barefoot in the chicken coop

We were out doing barn chores the other day. The way it usually works is that the kids basically keep themselves entertained while I work my butt off cleaning stalls, scooping poop, feeding critters, etc. There's a couple things they help me out with, but pretty much I just let them enjoy themselves (things get done quicker that way anyway!). Besides, there'll be plenty of time as they grow up to work THEIR butts off.

Anyway, this particular day was no different, other than it being pretty cold considering the fact that it's supposed to be spring. The mud was as deep as usual for this time of year, so the kids were in boots. And as usual, the kids were having a pretty good time chasing the chickens.

About those chickens -- Zoo Boy has long called them "Ghana Chickens" (taking a stab in the dark at how "Ghana" might be spelled, incidentally). I asked him at some point last year what made a chicken a"Ghana Chicken", and he explained that it was a chicken that liked to be chased. I doubted sincerely at the time that our chickens actually ENJOYED being chased, but I've since changed my mind -- if the kids decide to go climb trees rather than chase chickens, the chickens actually seek them out and roost up in the trees with them. So I guess they really ARE Ghana Chickens.

In any case, on this day, the chickens had the kids' full attention, so I left them to their fun and tended to my scooping duties in the pony pasture. I could hear their laughing and bits of conversation, mostly revolving around some aspect of chicken life. At some point I tossed a glance in their direction. That's when I noticed their boots were off. And their socks.

I read somewhere once that kids who are exposed to lots of germs when they are little are healthier than kids that live in obsessively clean, sterile environments. I always figured, if that's true, my kids are probably the healthiest kids on earth. It's a thought I clung to while trying to dismiss the feeling of slight nausea at the site of them barefoot in about the dirtiest place on the entire farm.

I kept my cool (being the totally cool country mom I am), and asked what made them take their boots off. The reason had something to do with a piece of hay inside that was tickling them. Which made me ponder what was more uncomfortable, a piece of hay in your boots or chicken poop between your toes? On a freezing cold day, no less.

I had them sit on a tire in the barnyard and went back to the chicken coop to retreive the boots. It was easy to find them, they were on the floor in the middle of the coop. But I couldn't seem to locate the socks. I looked inside the coop, I looked outside the coop, I dug around a bit in the hay, I couldn't find the socks. Just as I was about to ask the kids where they left them, I noticed a glimmer of white coming from the nest boxes. There was a white sock in each nest box, like some sort of weird, deflated, fuzzy eggs.

I wonder what those Ghana Chickens were thinking....