My epic Costco fail and the "dear sweet little chick"

Several years ago I read an interesting post on the Kitchen Stewardship blog called "What Does a Real Foodie Buy at ... Costco?"  I'm not a "foodie" but I do like healthy food and organics when I can afford them.  I noticed a number of my friends that try to eat the same way, and who were also frugal, raved about Costco.  And of course I've read about saving money at big warehouse clubs. So when a new Costco opened not too far away from us, I researched a bit more, then bought a membership.

One morning last month, the boys and I dropped Tabby at school, then drove the few miles to Costco.  We arrived 20 minutes before the store opened but noticed that already were about 50 people milling around outside the locked doors.  (This probably sounds weird, but it reminded me of the flies that are all over the chicken coop in the morning, waiting for me to open the doors so they can go inside.)

red gladiolas - I'm growing some outside Lilly's garden

The doors to Costco were opened 10 minutes early and the flood of people rushed inside.  The boys and I cautiously got a cart, and entered.  We went up and down almost every row in the store, checking prices, and putting some things into our cart.  It was interesting but tiring.  Hunter loved the store and looking at all the pipes and heating/cooling vents on the ceiling.

Then it was time to check out.  Whew!  The cashier rang up my items and announced my total.  After a minute I said, "I don't know why my credit card won't work in the machine."  Uh oh.  That's when I found out that the only credit card the store takes is American Express!  (Though at of the time of my writing this, they switched from American Express to Visa.)  The cashier acted like he was so surprised I didn't know.  The man in line behind me expressed his sympathy - apparently this had happened to him too.

So, we had to leave our cart and walk out of the store, feeling rather embarrassed and frustrated at the time and energy we had wasted. As we walked, Hunter said, "Why didn't they put the things we bought into bags?"

Oh my, I hadn't even noticed that.  I guess I would have had to just throw all our purchases loose into the back of our car!

the day lilies are blooming so well - and many are taller than Solomon

Really though - why doesn't Costco make those things clear?  When I signed up, I was given a new member bag with all sorts of brochures inside.  Wanting to be a wise shopper, I looked over everything they gave me.  One thing even talked about how you could pick up a phone in line and call over to the food court area and order food to go.  But they couldn't tell me about the credit cards and that they don't give bags?

Sigh.  Lessons learned.  I know we need to go back (since I bought a year's membership!) but I have been dragging my feet at the thought.  Guess I need some pep talks from all those big Costco fans out there!

my camera just couldn't capture the deep, rich beauty of the sunset

Tabby still has her flock of Silkie Bantam chickens that she is trying to sell.  There are a bunch of chicks in the flock.  They seem to keep hatching!  What we figure happened was, when the broody hens got off the eggs for a brief period to get food and water, some of the other hens hopped on the nest to lay eggs.

Anyway, we ended up bringing a total of 4 chicks in, to keep.  These chicks were too young and small to keep up with the busy mama hens and the other chicks.  They are sooooo cute and there is just something about having them in the house that makes them more fun.  The kids and I each have our own.  The names are as unique as we all are:  Hunter has "Caroline Carla," Tabby has "Perri,", Solomon has "Pilchard," and I have "Dagmar."

Today we temporarily had "Peepers."

I had noticed that for the past two days, one of the outside chicks just seemed smaller and had to really struggle to hurry to keep up with the others.  But it didn't seem unhealthy.  However today the little chick just gave out of steam.  Frank ended up bringing it inside because when he was mowing, the chick couldn't even get up to get out of the way of the mower.

Awwwww ... weak, injured little animals go right to our hearts around here.  (We just can't help but think of Lilly.  She wasn't an animal of course, but she was weak and fragile.)

Tabby was shocked at how the little chick was just fuzz and bones.   It was very weak and could barely open it's eyes.  It wasn't thriving at all. She said the chick's breathing did not sound right so maybe it was born with a respiratory condition.  

I got it to drink some water and we all held it some.  Solomon named the little chick Peepers.

Peepers resting

This afternoon, Tabby and Hunter cleaned out the chicks bin.  Then we tucked Peeper's into a special little box inside the bin to rest, so that the other chicks wouldn't bother her.  A few minutes later, I heard loud peeping and went to see what was up.

Peepers was convulsing, peeping, and her body twisting all around.  I picked her up and held her. Then suddenly she went limp.  She had died.  Awww.  We all felt sad.

Solomon wanted to bury her next to the bunny we tried to save last year.  So he took Peeper's outside to Frank to bury her.  As I walked with him, Solomon said quietly, "Oh the dear sweet little chick."  :(

Life and death.  Seems it's all around us, here on our little farm.  And there is such wonder in it all.