BY THE WAY:

When living on a farm, you NEVER crack an egg directly into a mixture in a mixing bowl or a pan that already has something cooking in it. Farm fresh eggs are delicious but sometimes they contain surprises!

I always take eggs out of the fridge the night before I'm going to cook them. Room temperature makes them crack easier and cook better. If a speck of poop won't wash off, use a piece of fine sandpaper to buff it off. Brown egg yolks are a little darker than white ones but they taste the same.

Chickens are a hoot! A couple years ago, I brought home cute little fuzzy babies and had them all named, they followed me around as I clucked to them. When I turned over a piece of wood alive with earwigs and other creepy crawlers, the pitch would be high with frenzy. Later in the afternoon while lazing in the rocking chair, I would make low crooning clucks and they would all gather around, pulling their feet underneath them and doze. I loved those chickens!

Then one night, it started. Terrible screeching sounds "help me, help me!" in chicken language, blasted from the hen house. I grabbed the trusty .22 cal. rifle and ran out to find the girls in an uproar and a only few feathers in Ellie's nest box. She was gone.

Night after night this would happen. A beloved feathered friend would disappear and I would again reinforce the fence, making it higher and stronger, making sure every little opening into the building was sealed. Still, the massacre went on, again and again. Alice, the lone survivor, followed me around all day. She talked non-stop and I knew she was frustrated because I just didn't GET it!

I placed her in her box that night. She was nervous because she knew it was her turn but she trusted me. I piled fresh hay in the corner and planned to sit there all night, armed with the 22 and a flashlight. Finally, around O dark thirty, Alice alerted me "the beast is here!". Turning on the light, I see 2 very fat raccoons lifting a board and crawling out towards Alice. I blasted them both with snake loads, over and over again until they got the point. They both retreated back under the floorboard, I secured it with a old heavy crock.

When it was light enough to see, I pried off all the flooring in the chicken coop and found I had created a coon condo with an all you can eat smorgie! They even had feather beds to sleep on for them AND the babies! I made their home safer for them by walling other predators out.

Being the softy I am when it comes to animals, I plucked out all the miniature bb's, stuffed the whole family in a gunny sack and transported them to lovely Mt. Spokane which is far enough away for them not to find their way back to the "Raccoon Regency".