This past weekend I received a call late Saturday night and my answering machine picked up the message. On the machine, I could hear peeping in the background and was told my chicks had arrived at the Rochester post office.

I had been expecting the chicks, but I thought they would arrive sometime this week. I didn't have time on Sunday morning to drive to Rochester and Sunday afternoon my daughter, Theresa graduated from Blooming Prairie High School. When I came home from the commencement ceremony, there was another call from the Rochester post office asking me to come get my chicks, or they would be delivered to the Blooming Prairie post office in the morning. I was thinking how those poor babies hadn't had any water since they had been born. But I had company at my house and they stayed until 7:30 p.m. When the company left, I told Tom to get the barn ready for the chicks, and I would drive to Rochester and pick them up. I drove to the downtown Rochester post office and was told this was not the main post office. I got instructions to go to the main post office. This was not the right post office either.

Finally at 9:30 p.m. after driving around and knocking on doors at the main post office, I called home and got the phone number that had been left on the answering machine. I called this number and got directions to drive to where bulk mail is delivered and sent. The woman at the post office was very kind and told the chicks, which would not quit peeping, that mama had come and they would be okay in their new home. I was pretty tired from driving around Rochester when I arrived home at 10:30 p.m. I now know that

Rochester has three post offices.

I try and raise baby chicks every year. I usually butcher them when they are six to eight weeks old. I am raising these chicks for my daughter, Mary's wedding reception dinner. I told Mary I had gotten her chicks last night when she telephoned me. I explained to her all the trouble I had in finding the right Rochester post office. I told her the woman at the post office had called me the mama of the chicks. Mary laughed and said, "Yeah the kind of mama that will raise them up and then butcher them.:

Unfortunately for the chicks, Mary is right but for now they have a good life in a dry barn with fresh food and water. They are pretty soft little things that are multicolored which I didn't expect when I ordered them

online from Murray McMurray Hatchery.

I would like to raise some turkeys too but they have to be raised in a separate building from chickens as they are susceptible to getting diseases from chicken feces.

We are tearing our big barn down so I have no extra building to house turkeys in. I'm sure Tom is happy with this, as he does not enjoy butchering and can always seem to find another project far away from the house on the day I want to butcher.

He does eventually come and help me, but he is usually extremely reluctantly. For now he can avoid thinking about butchering day while the chicks are growing.

Sheila Donnelly can be reached at 434-2233 or by e-mail at :mailto:newsroom@austindailyherald.com