Giveaway and upcoming events

I am so sorry I haven't posted on here lately! We've had a LOT of goats giving birth, and prior to yesterday, our total stood at 23 does and only 2 bucks. Then Charlotte changed all that during my goats "Breeding and Birthing" class yesterday when she gave birth to triplet bucks. If anyone were going to have triplet bucks, it is good that it was Charlotte because she was my best milker last year, producing six pounds a day at her peak (almost three quarts) and producing more than 900 pounds of milk in nine months. So if you need a herd sire with a milky pedigree, these are your boys.

Most of you will probably agree that I can't write about babies without giving you pictures. Unfortunately I haven't taken any pictures yet, but once I do, I will post about the babies. In the meantime, I thought I'd update you on what's coming up on the farm.

But first -- I'm hosting a giveaway of the awesome book Idiot's Guide to Small-Space Gardening by Chris McLaughlin over on my book blog. The deadline is midnight tonight (Sunday), so please scoot on over there and leave a comment for your chance to win. This book is especially great for people living in the city, but I personally have started to employ some of the ideas -- like growing vertically -- because it just makes life easier.

Classes on the farm
Yesterday was our first class of 2012, and we're just getting started! On Saturday, March 3, we have classes coming up in home dairy, soapmaking, and homesteading. And we'll be hosting more goat classes on March 24 -- basic goat care in the morning and the breeding and birth in the afternoon. Two goats are due around that time, but no guarantees either of them will be as thoughtful as Charlotte to give everyone a live demonstration of the process. For more info on these classes, click here. And I'm currently talking to someone about doing a beekeeping class on the farm at the end of April.

Homesteading Conference
I'm excited to tell you that Cathy Lafrenz and I will be doing the Homesteading Conference at Illinois Valley Community College in Ogelsby, IL, on Saturday, March 17. Last year, we had 31 people show up, and we had an awesome time, so we're doing it again! And we are having Richard McGinnis join us to talk about beekeeping. For more information on the homesteading conference, click here. In April, I will also be teaching classes at IVCC in cheesemaking and breadbaking.

And if you'd like to keep track of other events as they are added, you can follow me on the Homegrown and Handmade Facebook page and the Antiquity Oaks Facebook page, as well as the Events page of the Homegrown and Handmade website. In the coming months, I will be heading out to Iowa and Washington State, as well as Pennsylvania again in September.

This-n-that and free books

As I am typing away at my computer working on The Ecofrugal Handbook, which will be published next fall, my goats are starting to show off their pregnant bellies, and I'm getting excited about the babies that will be arriving starting in January. Due to all my traveling this fall with the Homegrown and Handmade book tour, I wasn't here enough to catch everyone in heat in a timely manner, so kids will be making their debuts between January and April.

A couple days ago, we put James the American Guinea Hog back in the walnut grove with Julia and their babies, which means we can expect our next litter of piglets at the end of March. As I suspected, Julia weaned her babies somewhere around three or four months. Most people separate the piglets from mama around two months because they say the sow starts to lose too much weight, but the babies were two months old right when the acorns and hickories started to fall, so Julia actually started gaining weight about that time!

I'm sad that I'm down to one pair each of the silver and gold Sebrights, the bantam chickens that I added to the homestead this past spring. I don't know whether it was coyotes or coons, but whatever it was, the bantams are almost gone. I am thinking about trying to catch them so I can lock them in the barn in hopes of being able to raise some chicks in the spring. They may be small in stature, but they are big in taste. We butchered the extra roosters in the summer when they were around four months old. Each one dressed out right around one pound, so we split them in half and grilled them. Sebright now ties stew hens as my favorite meat from the farm. I didn't realize a grilled chicken could taste that amazing!

If you want to chat about making Christmas gifts or turkey left-overs or anything homegrown or handmade, you can head over to my publisher's book club, and if you join the conversation, you'll be automatically entered to win a copy of my book. The drawing will be on Dec. 13.

If you have been thinking that you would like to give a copy of H&H to a friend or loved one, you can click over to the Homegrown and Handmade blog, leave a comment before Friday midnight, and be entered to win.

What's up?

