***********************************
Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
***********************************
Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
This month, the prompts are being provided by David M Gascoigne and they will be posted by Elephant's Child.
This week's prompts are:
- Temperature
- Hope
- Roost
- Gentle
- Humidity
- Change
and/or
- Cope
- Reality
- Carcass
- Landscape
- Light
- Weather
Charlotte/Mother Owl's colour of the month is May green. If you can find a way to include it in your story please do.
"And what, exactly, do we know about raising chickens?" she asked.
Since they'd embarked on this hare-brained scheme of moving to the country, she'd become accustomed to his "projects" and how they, at least in part, became hers, too. Still, she couldn't help, at the start of each new chapter, a sigh of frustration that came out in such a question.
He answered as he always did, "Oh, not much yet, but I got lots of instructions from the guys at the supply place and besides, we'll learn!"
He said this as he unloaded his truck, which was piled high with equipment and accoutrements the "supply place" guys always talked him into buying. She knew they always loved to see him coming, city-boy-turned-as-yet-clueless-farmer that he was.
"Besides," he added, "we already have a henhouse or chicken coop or whatever-you-call-it where they can ROOST, and this is just the time of year to start hatching them out." He looked out over the LANDSCAPE, decked out in spring colors and especially MAY GREEN, with satisfaction. "The WEATHER should stay moderate and no more freezes are expected."
"Wait, we aren't going to get grown chickens?" she asked.
"I got an incubator for the eggs," he responded, "and it has a LIGHT and other stuff that will keep the TEMPERATURE and HUMIDITY levels perfect for them. No worries. I also got chick starter food, and a waterer and feeder, and ..."
"And we want them to grow up and lay eggs, and let them keep a few to hatch out, right?" she asked, knowing she had to have a GENTLE tread here. He started with passion and great HOPE, and she didn't like to crush it, but she had to take the REALITY of the situation into consideration.
She'd already come to realize she had to occasionally deal with the CARCASS of a dead animal when an obviously elderly or ill raccoon had chosen to make under the toolshed his final resting place and stunk so badly they'd been forced to retrieve it and give it a proper burial.
There was no way, however, either of them would COPE well if a whole clutch of chicks did not survive, or grew up and didn't know how to raise chicks of their own. She had to make him see it, but the CHANGE of mindset had to be his.
"Hmm," he said, his noncommittal response when he had his hands full and was too busy watching his step to really think about what she was saying.
"What again?"
"Don't most mamas learn to be mamas from their own mamas? If we have chicks raised by nothing but us two people, how will they care for chicks of their own someday?"
He stopped, put down his load inside the henhouse fence, and looked at her. "Good point," he said.
Once they finished unloading everything, he looked at her. "How about, once we get everything set up here, I go pick up a few grown chickens. They do have some at the supply place, and that way when the supply place gets the next shipment of hatching eggs, the chicks can have grown ones to imitate that already live here..."
"That's a great idea!" she jumped on it. It would buy her time to learn to deal with chickens, ones that weren't so fragile as just-hatched babies. Then, "So they don't have eggs in yet?"
"No, but I wanted to get the supplies while they were still in stock. No need to wait until the eggs come in and there's a run on them," he said.
At that moment, she knew what had happened -- he'd been had. Since all the neighbors had chickens, and probably had the incubators, waterers, feeders, and etc. they would need, the "supply place" guys had, in fact, talked him into taking things off their hands which might not have sold very fast, if at all.
She stifled a sigh and figured it was only a matter of time before his thoughts turned to the chicken coop that had been waiting anyway, and the purchase had been inevitable. Now the real work on this project was going to start, and she hoped he could maintain his enthusiasm until a flock was well established.
***********************************
Today is:
Anxiety Disorders Screening Day -- if you have symptoms, get checked, there is help
Bent Wand-Straightening Day -- Fairy Calendar
Bona Dia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a women's festival)
Constitution Day -- Poland
Constitution Memorial Day -- Japan (Part of the Showa Golden Week Festivities)
Dia de la Cruz -- Mexico (Day of the Holy Cross, a festive day for construction workers, with parties and a flower decorated cross placed on every piece of new construction through the country)
Florae -- Ancient Roman Calendar (ceremony at the temple of Flora)
Garden Meditation Day -- let go your concerns and center your attention on your garden
Great American Grump Out Day -- encouraging everyone to avoid grumpiness and rudeness for 24 hours; who knows, you might enjoy it so much it will stick!
