Kathy Williams

Andy was raised on a farm and, lest I get any ideas to the contrary, the rules on our acreage would be flora, yes; fauna, no.

But it's always seemed such a shame to have a two-room, Haydite block chicken house and no hens to fill it; no egg production, no high-nitrogen by-products to enrich the garden.

So, over the years Andy has softened his stance. We've decided that we are going to have four hens to meet our egg needs. We will have a mobile unit to tractor hens over the garden at strategic times to peck out the bad bugs but not the tender plant shoots.

For me, it's still theoretical. I am reading the books and talking with other chicken raisers around. Thank you, Mr. Fogarty, for all your wise input.

Andy has invested the sweat equity in the project and, man, is it starting to look good. He has built a new door and taken out the rotten wood window frames and door jambs, replacing them with new construction painted deep forest green.

Last week he put together a masterpiece of a nesting box. Not only are there four beautiful boxes with entry from inside the chicken mansion and egg removal ports from a locked, outside door, there's a suite of rooms at the top. Each little nesting box has a bumper band at the bottom, so the eggs won't fall out.

All that's left is to devise the gangplank exit for the birds that wake at dawn when we don't. Is it worth it to spend $100 for a timed door? Four chickens? That would take a lot of eggs to break even. The final portion will be the fence to the giant hen yard, and the mobile tractor units.

Yes, Roger, you can still name it; but Andy's Mom already painted the sign: "The Best Little Hen House in Texas."

Happy birthday Thursday to John Arnold of Denison; Debbie Portman, Geneva Guess, Mary Tillis, Richard Green, Walter Vineyard, Beth Cernero and D.W. Garland, all of Sherman; Larry Blair Hodge of Round Rock; Carolyn Herring of Van Alstyne; Pete Hickman of Southmayd; Joseph Duckworth and Layla Duckworth, both of Casa Grande, Ariz.; Trey Pye of Leonard; James Terflinger of Howe; Bobby Reeves of Lufkin.

Happy anniversary to John and Peggy Jacobs of Denison, 27 years.