This is definitely the fun part of autism: the absolute focus on a topic. Everything chicken is the one thing on his mind. Stand back, if you are ready to talk, well, listen really, about everything having to chicks and chickens you are in a good space. Oh, help us if, we mere mortals need to talk about something else for awhile.
I love the passion. In the past 48 plus hours I have learned about a natural coating on the outside of eggs, solar panels to run electric fences, and how to build our own watering system with PVC pipe using something called poultry nipples.
After TsukiMoon went to bed on Mother’s Day we searched Amazon for a book chickens. We found “The Chicken Encyclopedia, An Illustrated Reference” by Gail Damerow. Perfect, a rule book for chickens, right up his alley. When it arrived yesterday he took it up to his bed and started to read the 300 page book cover-to-cover.
He went to YouTube to investigate chickens. He landed on a nice man who posts videos all about his chicken coop. The video blogger goes under the name SSLFamilyDad (SSL-- Simple Suburban Living. They also have a blog.) The dad uses appropriate language-- good, has clear, easy to understand, complete videos, and now has a fan in our son.
We were going to reappropriate the large two-story rabbit hutch into a chicken coop. It was the hutch sitting empty that prompted me to want to get chickens. The proposal to use the hutch was met with lots of frowns and a stern “no you can’t do that. It is a rabbit hutch, you can put chickens in a place for rabbits.”
The old rabbit hutch. Possible names for new coop; Chick-Inn, Egg-loo, Happy Coop.
We were able to get him to let us put to temporarily use the hutch while we build another. This took as much negotiation as act of congress, but unlike congress agreement was met.
How long TsukiMoon will be engaged with the chickens is unknown. Last summer we got a guinea pig with lots of promises to take care of it. You can probably anticipate who takes care of it now. That he can sell the eggs outside of the house sparks his interest and might keep it longer. Nothing like the market economy.
Whether he stays interested or not, neither Mr. TsukiMoon or I regret any of the animals we have. We have 8 and TsukiMoon wants 3 more chicks. It creates work but the benefits outweigh the work needed. We expect his interest to come and go. We will fill in until his regard comes back around-- or not. Our job as parents is to hold up a very large net so where ever he ends up he is supported. (Even if it is only a few weeks. Keep juggling mom!)
No comments:
Post a Comment