The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.

This may seem like a small bit of trivia to a lot of people. But it matters when you are involved in an organic, free-range chicken business. And last year, I was.

My cousin the hippie talked me into investing in her free range chicken farm. The idea was organic eggs and great tasting chickens. She needed $2000 and I decided it was worth trying. She had just gone through a divorce and I wanted to help her out.

The 13 seconds part came into play. Her property butts up against a creek, and she laid out her pens to go up to the creek, rationalizing the creek would keep the chickens penned in “without feeling caged.” They weren’t caged alright. About 80% of those cluckers flew the coop — we figured out the flight time to cross the creek was more like 8 or 9 seconds.

So I lost that $2000, just at a time when I needed it for another emergency. What did I do? I used Car Title Loans in Hillsboro, a car title loans store, to find the cash. It was painless, really, and I have been able to pay it back gradually (some things take longer than 13 seconds).