Background

It's funny the reactions I get now, when I tell people I have livestock. We currently have chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, and a couple of turkeys. (And a horse, but he’s just for decoration.) I get everything from the semi-appalled isn't-that-quaint sneer, to the nostalgic I-used-to-have-those sighs.

I was not born to this life. I was raised in an upper-middle-class home. I attended the best private school in the area and graduated with the brightest young people Ft Worth had to offer. I then went off to college to be properly educated so I could enter the work force and become the productive member of society my parents envisioned. And I have done just that, entered the workforce and moved slowly up the corporate ladder until I got here. I trudge off to the job every day and collect a nice paycheck every 2 weeks. But my heart yearns to be outdoors.

Now, my Dad grew up visiting his Uncle Joe's farm every summer as a child. He was the one who told me decades ago that all horse farms should have chickens because the chickens peck through the horse poop and eat the worms. Recently I saw an article about a novel concept of rotating chickens over livestock pastures to break up the manure and disrupt the parasite's cycle. Go figure, Uncle Joe knew that back in the 30's. I grew up hearing his stories of Uncle Joe and the farm and how his mom would let them play with the chickens that were delivered before she whacked them and fried them up for dinner.

And my Mom is adept at directing the butcher just how to age and cut the meat, but she would really rather not think about where the meat came from before it reached that butcher. It took her months before she was comfortable eating one of my hen's eggs. Apparently an anonymous cloaca is OK, but my lovely Ameraucana Galadriel’s is somehow tainted. It made me giggle at the time, and she has come around.

Growing up I had a horse, and my parents indulged my whims in the equestrian area. But according to my parents, animals are supposed to be a hobby, not a source of income. I have always had the desire to raise animals, but I never had the self confidence to go out and try it.

I am still not all the way there, but I am on the way, and that's better than not.