I'm not going to do it . . .

This evening when I got home from work, I came into the empty house and ate my supper and watched the news. Then I decided I should go and put the chickens in the chicken coop. I didn't want to wait till it was too dark because that barn doesn't have lights and it's very scary even in the day light. As I opened the door to the barn, my heart was beating extra hard. I was carrying my little egg gathering basket and my camera. I just knew something was going to run across in front of me, but nothing did. As I reached the coop, I had to go and check all the nests for eggs. Most of the nests are higher than I can see into so I have to just reach up and feel around. That was scary too, because I could just imagine finding a mouse or snake. But I didn't. I found a total of three eggs. So far so good. No animals had been seen on the way to the coop and no strange critters found in the nests. That's the end of so far so good story. The rest of the story . . .

I went into the chicken yard to catch the baby chicks. Ten baby chicks! They are fast and didn't want to be caught. I chased them all over the yard trying to corner them, and tossing lose pieces of wood trying to get them into a corner so I could catch them. Then the seven big chickens kept running in and out of the chicken house and I was afraid of the rooster. I caught nine of the little chicks and put them in the coop, but I could not catch that last little chick. I continued trying to catch that last little chicken and fell on a tree limb and poked a hole in my leg and it was bleeding and hurting. Then I cornered the chick with a piece of wood in one hand and somehow it got away from me and I fell and bent my fingernail back and it started bleeding. By now I was in tears and it was getting dark. I shut the door to the chicken coop, grabbed my basket with the eggs and my camera and ran as fast as I could with a hurt leg out of the barn.

I went into the house and called Bob and told him that there was no way I could take care of the chickens. And then I started crying. He asked me if I could let them out in the morning, feed them, and then he would come home in the evening to take care of them. I thought I could probably do that. I'm not a very good farmer's wife when it comes to taking care of all these animals. And chickens are the worst! I think I prefer to buy my eggs at the store if I have to take care of the chickens.