FOWL IDEA

Once upon a time, there was this pig-tailed girl who loved animals. Being the only child to a divorced parent who worked two jobs, she filled herself with whimsical ideas and surrounded herself with animals that were her best friends. 

This little girl more or less rescued and raised a plethora of animals growing up. In fact, her backyard would be a great archeological site with bones from lizards, guinea pigs, dog, salamanders, chicken, goat (yes goat), rabbits, turtles, doves, other fowl creatures of the like, etc. You get the idea.

So, little girl, me, is not so little anymore and has had quiet the life. Her constant companion is ‘Bidney’, the textbook perfect kidney. Bidney is just wonderful, and if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be writing right now. But seriously, if I were entertaining myself with Bidney conversations, I should probably be in a straight jacket, and that I don’t have time for.

So, my life now is far from whimsical and to say exciting would just be making my nose grow.  But every once in a while, when I come up for air, I get a good idea. Well, about a month ago, I’d say I had a fowl idea.

Literally… x 2.  While Paul was on business in Guam, over Easter,  my fowl idea was to have chickens again. Just a couple. With legitimate reasons. They will provide au natural eggs, get rid of unwanted bugs, and help fertilize the vegetable garden. I ran it by Paul via text and he replied, “That’d be interesting”, which unless it’s a flat “NO” means it’s a go. 

Well the two chicks (officially Chicky2 & Tabasco), which I generalize and call ‘chicks’ are quickly growing and becoming self sufficient young teen chicks.  One of them, however, is displaying bullying behavior and I’m hoping she doesn’t turn into a Chaz Bono situation.  Because cockle doodle doo-ers aren’t allowed where I live. Okay, chickens technically aren’t allowed where I live, but that’s not the issue. Plus, it only “isn’t allowed”  if someone complains about their noise. Chickens by the way, are much quieter than say some tropical Cockatoo or Macaw type bird. I rest my case.  And they are eco-friendly. (HAHAHA!)

So as not to be dubbed the OC Hillbillies with free roaming chickens, I decide to build my own coop. Custom. By Diana. This was after  trying to buy a coop online, only to discover buying a coop is preposterously expensive. From hundreds of dollars to more than a thousand.  Preposterous!

So off to Lowe’s I go to buy material. I’ve never built a coop, and trust you me, I will not be building another coop for a very, very long time.  First of all, when you build with soft pine, the cheapest wood I  could find,  use wood screws. Nobody told me about that. Because when I went to move the frame that I so proudly built with regular nails, well, it all fell apart at the joints like matchsticks. Damn nails just popped right off.  I’m sure the look on my face was priceless. But, after much ado about cooping, my 5’ x 5’ hen house came to shape. I even made my own free standing chicken feeder.  And that folks is what happened to my lovely, fowl idea.