Barnyard

Last weekend, I witnessed the real life version of the movie 'Barnyard'. I went out to Brett's farm near NewCastle and visited his brother's house. His sister-in-law showed me all around the house (Brett's brother Rick and his wife Stephanie live on and run the farm now) which included a huge assortment of animals. First, we saw a few cats and lots of dogs, and then a wild sparrow whom they found and raised and now lives in their home just like any pet bird would. Next came the goats. They had two miniature goats who apparently act like dogs - they'll lay on you and love to be petted, etc... Behind the miniature goats pen was a larger pen for the five regular sized goats they also raise. And let's not forget about all the birds. Chickens, geese, ducks, roosters, chickens, and yep, you guessed it, more chickens! With so many chickens they get about 20 eggs a day. And not only white ones - brown ones, white ones, big ones, small ones, and green ones just like in Dr. Seuss's book! But with the chickens came a lot of really funny stories.

First story. The word is out that they have a lot of animals, so people randomly drop off animals to them now. One day, a family that was moving called and asked if they could give them all their chickens because they were getting ready to move. They said yes, and the next thing they know, a U-haul pulls up, they put the gate down, and it sounded like a stampede. A random assortment of about 30 birds, including ducks, geese, chickens, etc... came waltzing down the ramp into their new home. Second story. One day, Brett's sister-in-law went outside to feed her chickens and found a note and a $20 bill taped to the outside of the chicken coop that read, "Nice lady, please keep, chickens cold, they die." And inside the pen were 5 more chickens. Every so often, she finds a few dollar bills randomly taped to the pen again. Third story. There is a duck on her farm that literally thinks it is a chicken. It was hatched by a mother hen and grew up with all the other chickens, and to this day thinks it is a chicken. It sits in the beds and attempts to lay eggs with the other chickens, and it never quacks - it only peeps like the chickens do. Funny stuff.