed. All but one did, so I couldn’t get them. 

My best friend had chickens at her house. She also had ducks. She lived in town and was not allowed to have roosters. The chicks were sexed and they assured her there were no roosters. Needless to say, we found out that was pretty meaningless when they became adolescents and started crowing. She tried every one she knew to give the roosters away and finally decided we would just butcher them and freeze the meat.

This was a really sound idea, except for two things. They were fancies and by the time they were plucked and cleaned, they weren’t any bigger than a pigeon. And….you never EVER butcher birds you have named. I do believe my friend is still traumatized and that was over thirty years ago.

No situation ever presented itself where I could have chickens till I moved back to West Virginia and lived out on the farm. I was just at the point where I was considering getting some then I ran into Mr. FixIt and we started dating and traveling so chickens were put on the back burner…so to speak.

I have considered having chicks here at the Ponderosa, but again…travel gets in the way. I always go to Colorado in the summer to see the kids. But this year, I’m not sure I’m going to get to. Maybe this is my year. Or, maybe I’m past it. I don’t know. I had to share this picture with you, though. My friend Aimee is who I want to be when I grow up. She is an animal magnet and has some baby chicks this spring. Aimee is a free spirit, hippy mama, earth mother, gypsy farmer…she’s artistic and beautiful and colorful, to put it mildly. So…Aimee did what Aimee does.

She bought tiaras for her chicks. They’ll fit right in with Daisy the dog who wears a pearl necklace instead of a collar and Gypsy the guard pony that protects the goats from the coyotes and John Boy, the rescued boxer/mastiff mix that cost them about a gazillion dollars in vet bills. I’ll tell you what….those are some lucky chicks right there!

❤️

“He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.”

Psalms 136:25 NIV