Parenthood
The thing about birth is that you just never know when it's going to happen. A good friend of mine went to bed on a Friday night thinking "Tomorrow, we'll get that car seat, and we'll be all set for the new baby" only to be woken by his wife at 3:45 in the morning to tell him that they had to go to the hospital NOW!
Similarly, with stacks of Girl Scout cookies still cluttering our garage, the Pirate, the older kid and I were hanging out Saturday night watching a movie when the phone rang. I answered it and a thickly accented voice asked me if I was expecting some baby chickens.
At this point, nature was working against me. My hearing is terrible, and the phone compresses everything into a monaural garble, and when the speaker has an accent on top of that, it's a miracle any words make it into the brain at all. To top it all off, this brain was not expecting those particular words for another 2-3 DAYS at least!
" This is United Airlines Freight. Are you expecting baby chickens?"
"What?"
"Baby chickens. I have a shipment of baby chickens from Iowa. Is this the right number?"
[At this point, the light comes on in my head. She's saying "baby chickens." Yes, I'm expecting them.] "Yes. I'm expecting them."
"They're here at the terminal, but your post office won't come to collect them until Monday. You need to get them from here."
"Where are you?"
"At San Jose airport." [Duh. She SAID she was with United Airlines Freight. They're not exactly at the mall, are they?]
I told her I'd be there to pick them up and jumped into the car while the kid and the Pirate got the enclosure together. I'm sure this woman thought that I was the biggest idiot on the planet, as not once was I able to respond to things she said the first time she said them. Bless her for not just yelling at me and throwing the box at me.
On the way home, I put my hand in the box and sang coutry music to them, because that seems like the kind of thing you should do for your livestock.
And here are the very chicks themselves. When we unpacked the box, there was one dead araucana chick. I felt bad, but it had died earlier in the day. Everything we've read says that 20% mortality for chicks is to be expected, and to be honest, this is the first chick we've lost like this, so I think we're actually ahead of the game.
We got araucanas, barred rocks, black giants, black australorps and buff orpingtons. We ordered five of each, plus one "free rare chick," all female. What I'm confused about is that we lost one araucana, and we have an additional barred rock listed on the packing sheet as our free chick, but what we have are six fluffy yellow puffballs and NO extra fluffy black puffballs (the barred rocks start out black and white).
I predict two roosters.
Similarly, with stacks of Girl Scout cookies still cluttering our garage, the Pirate, the older kid and I were hanging out Saturday night watching a movie when the phone rang. I answered it and a thickly accented voice asked me if I was expecting some baby chickens.
At this point, nature was working against me. My hearing is terrible, and the phone compresses everything into a monaural garble, and when the speaker has an accent on top of that, it's a miracle any words make it into the brain at all. To top it all off, this brain was not expecting those particular words for another 2-3 DAYS at least!
" This is United Airlines Freight. Are you expecting baby chickens?"
"What?"
"Baby chickens. I have a shipment of baby chickens from Iowa. Is this the right number?"
[At this point, the light comes on in my head. She's saying "baby chickens." Yes, I'm expecting them.] "Yes. I'm expecting them."
"They're here at the terminal, but your post office won't come to collect them until Monday. You need to get them from here."
"Where are you?"
"At San Jose airport." [Duh. She SAID she was with United Airlines Freight. They're not exactly at the mall, are they?]
I told her I'd be there to pick them up and jumped into the car while the kid and the Pirate got the enclosure together. I'm sure this woman thought that I was the biggest idiot on the planet, as not once was I able to respond to things she said the first time she said them. Bless her for not just yelling at me and throwing the box at me.
On the way home, I put my hand in the box and sang coutry music to them, because that seems like the kind of thing you should do for your livestock.
And here are the very chicks themselves. When we unpacked the box, there was one dead araucana chick. I felt bad, but it had died earlier in the day. Everything we've read says that 20% mortality for chicks is to be expected, and to be honest, this is the first chick we've lost like this, so I think we're actually ahead of the game.
We got araucanas, barred rocks, black giants, black australorps and buff orpingtons. We ordered five of each, plus one "free rare chick," all female. What I'm confused about is that we lost one araucana, and we have an additional barred rock listed on the packing sheet as our free chick, but what we have are six fluffy yellow puffballs and NO extra fluffy black puffballs (the barred rocks start out black and white).
I predict two roosters.
posted by Aoibheall | 1:07 PM
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