I went out to the Ag. Center to feed and water my chickens this weekend and I found an egg!! Well, really my mom told me that there was something very exciting in the chicken coop and I had to find it: I found a big black feather. She laughed and told me to keep looking. Then I saw the egg! I took it home and ate it for breakfast. Yum!!

During the summer we tried to visit the chickens every day. My mom wanted me to get used to them and not be so afraid of their pecking: `Chickens peck, Mathalia; that is just what they do.’

At first, my mom made me go into the coop but I always got scared with all the pecking at my boots and shorts. My mom wanted me to enjoy the chickens and not be afraid of them. We worked out a system: I waited on the stoop and she brought out one chicken at a time. This worked a lot better for me.  Sometimes we remembered a rag for my lap. Sometimes I got poop on my pants: `That’s what happens when you are a farm girl, Mathalia!’

My mom sat with me and the stoop and kept an eye on the chicken because . . . if the pecking startled me, I let go of the chicken! Hah! And I don’t run after chickens—that’s my mom’s job: `Mathalia! Don’t let go! I am not fast enough to catch her and you are not going to help me!’ In fact, my mom was pretty good at catching chickens—too bad I never got a picture of her chasing a chicken. But you never know maybe such a photo op can still happen :).

After petting and talking to the chicken, we took her around to the outdoor chicken run. My mom held the chicken while I climbed the ladder. Then she handed me the chicken and my mom yelled:` Hold her Mathalia; don’t let go!’ And she would run around, get her camera ready and say, `Okay now!’ Hah!  We sure have had a lot of fun trying to get nice pictures!