Reality

It's not always "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens" on the homestead.  Although there are many days of blue birds sitting on the fence and goats frolicking in the pasture, the other day was just not one of those days!  It began like any other morning.  I awoke to pray and watch the sunrise.  I just truly love that time of day with Abba.  Just as I was getting up, the incubator date came into question.  I headed down the hall to turn on the coffee pot and check the calendar.  Sure enough, this was the day to remove the egg turner before the eggs began to hatch.  By the time I brushed my teeth, and read the Torah portion, the coffee was perking, but not quite ready.  I turned down the burner and headed down the hall to get the incubator ready for eggs to begin hatching.

I gently removed the eggs from the turner, placing them in a basket.  One egg stuck . . . That meant one of two things.  A chick was beginning to hatch or the egg was rotten, with the latter being my instinct.  Not wanting to keep the other eggs out too long, I set the turner with the egg aside and placed the rest of the eggs back in the incubator.   While opening the chicken houses, I thought about that egg.  I sure didn't want a little chick to be that close to "done" and then set out in the cold.   So, I talked myself out of my intuition and tried again to move the egg.  I felt it give at the bottom and a weak but putrid smell immediately rose from the shell.

Life was getting intense and I hadn't had any coffee yet.  I ran to get a paper towel so I could try to get the whole mess outdoors before things got worse.  Well, I've mentioned my gait isn't always so steady.  I made it to the living room when I stumbled a bit and the whole mess began to tumble.  The egg didn't land on my carpet, but I let out a shocked gasp as the incident unfolded and in that, I awakened Mr. B.  He was still asleep with his door closed, so obviously my shocked gasp had some serious high pitched volume.  He said he'd never heard me scream like that before.  I said, I'd never broken a rotten egg over my living room carpet, before!

It was awful!  It was days before I could even consider cracking an egg.  So far, though, I have four new room mates.