Barbed Wire and Snow

ye ole chicken coop

          One of the extra buildings my parents owned along with the house on Zimmerman was a chicken coop. It was small, painted white, one wall had windows, and the floor inside was pine wood – beautiful. Cleaned up, and perhaps with the addition of some insulation – the coop would have made a fine guest room or office.

            We got chickens.

            Bantams. They were all hens except for one rooster. My understanding was that the rooster was there to stimulate the egg production with his ladies. A chicken-wire enclosure was attached to the window side of the coop so the birds could go outside. From what I recall there were no critters that ever tried to get at the chickens. The man who bought our old house on Heinrich Road took the plentiful chicken droppings to fertilize his garden.

          And that rooster crowed all day long.

          The eggs were collected and eaten. I do not recall there being a difference in taste between these eggs and the ones purchased at the store.

          Our intention was to not let the eggs hatch, but one Easter Sunday – a batch of peeps were born. They were so cute! Of the hatchlings, there was one new male.

          He and his dad crowed all day long.

          One winter's day, with snow piled up everywhere, but the chickens doing just fine on their nests in the coop, my brothers decided after school to ride their bikes to the store that sold chicken feed because the birds were almost out of food. Clark and Eric were younger than driving age at that time, and my parents were both at work. The feed store was a couple of miles away down Back Creek Road – a road that was never very busy so the traffic would be minimal for their bikes, but the plow activity would also be minimal. Bicycles are never a good idea in the winter anyway, but on a snow- covered street? Next to impossible.

Clark, bike, coop pre-chickens

          Except Clark and Eric had an idea. They had heard of snow tires that people in our area would put on cars in the wintertime for better traction in the snow and ice. And they had also heard that chains on tires help for traction too. So, was there something that could be put on bicycle tires to help grip the snow?

          They loosely wrapped barbed wire around their front and back tires.

          And it actually worked!

          For a little while.

         Then one of the tires went flat, and my brothers walked back home.

         Even though I was there at the time of this incident, I did not know about it until years later. Just like me to miss the modern day Orville and Wilbur right there in my midst!

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