You probably stumbled across this site because you either heard about it from someone else or were searching for something chicken related. Though you'll find no chicken cages, wholesale wings, nor baby chicks to purchase, what you will discover is the world of a stay-at-home-dad and the adventures he has raising his daughter.
I'm Dustin, the stay-at-home-dad. I started this site in April 2006 in preparation for our daughter's arrival. I had been blogging for a few years prior on a little site I built at work, but I wanted to transition to a platform that was easier to update and maintain. Of course back in the day I didn't refer to it as "blogging" but that's basically what I was doing. Back then I wrote about work, movies, TV shows, daily events, and random rants about something or other. Now it's about my daughter, parenthood, movies, TV shows, daily events, and random rants about something or other.
For the 8 years of marriage prior to parenthood I was a web designer for a small programming firm working side by side with friends. I brought home the bacon while my wife went through law school. We went out to eat a lot, saw the latest movies, traveled the world, and after she graduated we both brought home a paycheck for a few years. That all changed drastically when the stork dropped a wee bundle in our arms. Now I'm officially "retired" from full-time work and my big time lawyer of a wife supports the family while I stay home and try to keep Belle from seriously injuring herself.
I miss hanging out with the guys at work, going to the movies, and adult conversations. But I traded it for the best job in the world. The benefits are amazing, but the pay kind of sucks.
So what exactly does "Chicken in the Yard" mean? Well, I borrowed that from a story my Dad used to tell us. He grew up in a rather large family, there were a dozen siblings and they weren't too well off... in fact, they were damn poor. As you can imagine, it wasn't easy to make ends meet while trying to feed 12 kids. So they ate bean burritos all day everyday growing up. Grandma would make their burrito lunches for school in the morning and give them to the oldest wrapped in a kitchen towel. When lunch time came around he would deal them out to the rest of the siblings. As you can imagine, Dad's not too fond of bean burritos anymore.
So the story goes that at some point during his childhood they lived right next to a chicken farm and once in a blue moon a chicken would escape from the farm and end up in their yard. It was during those rare occasions that the alarm was raised: "Chicken in the yard!" Grandma would call out, and any and all kids that were home at the time immediately dropped what they were doing, grabbed whatever they could - rakes, shovels, sticks - and rushed out the back door to catch that chicken. Soon afterward they would return triumphant, chicken in hand, and smiles on their faces... there would be chicken for dinner tonight!
That story has really stayed with me and I smile whenever I think about it. It also got me thinking about my own adventures growing up and since there were plenty of poultry incidents in my childhood I felt it was an appropriate title for the site. After all, I'm sure we've all cried out "Chicken in the yard!" at one time or another.