All the characters

All the characters
Early Morning Coop

May desires chapter books these days.  We read out loud on her bed while Jack gets stir-crazy, his two-and-a-half year attention span just can't hang until the end of the chapter, no matter the animation in my voice.

Last month we finished Fantastic Mr. Fox...a story that stands the test of time.  Rich and I get such a kick out of the three farmers in the story who find themselves in a battle with the creatures who disturb their practices.  Outrageously mismatched in size, but matched in crotchety farmer mentality, the farmers toil to cultivate crops.  Their escapades are reminiscent of different tales that we have racked up in our 11 years on farms.  

May and I laughed at the conflicting endeavors of the wild animals and the farmers...the former taking advantage of the 'sitting duck' food sources on a domesticated farm, and the latter attempting to protect their investments on 'their' land to bring goods to market.  Both parties are in the game of survival, but struggle to coexist.

One night after closing out another chapter, I had to extend story time and tell May of the mysterious foe who wreaked havoc in a layer coop Rich and I helped care for on the farm where we met...

The coolest educational farm nestled in the historic Pocantico Hills kept livestock which traveled the farm, rotating through pastures, woodlands, and barns.  As livestock apprentices, Rich and I worked with the 'livestock team' to help demonstrate how domesticated animals exist in harmony with the land.  Amongst the livestock was a lively flock of laying hens...about 300 or so and they traveled the pastures in mobile coops through the warm season, but moved inside to a humongous barn with an outdoor run to stick out the frigid New York winter season.  A shipping container full of nesting boxes bedded with fluffy wood shavings hosted hens coming and going as they laid eggs and hopped off the nest to go about the rest of their day.  

We would collect HOARDS of eggs, even throughout the winter months, which were sold in the farm shop.  Furthermore, we led 'egg-collecting tours' with groups of visitors to the farm, children gawking at the hens as they pecked at their shoe laces.  Well, deep into the winter, we came upon a crime scene...a couple of our sturdy layers slain in the night.  With no trace of the intruder or the point of entry, we hoped that was the end of the trouble in the coop.  The week wore on, and each morning we were met with more loss in the nesting box room.  After a team meeting, Rich volunteered to check on the coop in the night.  

And that's when the story really became one worth telling.  Rich opened the nesting box door and illuminated by his flashlight was the prowler we had been after: a deviously sly skunk.  Rich closed the door and raced to headquarters in the yellow barn.  He donned his Dickies jumpsuit, a beanie, protective glasses, an adze handle that was lying around, and all his gumption and flew down the big hill back to the barnyard.  And whatever happened next is history...all we know is Rich triumphed in the end and the coop was no longer the skunk's learned hunting ground.  The hens were safe once more!

My favorite part of the story is that word spread throughout the place...the new round of vegetable field apprentices who were just being trained were graced with a most interesting first impression of Rich as the skunk guy.  A title which needs a back story.  Or maybe my favorite part of the story was that the skunk didn't go down without a fight and left its putrid mark in the coop for a couple of months...no matter how we cleaned the nesting room, the egg-collecting tours were attended by folks holding their noses, wishing they had chosen to skip that part of the farm experience.

It's no wonder some of the best childrens' books are set on the farm.  These places are just ripe for adventure.