While the kids were growing up we lived on 104 acres out in the middle of no where. When I say No Where, I really mean it felt like siberia most of the time. It was a great place to raise kids, especially our kids because it afforded them lots of room to roam and pretend they were wilderness adventure men. Our only rule was that they had to tell us when they were going to go exploring. A kid can get very lost, very quickly on 104 acres. I had already put poison control on speed dial and I didn't want to have to add search and rescue.
During the time we lived in the country, we decided to try our hand at raising chickens, horses, turkeys and rabbits. Rabbits multiplied like, well, rabbits and we quickly found out that they eat their young so that didn't last long. Turkeys grow to the size of ostriches if you don't eat them and get grumpy. They didn't last long either. Horses just graze and look pretty and as long as they have a companion are realativly happy creatures so they stayed. Chickens give eggs and are happy to cluck and eat bugs so the chickens found a place on our little homestead also. Ron had constructed a cute little chicken coop with a small hole in the front and a bar inside so they could roost. On the top of the coop, Ron had constructed a clever hatch that we could lift and reach in and get the eggs out without needing to reach into the little hole at the front.
The day Slayt decided to take off on hike adventure was a nice day out. It was a perfect day for exploring, or at least I'm sure that is what he was thinking. I'm confident that in his little head he was saying to himself , "self, we are going to go find a t-rex". Unfortunately for Slayt, the first place he looked for the giant dinosaur was in the cute little chicken coop which Ron had constructed.
After a little while had past and the house had become noticably quiet, I decided to look for Slayt. I called for him and he didn't answer. I walked around the outside of the house and he still didn't answer my repeated calls. About that time, Ron came home and so I told him that his little adventure seeker was missing in action. We enlisted the help of the other kids and set out searching for the lost boy. Justin headed out into the woods down by the pond. Jacob headed up to an area where they boys had built lean-to's. Abby searched the house and kept an eye on Ally. Ron went down by the shed and chicken coop and came back and said he was no where to be found. I headed down by the end of the driveway, praying as I went that Slayt hadn't gotten near the well which was near the horse barn. Thankfully he wasn't there. Ron decided to walk down the hill, past the chicken coop to a path that lead down into the woods. However, as he was walking past the chicken coop, he heard a distinct whimper eminating from the coop. Thinking it was either a very sick chicken or our wayward son, Ron lifted the hatch door and sitting on the bar was our little explorer. As Ron lifted the hatch, he heard Slayt whimpering " someone help me, someone, help the boy". Slayt had climbed up onto the bar so that he could get up off the hay which was covered with chicken poo and the reason he hadn't climbed out the way he came in was because the chicken door on the front had slid closed and the lid was too heavy to be lifted. So, inside he sat, just as a chicken does, clucking out the only thing he could think, "someone help the boy".
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