Although the massive garden harvest of summer is long gone, we are starting to eat mustard greens and Swiss chard from the winter garden, and my arugula and mache have sprouted. I need to transplant broccoli plants that I started in the basement a month ago, and I'm still waiting for lettuce to germinate, but I know it will. My one-year-old broccoli plants in the garden have been reinvigorated by this cool weather and are growing like weeds! Broccoli is an annual, but I wonder how long it will continue to produce if we keep cutting the tops off. We'll get low tunnels and row covers on everything before it gets too cold, so we'll be able to continue to harvest through the winter like last year.

And this is a picture of Milton (Shakespeare's brother). These are the only pictures I've taken in the past week. Someone wants to buy one of the boys, so I finally got a few photos to send her. She still couldn't decide which one she wants, so she's going to come see them in person in a couple of weeks. I'm keeping one for myself because Sherri is their mother, and if you've been around the blog long, you know I love Sherri. But I haven't been able to decide which one I want to keep, so I told the buyer that she can have her pick of the two.

I really hate the fact that I don't have time to post on here as much as I would like. Saturday (tomorrow) I have a book signing in Champaign, IL, and then I'm heading to Michigan for a week of speaking, book signings, and interviews, as well as the American Dairy Goat Association Conference. I'll post on the Homegrown and Handmade site about all of the exciting things I learn. Then I'll be heading to Wisconsin and Kansas and finally getting home again a week before Thanksgiving. Mike and the two-legged kids will be taking care of the farm and animals while I'm gone.

If you want to check out my complete schedule, click here. If you live in Michigan, Wisconsin, or Kansas, I hope you'll be able to make it to one of the events. I'd love to meet you! And if you're an XM or Sirius listener, I'm currently scheduled to be on Martha Stewart Radio Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 3 p.m. eastern time.

Time for more kids!

Alexandria is due any day now. She'll be at day 145 on Friday, so she could give birth anytime between now and next Wednesday or Thursday. I've only had two does go to day 151. In honor of her impending motherhood, I've decided to give away an autographed copy of Homegrown and Handmade, which will be in stores in the next week or so. It's already available on Amazon and BN.com.

Here's the deal --

• In the comment section of the blog (HERE, not on Facebook), post the date you think she will give birth.
• If more than one person guesses the correct date, the first tie-breaker is number of kids.
• If more than one person guesses the correct date and number of kids, the second tie-breaker will be genders of kids.

So, tell me the date you think Alexandria will kid, as well as the number of kids, and the gender of the kids! You can post your guess until midnight central time Saturday, but only one guess per person. I'll let everyone know as soon as the blessed event occurs!

Good luck!

Cows and goats and PowerPoint

I should be working on my PowerPoint for the Mother Earth News Fair this weekend, but life has turned into quite the unexpected mess. And yes, I should be working on it now, but I haven't blogged in a week, and I'm not going to be able to write anything on here for the next few days, so I figured I'd let you all know what's been happening.

Yesterday I discovered that Pegasus, one of my ND bucks had a big problem with one of his eyes. At first I thought his eyeball was missing because I could only see pink tissue. But after closer inspection, I realized the eyeball was still in there, but you couldn't see it because the eyelid was so swollen. So, I called the university vet school. The man on the phone said someone would call me back in 15 minutes. So, I started working on one of my PowerPoints for the MEN Fair, and before I knew it, several hours had passed, and it was well past 5 p.m. when the vet school was closed. They have an emergency number, though, so I called back. An ophthalmologist talked to me and told me that it would be $300 for Pegasus to be seen! I was speechless. Normally the vet school is very reasonable.

So this morning, I started to call other vets to see if one of them could see him. The first one had a message saying she was out of town. The next one was busy. Then the phone rang. Our neighbor said our cows were in their yard, so Katherine and I ran out to get them. We brought them home but noticed that our bull was not with them. Katherine looked through our pastures and couldn't find him. Driving up and down the roads looking for him would have been a waste of time because it is very wooded around here, and he was probably deep in the woods where we would never see him from the road.

Then I got a phone call from the vet clinic. It was the technician that I normally speak with, and she said that the ophthalmologist was mistaken. It would be a normal office visit for the vet school, and the ophthalmologist consult would only be $35. Thank goodness she had heard about my phone call. Unfortunately, it was too late to bring in Pegasus today because it is a two-hour drive, so he has an appointment for tomorrow.

