Ireland Dreaming: A Farm Girl at Heart

I grew up on a farm. Actually I grew up on many farms, piggeries, massive properties, the works. It was always my job to look after the chickens. Of course, as a kid, any time not spent playing was wasted so I hated it.

I was also a lonely teenager who lived in a small country town where most of my friends lived outside of town and I had no transport, therefore no friends whom I saw after school or at the weekend. And there I found my first love of chooks. I loved their orderly lives, I loved that they would take any bit of garbage and turn it into fresh eggs. I loved that mine would come running when I called out 'chook, chook, chicKENS!' I loved seeing them delve with much pleasure into table scraps. I loved the feel of their feathers and the sheen they had in sunlight.

And stupidly enough, I learnt to understand how they worked in a flock. I learnt how to round them up and get them to go where I wanted them to go. Chooks are a bit like sheep, they follow the leader and the slightest body movement changes their direction. My kids don't understand this and it frustrates me. And my kids also don't get that chooks need food to produce eggs and clean water to stay healthy...this too frustrates me.

But all in all, I just love having them around. I love to indulge my passion for chooks by spoiling them with a new layer of mulch or some oats in their food. I love that they are undemanding, that they make the coolest noises and they are just plain pretty. I love that they can live in small backyards as well as they can in huge open barns. I know, its strange but thats the kinda girl I am...