Virginia Adventures IV: The Emptying

The farm is quiet.

We'd found new homes for the rabbits, and new homes for the chickens. The same people bought both sets of livestock. When they came to help us catch the chickens, we got most of them, but one hen decided she was going to hide in the blackberry brambles. So, they left that one with us.

After they left, the hen started walking around, and calling for the rest of the flock. It made me sad to listen to it. I actually stopped my cleaning and packing and chores to write a short poem.

We sold the chickens today,

18 barnyard hens and a rooster

 captured in a frenzied rodeo

Of fishing nets and copious swearing.

We miscounted.

In the fading light of a summer day

Over wind blowing through trees

Blighted by drought, and the scrubbing

My wife is giving a set of shelves

I hear forlorn clucking 

And the dejected scratching of one hen

Left behind when the reckoning came.

She enters a coop devoid of companions 

No squawk or squabble, no feathered furor,

Only the wind in the trees

The tumbling leaves

And the metal shed cooling as the sun descends.

She calls, and calls, and no one answers.

Yesterday, some neighbors came up to see the barn kittens and claimed two of them. They also took the lone hen home to their flock.  I hope she's adapting to a new place, with strange birds around.

Speaking of Barn cats:

Meet Pumpkin (the grey one. I know, why not the orange one?  Well, cuz), the first cat I've voluntarily owned since... ever, really. I saw Pumpkin, and he reminded me of the cats I had when I was a boy (one of whom was grey, and named Pumpkin). The resemblance was uncanny, and I simply couldn't resist. The whole family, and myself, was startled.  I've always voiced my distain for and reluctance to own a cat. 

Now I've picked one for my own self.

The house has been emptied of much of the furniture, the belongings, the accumulated items of holidays and the past and all that isn't necessary for day to day living. It's wide open, a lot of space. A lot less personality. But it's now ready to show, and is a blank canvas for a potential buyer to project their own image on.

Living in a blank canvas is disconcerting.

In other news, the financing seems to be ready to come through. The earnest money has been sent off. The first showing has been accomplished, and we've another scheduled for Thursday. Things are proceeding apace, according to schedule.