"THE CHICKEN HOUSE"

Today I spent several hours in the afternoon working in my workshop in our chicken house. After a long winter it was time to put away things that got disorganized during the winter months- too cold to spend much time out there. Time to sweep the floor and organize the disorganized.

During warm weather I spend time in my chicken house just about every day. The gardening tools are kept in the chicken house. I keep all my collection of flowers, driftwood and containers in my chicken house. The lawnmower, lawn furniture, Scott's boat, Wayne's tractor and anything that needs storage is in our chicken house.

If you walk around and take a look you will see a lot of memories in this chicken house. The kids and grandkids wagons, scooters, bicycles, go-carts, table and chairs, high chairs and crochet sets are waiting for the next generation to enjoy. Sunshine Church has a corner upstairs in the back for storage. Christmas trees and wreaths are there waiting for the holidays. There are things stored in the chicken house from generations back. I like these memories.

There are items in the chicken house that belonged to my mother and father-in-law. The old mailbox we received the mail in for years at my parents home is sitting on the floor upstairs. An old cabinet from my parents home is still waiting to be repaired and painted. Way back in the corner is a sink that was in the utility room when we moved into our home here by the chicken house. By the way, my in-laws lived in this home before my husband and I made it our home. Our parents are all deceased now so we hang on to these memories.

I invite a lot of my friends to my workshop in the chicken house and now collecting memories of times spent in the chicken house with my friends. We like to get together in the chicken house and work on our flower arrangements and then have a cup of coffee and a cookie. Discuss whatever comes to mind. Anybody that wants to try a craft we invite to the chicken house. We have had garden club meetings, plant sales and auctions in the chicken house.

Ever now and then Wayne and I discuss the fact that we need to clean out the chicken house and get rid of some of this "stuff". Somehow we never seem to find time to clean out the "stuff" in the chicken house. I am thinking maybe deep down we like the memories of the chicken house and our "stuff", so we bypass finding time to clean the chicken house. Too many memories in the chicken house.

A few months ago someone tried to steal our lawn mower from the chicken house. They were unsuccessful. This called for new doors and locks on the chicken house.

So today I am thankful for the chicken house and the heritage and memories of families and friends. God has blessed us with a lot of "stuff" over the years.