THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

When most people have a snow day they head to a movie, snuggle next to the fire with a good book, hit the trails for a lovely afternoon ski or cook up a pot of something yummy and watch the snow fall. I WISH! Today, at age 36, Joe taught me about the birds and the bees after slippery roads and blowing snow forced him to stay home, forcing me to hear about our next project (s). You see, this fairy tale in this little house on our little prairie involves several leading characters (or so I'm told). I'd heard rumors about how it worked but, honestly, I'm afraid to try it. Joe assures me, however, that it will be "fun, exciting and I won't believe I waited this long to try it." This morning, with pencil in hand and a copy of our property in front of him (great way to make a house renovation or garden plan go to www.bing.com, punch in your address, click "birds eye view" and print them up!) Joe came up with a grand design for the field behind our house. Birds (well, chickens) and Bees. This (mostly) born and bred city boy loves to eat chicken and on occasion has sprinkled honey on a piece of bread but never, ever imagined I'd harvest them. Joe, on the other hand, has dreamt about it for years. After a little research we found the Murray McMurray hatchery in Maine where they sell, guess what, CHICKENS and ship them right to you in a dunkin-donuts like box. Who knew? If you live in an area with bugs, ticks, mosquito's chickens take care of most of them and produce lovely, fresh eggs. Again, who knew? The cost to live like Martha Stewart? Under $20 (this, of course, doesn't include the pen, food, etc.). Silly me headed out this morning in the blizzard to an empty Bed Bath & Beyond where I found shocking deals on seasonal items I was going to blog about today (like linen napkins for $.15/each, tablecloths for $5, wine glass collections for $7 and napkin rings for $.25) but my education on how the birds and the bees actually work, intrigued me (I'm sure I'll be cursing snow days this summer when I'm hiking into the field to feed the chirping things as the sun rises). I intended to pass along tips on finding great deals for turkey day, but instead today I'm all about chicken!
TIME TO COMPLETE TASK: Chickens ship in 2-3 days. Time to set up coop: TBA
COST: Depends on type of chicken but some, like the one photograhed above, sell for 1.70/each if you purchase 100 at http://www.mcmurryhatchery.com/. God help us!
STRESS LEVEL: finding hot chicks at a great price: LOW