March 6, 2011

Egg Cartons

Something strange happened when we got chickens. It was something I had not expect at all and none of my chicken-keeping-friends clued me in. When you get chickens, layers not fryers, everyone starts giving you their empty egg cartons.

Every time we have a get together at our house, people bring me egg cartons. Apparently it's the new hostess gift. Co-workers leave cartons on my desk, chair, key board - generally without a note so I could thank them. We meet my parents at a restaurant for dinner and Mom says "Wait, I have some egg cartons in the car for you."

Last night we hosted pinochle at our place. I have been playing pinochle since I could count and the games get pretty serious. That is until we get drunk enough on wine. In the course of a night the games go from quiet, furrowed brows, thinking through every move to raucous, table-talking, forgetting-to-meld-marriages hands. So by the time everyone went home last night, we were all flush with wine and a bit clouded in the mind. This morning I woke up and realized that my husband's aunt had left a nice rectangle basket, which she used to transport her home-made cheese dip and baguettes, at our house. I sent her an email letting her know I had it and that we could meet up soon. She responded with "Thanks. I meant to give you some egg cartons last night too."

You may be wondering why wouldn't I love all the free egg cartons? Why do I sound less then thrilled? I mean where else would I get enough cartons for all our eggs, especially because I sell most of the eggs at work. The reason is because I was a good little planner when we purchased the chicks. I went online and found a website where I could buy 100 egg cartons at a great price. At the time I figured 100 would last a while, even if the people I sold eggs too kept the cartons (which they don't, they always return the cartons.) In the past two years we have gone from 100 egg cartons to roughly 150.

So, a word to the wise - if you start raising layers, don't worry about buying egg cartons, they will magically appear.

2 comments:

Judie Morton said...

I love this! (And it's so true!)

Mindy said...

And I got another carton on my chair at work today. No note. :-)