FRANKLIN, TN — A local wife told her husband Monday that she felt completely overwhelmed with life but also maybe they should buy a giant chicken coop and turn their backyard into an organic egg farm.
"I dunno," Meg Marshall commented. "I mean, I know just last week I was curled up on the bed sobbing because I hadn't had time to shower in three days between running the kids to their activities and doing the laundry and cleaning the house but maybe we should buy like, 20 chickens and raise them in the backyard and then we could sell the eggs…just a thought."
Meg's husband Tom reminded his wife she recently made a goal to simplify her life and not add so many new things to her plate, and that they already had a massive garden and two dogs and three guinea pigs in addition to their four kids and maybe adding chickens would tip the scales from "my life is pretty busy" to "the walls are closing in and why am I having hourly panic attacks".
"Oh honey, you worry too much. I think building a 400-square-foot chicken run and an insulated coop, making our own organic feed, and starting with a modest flock of, oh I don't know, 30 chickens, will actually simplify our lives…for reasons I can't really articulate," Meg told Tom.
At publishing time, Tom was shaking his head and still quietly protesting while Meg ordered lumber and was working on plans for a triple-decker coop and watching YouTube tutorials on making organic chicken feed out of compost scraps and stale bread while also trying to find room on her calendar to eat breakfast and go grocery shopping.
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