Then the intercom for the front gate ding-donged. It was a farmer from around the corner and a mile away. He said that our bull was in his barn. I was relieved to know where he was, but then the farmer started to complain that our cows were getting out "all the time," and he has 70 head of cattle, and "they never get out." Our bull has wound up in his barn twice, but he was also upset that another neighbor assumed our cattle belonged to him and had called him when our cattle got out a couple weeks ago. So, apparently once in March and two times in the last couple weeks is "all the time." But I had to really remember everything my mother ever said about being nice before I responded to his statement that his cattle "never get out." Before we put up a fence across our front yard, I found his cattle in my garden more than once. And I don't even know how many times I've called his brother to tell him that his cattle were in the road. I didn't even think about getting mad at him when someone called me and thought that his loose cattle were mine. I just said, nope, my cattle are in the pasture -- and I even called them to let them know that their cattle were loose.

I had always assumed that they didn't want their cattle running all over the county, and figured they'd realize I prefer mine stay home also. I don't understand why some people get so nasty about animals getting out. I certainly don't want my animals running all over the place. I appreciate it when people tell me they're out because I want them home where they'll be safe. Being mean to me isn't going to do anything to improve my fencing or my psychic ability to figure out how they're going to get out next. The problem is actually not the fencing. It's the creek. We had cattle before, and they never got out by walking down the creek bed or anywhere near there. Both times the cattle have gotten out before, we added additional fencing to the space where they got out, but then they go somewhere else next time. I didn't even attempt to figure out where they got out today because we're not putting them on the back twenty again.

One reason I wanted cattle is because they could utilize the pasture across the creek. Coyotes are thick back in there, so it's not safe for sheep and goats, even with the llamas. But this is not working with the cattle. I'm not happy about the idea of feeding them hay through another winter because they eat a lot. We ran out of hay the first winter we had them, which was not fun. Hay in February costs a lot more than hay during the summer because the sellers know you're desperate.

So, the cattle are now for sale. I already talked to one very clueless man who was interested in one of the cows. He mentioned breeding them to Scottish highlands or lowline Angus, and I immediately saw my sweet cows dieing trying to give birth to huge calves. So, scratch him off the list unless he educates himself a lot about Dexters, which are the smallest breed of cattle in the country. If the bull and the two calves don't sell within the next month or two, we'll turn them into beef and veal. If I have to feed hay to the two cows over the winter, I will.

As for how our day ended -- We had a fun time bringing Jaxon home. He was a mile from home, and the sun was going down. It was only Katherine and me at home, and the farmer made it clear he wasn't helping, which is fine. When Jaxon showed up at their place in March, his brother gave him a ride home in his trailer. Katherine and I took a lead rope and a pan of alfalfa cubes and hopped in the truck to drive over to the man's farm. We walked right up to Jaxon in the barn and started hand-feeding him the alfalfa cubes, and Katherine snapped the lead rope onto his collar. He walked out of the barn like a well-trained dog. I followed in the truck with my foot on the brake the whole time. I felt like I was driving in a parade, but watching Jaxon's back end for all that time, I started mentally drawing lines on him, figuring out how many roasts, steaks, and so on we'd get from him. The walk home went very well for the first half mile. Then Jaxon decided to start running, and Katherine dropped the lead rope. She runs for fun though, so she was able to keep up with him as he headed into the woods for a short while. The two re-emerged on the road a minute later with Katherine running closely behind him. Of course, the main thing on my mind was that if I had been home alone (like I will be in a year or two), I would not have been able to get him home by myself. I suppose that's why I started thinking about beef.

Now I have a PowerPoint to put together, and I have to take Pegasus to the vet clinic tomorrow, which will be a long day. Somewhere I need to get some sleep. I went to bed after midnight last night and woke up at 5:30 this morning and couldn't fall back asleep, worrying about Pegasus. Friday morning, I'm leaving for Pennsylvania and the Mother Earth News Fair. If you're there, be sure to say hi!

