Sometimes we don't have to leave our backyard to have an "outdoor adventure." We have chickens. And that means that our family is never at a loss for a story about some random -- usually bizarre and funny -- incident involving our chickens.

For instance, there was the time a rooster jumped on my head and tried to peck through my skull. It felt like a scene from "The Birds" (and I couldn't wash my hair for a couple of days because of all the lacerations on my scalp). According to my husband though, I must have somehow "provoked" the rooster. But that theory was buried, along with the rooster, a week later when it tried to do the same to him.

Then there was this time that my husband put a baby monitor in the chicken coop to listen for the raccoon that was somehow getting into the coop and trying to eat the flock. Have you ever heard a rooster crow at 4 a.m. through an amplified baby monitor? Oh yeah, lots of fodder about chickens at our house.

Yesterday my husband and the kids have ensured the chicken lore will continue with the arrival of another dozen new chicks.

The chicken population at the Almeida homestead is now over 30 with plans for acquiring another couple of ducks in July. My city upbringing and sensibilities are being stretched to their limits..... and the chicken stories continue.