Eggs

To all of my fellow bloggers:  This month I am participating in the annual A to Z blogger challenge by sharing a few of my childhood memories.  Learn more about the challenge and Sign up right here:
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-z-challenge-sign-up-list-2016.html , then go out and visit some of these excellent blogs!  Right now my number on the list  is # 981 for Creation and Compassion and # 982 for Random Thoughts and Tender Mercies. (The number may change as people drop out)

Have you ever had the experience of gathering eggs?  Reaching underneath a roosting chicken and carefully pulling out the slightly rough, white or brown orb, then gently placing it in a bucket or basket?  When I was very young, it was my Grandma who cared for the chickens and gathered the eggs on our family farm, and probably first showed me the way.  I never did gain the trust of the chickens enough to take their precious eggs without them getting upset.  It was easier to first fill the feed trough and the water can so that the hens were out of the nesting boxes before we gathered up the eggs.

I remember watching grandma carefully clean each egg and place them into the cartons for the townsfolk who would come to buy eggs from her.   It wasn't too many years until my brother became the egg man of the family when Grandma's health prevented her from doing the work and he started his 4-h project with the chickens.    I remember the joy of seeing the batch of  new baby chicks that were delivered to the farm in the springtime and hearing their sweet little peeps as they scurried around in their little pen under the warming light. They grew so quickly and looked so funny as their white feathers started to grow!   We spent quite a bit of time in the chicken coop during those first few weeks.   By then we used most of the eggs ourselves with a growing family of six children.   Eggs for breakfast and eggs for baking.   I'm sure our family went through many a dozen over the years.  And at Easter time, we always spent several hours decorating and dying the eggs.   There have been very few years of my life when I have not made decorating eggs a part of my Easter Celebration.   I haven't created many masterpieces, but it is always fun trying to see how creative I can be.

So do I raise my own eggs?  I'm afraid I'm not up to the task, but now back home on the family farm, my younger sister has taken over the job of raising the chickens and the eggs.