The annual panic post

If you've been around for awhile, you know that I generally panic this time of year. Husband-professor Mike is back at school, and the three now-adult children are all in college. Margaret will be graduating from University of Illinois this December. Katherine, my baby, is editor of her community college newspaper this year, and favorite son Jonathan is in theater and has already been cast in a play this semester. That leaves me home seven days a week to milk goats, make cheese, harvest vegetables, can, freeze, and deal with whatever emergency happens to be happening around here, which seems to be coyote related lately. Most days, I have one additional person here to help, and I hate to sound ungrateful, but that's not usually enough.

In past years, I've also freaked out about the fact that we still didn't get drain tiles in the ground around the house and barn, which means that we'll have to deal with continued flooding at random times. And no, we didn't get the drain tiles in this summer either. And the potting shed still is not done, although Mike did buy the lumber, so we are one step ahead of previous years. Maybe my dining room won't be taken over by seedlings next spring. And we got nothing done on the house -- you know, the one in which we live, the one we started building seven years ago. So we're still living with no tile around the master bathtub, few baseboards, and an open staircase. Someday this will be a beautiful house.

But this year, I have new things to add to my panic list -- I have a book coming out in a couple weeks, which means I'll be doing lots of speaking and book signings. So, I have speeches to write and Power Points to create. If you're in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, or Kansas, be sure to check out the events that are already scheduled there, as well as Illinois, where I live.

I also have to write my second book, which is due January 15. And I started two new blogs, which is one reason I don't post here quite as often. I've already introduced you to the Homegrown and Handmade blog, which is a supplement to the book and contains recipes and information on growing your own food and fiber. But I also decided to start a writer's blog -- a blog where I write about writing.

Does it surprise you to know that I've been thinking about selling the Irish dexter cattle and most of the Shetland sheep? I just haven't worked up the nerve to actually post any ads. Part of me keeps saying, what if it's a mistake? I'm not sure how it could be a mistake to reduce my workload around here, but fear of making a mistake paralyzes a lot of people.

Now the sun is low enough in the sky to be shining into the window next to my computer. It's my cue that it's time for evening chores.

Where did the recipes go?

In case you're wondering when I'll post more recipes, I am now posting all of them on the Homegrown & Handmade blog. I just posted a recipe for bread pudding, and last month I posted a recipe for strawberry jam. In May I shared my recipes for chocolate truffles and multigrain bread that's light and fluffy. If you don't want to miss any of the upcoming recipes, be sure to "follow" the Homegrown & Handmade blog or subscribe by email. In the next few months, I'll be posting recipes for cucumber goat cheese spread, spiced pear butter, and pumpkin spice cookies, just to name a few!

Another book contract!

I admit I'm not very good at building suspense, which explains why I'm not a fiction writer. Yes, the title pretty much spills the beans. I signed another book contract. The Ecofrugal Handbook will be published in the fall of 2012. It takes the core beliefs behind Homegrown and Handmade and brings the concepts to an even larger audience. Even if you don't want to grow your own food, you can make inexpensive, ecofriendly decisions daily.

Being a stay-at-home mom when my children were young, I was always looking for ways to save money and was a big fan of the Cheapskate Gazette books back in the early 1990s. Even though I've only been making soap for eight years, I was using baking soda as a facial exfoliant shortly after reading Don't Go To the Cosmetic Counter Without Me when it was only in its fourth edition. (It's now in its eight edition.) I also have all sorts of books on making your own cleaning products. In fact, one of the things that sold this idea to my publisher is that a lot of authors have made this way too complicated! You don't need 300 pages to give someone a couple hundred recipes for cleaning their house! Between baking soda and vinegar, you've pretty much got the bases covered when it comes to cleaning. Throw in a little hydrogen peroxide for blood stains, and you're good to go. And even though I loved Don't Go To the Cosmetic Counter Without Me, you really don't need 1,000 pages of advice on skin and hair care. The whole point of The Ecofrugal Handbook is that it does not have to be time-consuming or complicated or expensive to do things that are healthy, inexpensive, and ecofriendly.

I'm really looking forward to writing this book because it's always been a passion of mine to help people save money while making healthier choices. The book will cover ecofrugal choices for all sorts of things from educating yourself to planning your child's birthday party. And I'll definitely be asking all of you for ideas along the way.

