This weekend I headed back to Walla Walla for my Whitman College reunion, catching a ride with my dear friends Sarah and Corey. We enjoyed catching up with old classmates and it was nice for me to be back in Walla Walla again.
But for the sake of the Little Life, what you really need to know is that Corey and Sarah agreed to chauffeur two hens from Walla Walla to Portland. We transported them in wine boxes punched full of holes, so this was a whole new spin on Coq au Vin - instead of "rooster in wine" it was "hens in wine boxes." My host had a chicken coop built in her yard before she and I ever started talking about me parking a tiny house in her garden. She hadn't gotten chickens yet, but was eager to learn about them from me since I'd had chickens in Walla Walla. Finally it occurred to me that it might make sense for me to bring two of my four hens here to Portland. Corey and Sarah have chickens of their own so they were miraculously keen on the idea of schlepping mine across state lines.
On our way out of town I grabbed a backpack full of winter clothes I'd stored at a friends' house and she handed us two wine boxes that we could use as chicken crates. We poked holes in them and went to my Walla Walla house where we loaded the chickens into their boxes and then hit the road. We stopped to give them water along the way and one of them (Ella, the clever one, of course) nearly escaped. (Why did the chicken cross the interstate?) But otherwise it was an entirely uneventful move and I was grateful they were so quiet.
My host had picked up a feeder and waterer as well as food and pine shavings so everything was ready for the chickens when we arrived. They seem to have settled in really well and I'm excited to have my two favorite hens just steps from my front door again! Hopefully they'll start laying again soon...