Chicken Wishin'

Hi, Everyone! (May I say "Peeps"? ;^)

 

I didn't mean to go so long between posts!

 

I actually have been busy ~

 

 ("Doing something close to nothing, but different than the day before")...

 

No, really. I have.

 

Arty stuff.

 

I just can't show you pictures yet,

 

 until after the recipients have gotten their items, then I will.

 

So, I'm going to tell about my "Chicken Wishin'".

 

I even named a board on Pinterest that. ♥

 

I would LOVE to have some lovely hens, and I am SO envious of you that do!

 

Can't, though ~ we live in town, and chickens ~ "farm animals"~

 

aren't allowed. :^(

 

However, I do believe there is a Chicken Underground here in Sikeston.

 

I know a few folks who have them, but I guess no one has complained.

 

I wouldn't.

 

My backyard-adjoining neighbor Lynette says we could have them,

 

and cut a little door in the fence between,

 

 so they could have free-range bug-picking in both yards.

 

Lynette has two indoor/outdoor kitties, though ~ Thelma and Louise...

 

so I'm not sure how well that would work.

 

(They're so cute, Thelma and Louise...they're both white, so I never know

 

which one I'm seeing...

 

Come to think of it, I've never seen both of them at the same time...)

 

;^)

 

I'm afraid if we did that, though, and then got caught and had to give

 

them up, it would be just awful...I'd be so mad...

 

 and we'd probably be arrested and fined...I don't even want to think about it.

 

So, for now, chickens are a "maybe someday",

 

before I get too old to go out and gather eggs!

 

♥

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Me, in the Chicken Dress.

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Here's the dress again!

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(Daddy taught Taffy so many tricks!
My Mom said he could make a caramel last all

evening...see it there in his hand? He would give Taffy tiny little bits...

she could identify and bring him her cow, horse, pig (toys) ~ whichever he asked her for...

She could "say her prayers", etc.

We had some of the old-fashioned Brach's square caramels at Christmas,

and they were so small! Like everything else ~ smaller in size, and higher in price...)

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Wearing the Chicken Dress at Christmas...

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Still wearing it at Easter! ~ ( In fact, look how short it is on me...

I think this is over a year later!)

Anyway, here I am with Daddy's favorite English Setter, Polly.

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My usual position, on the floor, drawing ~ you guessed it ~ chickens.



I drew them dressed and with families.



♥



I've always loved chickens...



My favorite dress, ever, was my Chicken Dress.



My Great Aunt Anna (for whom I was named) was an exquisite seamstress...



She made the Chicken Dress, as well as most of my clothes (and my Mom's).



I must have worn it for quite some time, as I look quite a bit older in a couple



of the photos, above.



I "wore the tail off it" as my Grandma would say.



I did have a quilt that had pieces of the chicken fabric in it,



and I was going to take a picture, but then I couldn't find it ~



(I did find my Grandma Launius's wool granny-square afghan, though,



where I thought the quilt was...)



It may have been in the house where the fire was. I hope not,



but we were in the midst of moving some things that had been in storage



to that house, and there are things for which I just cannot account.



Hopefully it will still turn up in a box somewhere!



~



Grandma Collier had chickens, and I loved to go in the hen-house...



gingerly feeling under the hens sitting on their nests,



to see if there were eggs...



Grandma used a glass darning-egg as a "fooler" (does that really work?) ~



moving it around from nest to nest...we had it for a long time,



 but  unfortunately it didn't survive being played with



by my first-born, Mark, at my Mom's!



I can still close my eyes and see the hen-house ~ it was on the other side



 of Grandpa's workshop, opposite Cecil's room.



You walked into a little area where Grandma kept the chicken feed,



cracked corn and something called "shorts", I think,



that looked pretty much like sawdust. And little bits of oyster shells,



that I believe were supposed to strengthen the egg shells...



Then you went through a squeaky screen door into the room



 where the roost and nest-boxes were.



There was a window, but it was always dim and dusty in there...



you could see dust-motes in the rays of sun coming through late in the afternoon.



I loved hearing the hens, making their soft, clucking sounds...



slightly scolding when they realized someone was in their house ~



I always tiptoed through there, afraid I was going to disturb them!



Then through another screen door that Grandma kept propped open



during the day, out into the chicken-yard...



Grandma always told me to watch where I stepped, especially out there!



There were raspberry bushes planted as a sort of screen all along one side,



at the edge of the garden ~ the chickens loved that, as they could eat all



the berries that grew through the fence on their side.



I would go around the yard and pick dandelions and violets, along with



any earthworms (I was never a squeamish child) I could find,



and make "pretty" plates of goodies for the hens...



Such is life for an only child!



I had fun, though.



~



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Here I am, circa 1962, in Grandma's kitchen with one of the



 Chinese Silkie chickens that were "mine"
...

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Little did I know what an early trend-setter I was!



(Click here to read more about Tori Spelling and using Silkies as a fashion accessory...)



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I did a watercolor yesterday of Grandma's hens watching my little Silkie rooster...



"Strutting His Stuff" ~ ;^)



One more chicken story...



There were probably a half-dozen or so of the little Silkies,



 who lived peacefully with Grandma's hens...



Down the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house, though, there was a family...



actually, "older" (it seemed) parents and a teenaged (I think) boy.



When I first started thinking about telling this, I had no recollection of their names,



but yesterday it came to me all of a sudden ~



 Isn't it amazing how all that is hidden in our memories?



Anyway, the family was...trying to be tactful here...



do you remember the "Darlings" on Andy Griffith?



 Well, these people were like the Darlings.



And their boy, Willie, was a chicken thief.



Every couple of months for what seemed to me like a very long time,



Willie would slip in Grandma's hen house at night, and steal several



of her hens, along with all of my Silkies.



They lived maybe half a block away, "the Darlings"...



So, you could practically see their chicken coop from



Grandma and Grandpa's side porch...



Every time, Grandpa would call the sheriff,



And every time, the chickens would be returned by Willie,



accompanied by his parents and the sheriff .



(No one else had Silkies in Morehouse, Missouri at that time...;^)



Grandpa and Grandma never pressed charges; they just wanted the chickens back.



Then a couple of months later, Willie would come back and steal a few of



Grandma's hens, and again all of my Silkies.



They were a bit noticeable, the Silkies!



Then we would go through the whole drama of the "return" again.



It always made me so angry, to think that my chickens were being



unceremoniously thrown in a bag and carried off!



I don't know whatever happened to Willie, but hopefully he wised up



and stopped running "afowl" of the law...





Okay, I'll stop!



Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!



More soon!



Love,