The Minnesota Farm Woman

I hope the title of this week’s column doesn’t confuse anybody. I collect a lot of things, but I absolutely, positively DO NOT collect chickens! If you ever stop by and notice brightly painted ceramic chickens and/or roosters gracing my kitchen windowsill or placed artfully around the house, they are not a collection, but gifts from people who think that I should collect chickens and/or roosters. The last time Cousin Dee Dee visited, she brought me her own rather large collection of chicken tchotchkes, telling me she was downsizing and didn’t have room for them. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I didn’t collect chickens, because all she would have had to do is look around and her feelings would have been hurt. Either that, or she figured out that I was a pushover when it comes to poultry. I could only politely and quietly murmur something about not knowing where to put them all. The cousins took care of that problem, dusting off the top of the china cabinet and arranging them neatly in their new home. Those chickens weren’t going back to Michigan no matter what. I was so happy to have the top of the china cabinet dusted that I didn’t say another word. That really was the last bit of free space I had left, but my sister reminded me at Christmas that I still had plenty of vertical space, this being said as I unwrapped my gift, a beautiful and brightly colored framed rooster print. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I hope that well-meaning friends or relatives will not give me any more presents anytime soon, or I will have chickens piled in the corners and roosters up to the rafters. I must admit that this non-collection is starting to grow on me, though, just like the chickens out in the coop. Real live chickens are something I DO collect, and any day now I will make a trip to the farm store for a few or maybe even more than a few baby chicks. I am thinking that ten would be a nice even number. Inside or outside, when it comes to chickens, it seems there is always room for one (or ten) more.