STORY BY DIANNA GLENN,
OWNER + DESIGNER OF ORGANIZED BY DI
We trudged on through March as the world we knew seemed further and further away. Despair filled the air. I remember months earlier thinking to myself…if only everything would stop for just a little while we could get some things done around here. This is not what I had in mind. Kids doing school at home. Most of us working from home. No after school activities. No weekend extravagances. Nothing. Just time.
As spring was on the horizon, I told Joe…we can’t waste this. We cannot waste this free time we have been given. We can not let this hurt and fear be in vain. Let’s change what we can. Chickens and a coop had been on the back burner for years. But every time we got ready to build a coop or care for chicks, we always had to do something else. One day at the end of March I called Joe and I said we are doing it. Why not? We have who knows how many weekends ahead. I had already taken white out to my calendar. So, we bought plans online and joined the other 9 million people who were doing the same. We started building our coop!
Luckily the Easter Bunny delivered 12 cute little chicks on that Easter Sunday morning in April. And it was bliss. Our oldest already has a horse and she completely takes care of him. Our second oldest, Jackson, was given the job of chick caregiver. It was still pretty chilly in April so the chicks lived in our tack room under a heat lamp. Every morning Jackson would go to the barn and mix their feed and change their water and then do the same in the evening. I googled and researched the best supplements and ordered those. We were in this! We felt like little farmers. Nowhere to go but to do our chores and take care of our land. The chicks even came into the house from time to time to join in on classroom zooms!!
Joe was still able to go to work and so every weekend in April and May was spent building the coop. The design we picked resembled a farmhouse just like our home. Joe built it all himself with the help of our two boys. We painted it white. I picked out solar lantern lights for the sides of the door. We put it in the perfect place by our garden, in the shade. We set up an antique rocking bench that was my grandmothers next to it. We spent many eveningssitting out by the coop and garden and enjoying life.
It is hard to talk about this without coming off as inconsiderate. So many did not have this experience during quarantine. People lost jobs and watched their businesses fail. People battled depression and loneliness. And as I type this, I realize I am typing in past tense and it really is not over. For us, we had a choice. We could squander this precious gift of time on Netflix and naps. Or we could do something that we have wanted to do forever.
What we got out of that Quarantine Coop is more than I could have ever imagined. We were able to taste a tiny bit of life as it was when my grandparents were growing up. Waking up at sunrise to care for the animals. Doing a list of chores. Reading and doing a little schoolwork. Cooking family dinners and
all of us enjoying it. No homework. I LOVED it. Every single little bit of that lifestyle…I loved it. I miss it. It was simple. And even though our kids will not realize it until they are older, they gained so much from our Quarantine Coop too.
As we enter this new year and an even rockier course, I hope that we can all find some simpleness to hold onto. Whether that’s hot chocolate by the fire or cuddled up reading a good book. You may be surprised how you find the most heartwarming, soul fulfilling joy, in the simplest old fashioned things.
