I'm getting...
CHICKENS!!!!! I am so excited!! When we first moved to the farm 24 years ago I started raising fowl of all kinds. Ducks, chickens, guinea hens, pheasant and turkeys, you name it, we raised it and yes, ate it as well. A few years ago, 4 or 5, I just stopped. No one wanted to take on the work and I was busy building my practice. I bought an incubator this spring with all sorts of good intentions...which never came to fruition and of late I have been bemoaning the rising costs of all food when I can pretty much raise anything I buy in the store. At any rate I was perusing Freecycle and there it was, an offer of 16 chickens, 8 young, feeders, fencing and posts because the owner has contracted an illness and she can no longer be around chickens. The chicken coop is all ready and I pick them up tomorrow. When I was little my job during the summer on my Grandad's farm was to collect the eggs and I especially loved the way they felt all warm and silky when you scooped them from the nests. Not to mention the bright orangy yolks that cityfolk when they came to visit would ask what was wrong with the eggs. I hope I can keep this excitement limited to chickens...a few weeks ago I saw some cows, Belted Galloways and got to talking with the farmer and he gave me some ground beef...oh it melted in my mouth and my thought turned to rich fresh milk and lean beef.