How things came to be

I've never thought much about chickens. Certainly, I'd never considered raising chickens - that's for sure.

But this here is a story about oh, how things change.....

The first of two critical elements in my new adventure as gypsy chicken keeper was a trip to Key West for a travel writer's conference in Feb. '04.

LOVED Key West on arrival. Period. As my boyfriend, Keith, and I explored the sites of the city - I couldn't help myself from exclaiming at every sighting "There is ANOTHER chicken, Keith, gawd, aren't they pretty!" 'Pretty' and 'chicken' had never been heard coming from my mouth in the same sentence before.

The chickens of Key West are protected and roam the streets and neighborhoods in, well, relative freedom. The bohemian nature stuck with me. We took home souvenir watercolor paintings of roosters, done by local artist Martha DePoo - let the chicken mania begin!

The second part to this story came about the day we signed the lease on a house to rent in Tumwater, Washington, listed in the classifieds as a "mini-farm". Keith had recently been handed one of those 'offers you can't refuse' in his career and we decided to make a major move. We took a tour of the property on an early gray skied December morning. The landlord happily pointed out the benefit of having our very own chicken coop and adjoining fully-fenced run. Hmmmm, we could raise chickens.

Before we were completely settled into the house, I began googling 'chickens of Key West', more on a lark than anything else. I found the website for The Chicken Store in Key West - (was sorry to have missed this treasure during our visit). I began emailing with Katha Sheehan, the owner and best friend these birds could have. When I found out the chickens I'd become so taken with were called "gypsy chickens" well, that pretty much sealed the deal.......

Stay tuned for introductions to the flock, and the stories of our lives together.