One of the things I learned in writing my last book is that although I could write a book in three months, it's not something I really want to do again. So, the deadline for The Ecofrugal Handbook is January 15, which gives me time to do some gardening and cheesemaking this summer, as well as book signings and speaking engagements in the fall when Homegrown and Handmade comes out.

What's up?

It might sound impossible, but I've been busier than normal lately. In addition to cleaning the milking parlor, planting the garden, and milking goats twice a day four days a week while my daughter is taking summer classes, I'm also working on final edits for the book manuscript. Part of that process is deciding what can be cut because I ran out of space. So, earlier today on the Homegrown and Handmade site, I posted a bread recipe that was cut.

We recently received another batch of turkey poults, which I want to blog about. Today and tomorrow morning, we are in the midst of doing our monthly milk test with the goats, and on Sunday, we are having about a dozen of our goats classified with AGS. An AGS judge will be coming to the farm and basically giving our goats a report card to score them on the various parts of their conformation. We only have about a fourth of the garden planted, so we need to continue with that while also working on other projects that I'm looking forward to sharing with you -- like the area we're creating in the basement for making soap, storing wool roving, and shipping orders.

I go through this every summer -- when I have dozens of things to write about, I have no time to blog!

New website is up!

It still needs work, but the new website for Homegrown and Handmade is up! It has a Blogspot address for the time being, because all of the short and easy "Homegrown and Handmade" URLs are taken, so I either have to do something that is not a dot-com, like homegrownandhandmade.org or something really long like homegrownandhandmadethebook.com. In fact, the phrase "homegrown and handmade" is so popular, there were not even any of the shorter URLs available with Blogger, which is why I have the crazy, long URL that I do.

If you're wondering whether or not you want to "follow" the new blog and website, I don't plan to be duplicating information from here and there. The new site will contain a lot of unique info, such as the schedule for the book tour this fall and videos related to the book.

Baby book, baby goats, and maple sap

Just when I was getting really frustrated by the seven very pregnant goats not having their babies, I received the most exciting email from my publisher. The cover for my book was attached! I was as excited as an expectant mother looking at her baby on an ultrasound. Unfortunately, it will still be another six months before I actually get to hold my book, which is starting to feel a lot like my fourth baby. I've heard more than one author use that analogy, and I'm beginning to understand it.

Included on the cover is an endorsement from Mother Earth News, because the book has been selected to become a part of their Wiser Living Series, and I could not be prouder. It is really exciting to have such a great magazine put their stamp on my book.

Baby goats
Now I just have to keep waiting for these seven goats to have their babies. Three are at day 147 and four are at day 146. We've never had a goat go past day 151, so as each day passes, I worry about having more than one in labor at a time. At least I have heat lamps in each of the four kidding pens, and the temperatures are not supposed to go much below the twenties for the rest of the week. I counted my goat towels today, however, and there are only seven. It usually takes one or two towels to get each baby dry. I wouldn't be too worried except that we seem to be having an unusually high number of quads this year, and Coco has had quads the last two years, and four of the goats out there have had triplets in the past, so this could get interesting. I usually spend about two hours with the kids after they're born, then it will take a couple hours to wash the towels, so this could work -- if there are at least a few hours between births.

So, why did I put myself in this crazy situation, you ask? Well, when a goat is in heat, you have to ask yourself if you want to breed her to kid in five months, or do you want to wait for her to come into heat again in three weeks. Considering that I have seven more due in two to three weeks, I'm glad I decided to breed these seven when I did. It should be warmer in three weeks, but I can't imagine how I'd feel if I have ten or twelve goats due in a short period of time. Seven is chaotic enough.

Maple sap
We collected twelve and a half gallons of sap over the weekend, and we spent most of Sunday and Monday boiling it down. Around nine, Monday night, Mike put up our first three pints of syrup, but the weather was too cold today and yesterday for the sap to flow. As soon as it warms up a little during the day, that will add another interesting dimension to our lives.

Chicago chickens

In Homegrown and Handmade, there will be a section on backyard poultry, and because I've never had chickens in the city, I decided to visit some people who keep chickens in Chicago. Katherine went with me because she is doing most of the photos for the book. It was a fun and inspiring day!

