April, 2013

Dear MaryJane ...

When my Feb/March 2013 magazine came, I was so excited to see “Choosing Your Backyard Chicken” on the front and to read your recommendation of Buff Orpingtons as the chicken of choice. We brought our first chicks home eight years ago and had two each of six different breeds. I actually felt that each of the girls would like to have had at least one other of her breed in the flock ... but then realized (of course) that none of the girls knew what they looked like! We still laugh about that, all these years later ...

My two Buff Orpingtons, Thelma and Louise, were the family favorites. Their gentleness and natural curiosity made them both easy to interact with and always amusing. They were the first to investigate any new thing and were always willing to be picked up or carried. Thelma just died last year at the old-chicken-lady age of 8. She was such a dear that six new Buff Orpingtons will be joining the flock this spring.

I always read my MaryJanesFarm cover to cover, but this article was first on the list this month. Keeping a flock of layers (when they finish laying, we don’t eat them, but just let them live here in the Old Hens’ Home) has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I’ve ever done. I hope your article will encourage lots more backyard chicken ladies! Thanks, too, for introducing me to the Chicken Kooler. What a wonderful product!

A happy chicken lady and faithful reader,
Anne
Michigan
(kitschy-vintage.blogspot.com)

I have to let you know just how happy I am to join your Farmgirl Connection. I have been a farmgirl since I was ... well, all my life. I was raised on a farm. Aside from wondering whether or not I would ever marry a farmer, I always pictured myself living on 60 acres of timberland with a small spot in the middle for my log cabin. I would be able to go out in the morning, hang my wash on the line, pick a few apples, then go inside and bake an apple dumpling for breakfast. While it was baking, I’d churn some butter. I’d have my apple dumpling for breakfast, take in the wash, and then go to work.

As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” I didn’t marry a farmer, and I do not live on 60 acres in a log cabin. But I did find a man (when I wasn’t looking) who lives on six acres in the country and who helps people whenever they need it. I do have a garden like my mother did. I do not have a clothesline anymore, although I wish I did and I will in the future.

My husband shares my love of the outdoors. He and I both hunt, though he does much more than I do. I love the gazillions of blackberry bushes that inhabit the ground we purchased for him to hunt on. I have had to lose my fear of canning. We have dedicated ourselves to eating a jar of SOMETHING per week because I have canned so much. He has begun keeping bees, and we harvested our first honey this fall. I will be making lip gloss within the month.

So I am a farmgirl, and my husband is a farmboy by default. And now I’m happy to be a part of the Farmgirl Connection!

Cindy
Illinois