How we became hobby farmers

When we bought our first home, we had one child.  Three years later, we had four.  As they got older, the two bedrooms we had for them to share became far too small, mostly because there were three boys for one room.  It was time to find a larger place.
We fell in love with the first and only house we looked at.  It was a 140 year old Victorian on 7 beautiful acres.  There were six outbuildings, one of which was an actual outhouse (with toilet paper still in it, no less).  We were ready to put a bid on it, except for one issue.  There were 15 free-range chickens wandering all over the yard.  My husband and I are cul de sac kids, having only laid eyes on a live chicken once our twice in our lives. 
We did try to negotiate the chickens out of the deal, but it wasn't going to happen.  If we wanted the house, we were going to instantly become hobby farmers.  We read a book about raising chickens, figured it couldn't be too hard, and went ahead with the purchase of our dream home.
Our great rural adventure began.