Three Easters ago, I underwent one of my first farm adventures. Jeff and I had been getting to know each other for a couple of months and I hatched a plan (pun intended) to surprise him with some Easter treats. That year, Jeff and is family were spending the day at another relative's home, so the farm was deserted. I decided to put what I was hoping he would take as funny and endearing notes in plastic Easter eggs and put them in the various chicken coops so that when he went to collect the real eggs, he would find my clever tokens of affections. The plan was pretty good, but when I went to carry it out, things started going wrong.
At that time, Jeff's chickens were not quite as domesticated as they are now. They didn't mind their coops, but they certainly wouldn't pass up the opportunity to escape to the outside world if given the chance. So, as I was carefully adding my decorative eggs to the nests, a wily and conniving hen decided to escape. Now, you have to understand that I was still very much a guest on the farm at that time. I was just getting to know Jeff, liked him a lot, and certainly didn't want to lose his chickens while he was away. My only option, therefore, was to try and recapture the chicken. Easier said than done.
When my attempts to simply shoo the escapee back into her coop failed, I changed tactics. I found a huge net and proceeded to try and catch the chicken with it. I think I was too timid because I didn't want to hurt the chicken, but I couldn't catch the darn thing to save my life. I proceeded to chase the chicken around with my huge net, but the chicken knew its way around better than I did and was far more agile. I almost had her, but she ducked into a huge saw grass bush at the last minute. Unfortunately for me, the saw grass was on the edge of a small but full drainage ditch, and in my enthusiastic efforts, I lost my balance and fell into the water and the saw grass. At that point, I accepted my defeat, tipped my proverbial hat to the bold chicken, and took my scraped and wet self home.
After Jeff returned to the farm and found the eggs, I reluctantly told him that I might owe him a chicken because I accidentally let one out. Being the nice and easygoing guy that he is, he laughed and said that he'd already let that chicken back into the coop. I hadn't known it, but chicken "jail breaks" happened all the time.
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