We visited four coops in the city and one in a suburb. They ranged from the ultimate in original green design to the ultimate in repurposing an existing structure, which is also a sustainable concept.

This coop is in the suburb of Batavia. It is actually a chicken tractor, which the owner moves with his front loader. You can't see them very well in the snow, but there are skids under the coop and the run. The coop was originally a model shed at a home improvement store, which explains why it is only four feet deep. Owner Jeffrey Glaser added a window on the opposite side of the building, as well as more vents for good air circulation. The coop is home to eleven happy hens.

Martha Sanders and her family built their chicken coop into the end of their garage. From inside the garage, they can open the coop to feed and water their four hens and pick up eggs. The run on the left side of the photo is covered with hardware cloth to keep the hens safe from predators. The unusual "bump out" in their garage was put in by a previous owner who had a car that was too long for the garage. The family added the lower window to provide light for the hens. That window, as well two additional windows used on the other side of the coop (inside the garage) are repurposed from Martha's sister-in-law's house remodeling.

If you don’t want to give up any garden space for a chicken coop, Beth Berger Martin’s idea might work for you. An avid gardener, she built her chicken coop with a “green roof” so that she could plant on top of it. Her Chicago yard is too small and shady to be able to grow vegetables, so she had been using EarthBoxes in her neighbor’s backyard. When she decided to add chickens to her own yard, she took the opportunity to raise ground level to eight feet where plants would get sunlight on top of her chicken coop. The top of her coop is made with repurposed two-by-six joists covered with two layers of three-quarter inch by six inch by sixteen-foot boards, which are covered with roofing felt. The “raised bed” has a waterproof liner, and the roof is sloped so run-off will go into a rain barrel.

Because chickens are short, the coop only occupies the middle third of the red structure on the left side. The space above and below the coop opens to the opposite side and will be used for storing chicken feed, straw, and tools. Nest boxes in the coop also open to the outside, so eggs can be collected without entering the coop or run. Fresh greens will be planted in the window box in spring, so that the hens can have a snack by sticking their heads through the window. The front wall of the coop is actually a giant door on hinges and can be opened for easy cleaning. The run (on the right) is covered with hardware cloth.

Would you guess that this is a chicken coop? Four bantams are locked up for the night under this six-by-eight-foot porch. Come morning, owner Alexandra Gomez-Koski lets them out to run around her fenced backyard. The space had previously been used for storage. Alexandra said she thought about getting chickens for a while, but she was put off by the idea of having to build a coop because she had never built anything before. Then she realized she already had a space available that would work.

Sneak peak: Homemade noodle recipe

The following recipe is from Homegrown and Handmade. If you get a chance to try it, let me know what you think, especially if you have any problems with the instructions.

Homemade Noodles

Cut and dried and waiting to be boiled

Although noodles are not expensive to buy, they cost only pennies to make, and you can use your own organic eggs. They are also incredibly easy and delicious. This recipe is enough for one serving of noodles as a main dish or two servings if it is part of a hearty soup or side dish. Feel free to double, triple, or quadruple as needed.

1 egg
½ cup flour plus more for rolling out
pinch of salt

Break egg into bowl and beat. Add flour and mix thoroughly. It’s easier if you add it ¼ cup at a time. The dough should form a ball. If it hasn’t formed a ball yet, add a little more flour. Roll it in flour to coat completely. Sprinkle flour liberally on countertop or waxed paper and press dough ball down on it. Flip dough ball over and press again. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough as thinly as possible. It’s quite elastic and will keep trying to shrink on you. Use flour liberally to keep the dough from sticking to the countertop or rolling pin. You can’t use too much flour at this point. Cut noodles into strips using a pizza cutter. If you don’t have a pizza cutter, sprinkle more flour on the dough, then roll up like a jelly roll and cut through the roll with a knife to make noodles. Dry for one or two hours, if you have time. If you want to cook them right away, they’ll puff up a little but will still taste great. Drop them into boiling chicken broth (made from a stew hen) for best flavor.

Thoughts, please!

