Peace, Love, and Chickens

Week 3, Part 3 (Because this has been a busy week)

For four years, I have asked for chickens.

Not demanded.
Not staged a protest.
Not formed a picket line in the driveway.

I simply made my wishes known like a reasonable woman who wanted a few feathered companions and a happier yard.

Every year, my husband would give the same answer:

“Let me get them a coop built first.”

Now, on paper, that sounds responsible.

In reality, it became the annual postponement speech.

Every spring:

Me: “Can we get chickens?”

Him: “Need to build the coop first.”

Then summer would come. Then fall. Then winter.

No chickens.

This Year, I Reached My Limit

This year I finally put my foot down.

I informed him that this exact conversation had happened for four years, and somehow I still had no chickens.

I may not have used the phrase systemic delay tactics, but the spirit of it was there.

Eventually, he sighed the sigh of a man who knows history has turned against him.

Then he muttered something about:

“Dang chickens.”

And just like that, victory was mine.

The Twist No One Saw Coming

What he did not realize was this:

Once the chicks arrived, the war was over.

Because now the same man who delayed poultry acquisition for years can be found:

• petting them

• talking to them

• laying in the grass with them

• imagining them running to greet him after work

• checking on them like a concerned father

Remarkable transformation.

How It Always Happens

There is a common pattern in households.

One partner says:

“We do not need animals.”

Then the animals arrive.

Soon that same person is emotionally attached, using nicknames, and worrying whether they’ve had enough snacks.

Science should study this.

To Be Fair to Eddie

He wasn’t against having chickens.

He was against doing it halfway.

He wanted them housed properly, cared for properly, and set up right.

That’s one reason I love him.

He grumbles first and protects later.

A solid manly tradition.

Week Three Truth

Sometimes resistance is not rejection.

Sometimes it is caution wearing work boots.

Sometimes love says no until it knows it can say yes responsibly.

What I’m Learning

People are funny.

The man who delayed chickens for four years is now bonding with six tiny birds in the yard.

And the woman who insisted on chickens is trying not to say:

“I told you so.”

Trying.

—Niki