Lumpy Rug Day -- the tongue-in-cheek day to tease bigots about shoving unwanted facts under the rug, sponsored by Robert L. Birch of Puns corps
National Day to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy -- US
National Raspberry Popover Day / National Raspberry Tart Day
National Specially-Abled Pets Day --US
National Two Different Colored Shoes Day -- celebrate your uniqueness, take a risk, and step outside of your routine today
National Walk, Bike or Roll to School Day -- US (encouraging kids to have fun, get their exercise, and get to school under their own steam by walking, biking or rolling their wheelchair to school under supervision as part of an event)
Paranormal Day -- i have enough trouble with normal, thank you
Pregnancy Fitness Awareness Day -- can't confirm this is still sponsored by Karen Bridson
St. James the Lesser's Day (Patron of apothecaries, druggists, the dying, fullers, hatters and hatmakers, miliners, pharmacists; Frascati, Italy; Monterotondo, Italy; Nemi, Italy; Uruguay; Venegono Inferiore, Italy)
St. Phillip the Apostle's Day (Patron of hatmakers and hatters, milliners, pastry chefs; Luxembourg; Monterotondo, Italy; Nemi, Italy; San Felipe Indian Pueblo; Uruguay; Venegono, Inferiore, Italy)
Wordsmith Day
World Press Freedom Day -- International/UN
Birthdays Today:
Joseph Addai, 1983
Christine Hendricks, 1975
Dule Hill, 1974
Christopher Cross, 1951
Mary Hopkin, 1950
Doug Henning, 1947
Greg Gumbel, 1946
Frankie Valli, 1937
Engelbert Humperdinck, 1936
James Brown, 1933
Sugar Ray Robinson, 1921
Pete Seeger, 1919
Bing Crosby, 1903
Golda Meir, 1898
Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Bent"(Play), 1979
"All Things Considered"(National Public Radio Network first broadcast), 1971
"The Most Happy Fella"(Musical), 1956
"CBS Evening News"(TV), 1948
Today in History:
Christopher Columbus first sights Jamaica (Santiago), 1494
Francis Bacon is charged with bribery, 1621
A royal charter is granted for Connecticut, 1662
The last total solar eclipse to be observed from London for the next 900 years occurs as predicted by Edmund Halley; called Halley's eclipse as he predicted it to within 4 minutes accuracy and described its path to within 30km, 1715
The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1791
Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city, 1802
The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened. It is the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel, 1830
The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island, 1867
The Great Fire of 1901 in Jacksonville, Florida, destroys 1,700 buildings, 1901
Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry, 1913
The poem In Flanders Fields is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, 1915
Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint, 1933
Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is awarded the Pulitzer Prize, 1937
The Kentucky Derby is televised for the first time, 1951
Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole, 1952
The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1960
The first "spam" email is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States, 1978
The strongest tornado ever recorded, one of 66 tornadoes recorded that day,with winds of up to 313mph, strikes Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1999
The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet, 2000
New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses, 2003
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announces it will return two statues from northern Cambodia's archeological site Koh Ker, 2013
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences members vote to expel Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski, 2018
Kilauea volcano on Big Island, Hawaii begins erupting forcing the evacuation of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and residential areas, 2018
The US Environmental Protection Agency takes a significant step against climate change by announcing new limits on hydrofluorocarbons, 2021
Another lovely story - and I do hope it works out well for them.
ReplyDeleteI agree loved the story too and the pics :-)
ReplyDeleteHave a storytastic week 👍
That is quite the nose holding up those glasses.
ReplyDeleteNow if no one forgets where the "nose" is they can find the glasses, lol.
ReplyDeleteA great place to keep your glasses. Love it.
ReplyDeleteLove your use of the prompts. You're a wonderful wordsmith.
Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. Love and hugs. ♥
I know several folks that could use a day off from being grumpy.
ReplyDeleteSometime I must get back to doing this!!
ReplyDeleteNice story. I used to want chickens, but have heard too many stories of critters getting into the coops and killing them all.
ReplyDeleteIn the first picture I couldn't tell what the eye glass holder. You know if I had something like that I probably wouldn't use after all this time of just laying them around. It's not like I lay the just any place, I do have specific spots, so I don't have to worry about misplacing them. :)
ReplyDeleteLovely story. I have no desire to keep chickens. My MIL had about 200. They were in the deep litter by night, then after they had laid their eggs in the morning they would run free and scratch up everything in my garden. No matter how well we fenced it, they always found a way in.
ReplyDeleteNice nose. Now "If only I knew where I put my nose" will be the question instead.
ReplyDeleteChicken trouble well described ;)
Delightful story ~ and fun glass holder ~ Xo
ReplyDeleteWishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Good story. Your imagination knows no bounds.
ReplyDeleteThat's the third time today I've commented anonymously. I'm getting fed up with myself.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cute glasses holder and a cute chicken story too!
ReplyDeleteHah! One only has to be nosy to find their glasses! Great story- you are amazing!
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed the story, and what a fun glasses stand!
ReplyDeleteAfter all that buying I really hope the chicken raising is successful for them. Great story.
ReplyDeleteHa! That would be a good way for me to finally be able to keep up with my glasses!
ReplyDeleteA delightful story, and those glasses look at home on that holder!
ReplyDeleteI actually loved raising chickens! But not gathering eggs (another story). We always got the already-hatched chicks. Then, as they were eaten before they began trying to reproduce, all was well!
ReplyDelete