Friday, October 17, 2008

A week of multiplication


I have been sitting anxiously this week awaiting the arrival of 8. I don't know how that 8 will arrive, but I've assumed it will happen.

At the beginning of August we closed on our new home. A beautiful house built in 1924 with all the original woodwork, built in hutch, leaded windows, crystal chandelier - plus it's on almost 10 acres of land! (My husband and I have always dreamed of a hobby farm and bed and breakfast and artist retreat.)

Being in a proactive mood I decided I better start investing in building our farm. We have 4 chickens from our city chicken flock and wanted more so I looked at Murray McMurray to see what was inexpensive. They have a minimum order of 25 chickens and then they offer a free exotic chick in addition. So I ordered 26 of whatever they had available. It is one of the least expensive groups and makes for a fun guessing game of what breed will you grow up to be. Obviously it was slightly compulsive of me since we live in central Minnesota and it gets cold! So on September 26th our 26 babies arrived. They spent their first week in the house in a large cardboard box with a heat lamp. If you've never seen or held baby chicks in their first week, you are missing out. They are soooo cute, cuddly, and curious. Well, I guess that started the multiplication although I figgured that one silly purchase of farm animals was enough until spring.

Before we purchased it, our home had sat empty for a year and before that it had had renters off and on since 2003. Because of its past, we have had to fight hard against a damp basement, occasional bats, an infestation (mostly outdoors) of wasps, asian ladybug beetles (unfortunately indoors), boxelder bugs, and mice. My understanding is that the best defense against mice is a cat. Despite my slight allergy to cat fur, I agreed when my husband called to tell me a friend of ours was bringing an abandoned cat to us.

I am a big fan of craigslist and frequently search their farm animal section to see if we can get sheep or goats or other things we need. My husband is fond of pulling up listings of things he likes such as vehicles, farm equipment, etc. On the day we had been told once again that the cat would be coming out, he was showing me listings for dogs in the area, free to a good home or with low rehoming fees. I didn't think anything of it, because we often spoke of things we might want to get from craigslist. An hour or so later, he informs me that Midnight is coming to the house to meet us. I assume that must be the name of the cat. I don't question further.