As I'm writing Homegrown and Handmade (to be published fall 2011 by New Society Publishers), I keep thinking that there are plenty of opinions out there on some of the topics I'm covering. Right now, I have two things that I'd really love to have your opinions on --

If you're a homesteader, or if you want to be a homesteader, why do you do it? Or why do you want to do it? I'd love to hear from urban homesteaders, as well as those in the country. Why do you grow your own food or cook from scratch or spin wool? If it is okay to include your thoughts in the book, please sign your comment with your name and city/state or city/province or city/country.

If you have chickens, why did you choose the breed (or breeds) that you have? Did they live up to your expectations? If you've had more than one breed, what's your favorite?

I spent yesterday visiting chicken coops in the city of Chicago and will be posting some photos of them soon! I was really impressed by the creativity of people working with limited space for their flocks of laying hens.

History of poultry housing

I got a little carried away in my research on the history of poultry housing for Homegrown and Handmade, and there just isn't room in the book for all of this information, even though I think it is absolutely fascinating. So, I'm sharing it with you!

A few years ago, some old boards, an old door, and a dozen barrel staves or lath was deemed a sufficient house for poultry, but that day is past.

Poultry World, April 1873, p. 48

The short article that ran with the drawing of Jacob Beier's poultry house praised the beauty, as well as the evidence of well-cared-for poultry that lived within it, as evidenced by the chimney, which provided warmth and cooked food and the windows that could be opened for ventilation.  The article went on to say, "The pains and expense bestowed upon the feathered stock of the country, in the way of improved buildings, is a gratifying sign of progress."

Progress? Only twenty-five years later, there was quite a controversy between farmers over whether the insulated, heated houses were best or the open-air houses. Previously unknown diseases were wiping out entire flocks, because the buildings were breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses. Air quality was horrendous, as many people wrote of the stench. Combs and feet were freezing because of the high humidity in the buildings during the winter.

Once of the most vocal proponents of open-air housing for chickens was Prince T. Woods, M.D., who wrote articles and books for more than two decades. His 1924 book, Modern Fresh-Air Poultry Houses (p. 14) said:

Nature made fowls to live in the open. She provided cock and hen with generous garments of feathers; arranged for constant replacement and repair, heavier underfluff of soft warm down for cold weather wear, a complete new outfit at least once a year, nearly perfect protection against both heat and cold as well as from storms. Housing them is an artificial condition wholly for Man’s convenience and chiefly essential for comfort in care and management and protection against thieves both two and four legged.

Woods received a lot of criticism for his opinion and was called heartless and lazy, but he was not alone. It really looked like the open-air poultry movement was finally gaining speed in the 1920s, but as we all know, it didn't last. Today's commercial poultry farms have put their hens not only in buildings but in tiny little cages where they never see sunlight or fresh air.

Homegrown and Handmade coming fall 2011

In fall 2011, my first book will be published -- Homegrown and Handmade. It's a how-to book on growing your own produce, meat, eggs, dairy, and even fiber. And then once you've grown it, the book will explain what to do with it -- how to make your own goat cheese or wool scarf. There will be recipes for what to do when your kitchen is overflowing with eggs during the spring, and I'll have instructions and recipes for cooking stew hens and other traditional foods. Of course, homesteaders will find a lot of valuable info in the book, but it's also for urbanites who shop at the farmer's market or have their own garden or backyard hens.

So, how did all of this come about? Well, back in September when I was at the Mother Earth News Fair, a representative of New Society Publishing approached me and suggested that I might have a book in me. She had read my bio on the Mother Earth News site and visited the blog. She attended my soapmaking session, and we had a meeting where we started talking about ideas. Over the past month, I've written a book proposal, which we've tweaked for content, and today, I signed the contract.

It's a little surreal and overwhelming at times to think that I am writing a book! But I've already started, and I've knocked off 3,000 words, so I only have another 77,000 to go by February 15. The book will add up to about 288 pages. As usual, the family is being super supportive. Awesome daughter Katherine has volunteered to do most of the milking for the next few months, so I'll have more time for writing.

I promise all of you right now that I won't be one of those bloggers who gets a book deal and totally forgets about blogging. I love sharing all of my adventures with you and hearing what you think of all of it. No doubt I'll be asking you all for advice on various topics as I work through the chapters. And the best part of all this is the book tour, which means I'll get to meet some of you!