These are from a photo shoot done this week for the chapters in the “Raising Chickens” book on incubating, hatching, and raising chicks. It was a pretty magical day. A chick even pipped its way out “for us”, as though on cue. The setting was the gorgeous Double G Ranch, stewarded by the imminently gracious and hospitable Lance and Valerie Graves. If you’re in the Asheville area and are looking for organic feed or chickens raised organically, give them a call. They’ll hook you up. They’ve also got a host of adorable pygmy goats, horses, and pigs, which although not for sale, are worth the trip out to their place alone. BABY PYGMY GOATS! If you’re looking for the cute threshold, look no further. 

This cabin in Northern Idaho, designed by architectural firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen, is blowing my mind. In the sage words of Tina Fey, I want to go to there. I’ve looked at it just about every day for six days now. Check it out yourself. Be sure to move through the thumbnails and watch the short video of the giant window being cranked open. Talk about ventilation. I think I’d like something similar for my birthday. It’s only a ‘cabin,’ right? 

It’s Dexter’s birthday today! He’s one year old! Although he has terrorized countless throw pillows, several dog beds, the rug in this picture (LONG since replaced), all five of the cats, and even the windowsill in the guest bedroom, I wouldn’t trade him in for any other dog in the world. 

It’s been a rough week. My dog, Fly, has been obsessively licking and gnawing at the injury she incurred last week when she ran over a nail sticking out of the end of one of the greenhouses that we sold. I had to cancel a much desired vacation in the interest of being a responsible adult and saving money. The anti-inflammatory Fly has to take gives her gas, the rankness of which I had not known dogs were capable of achieving. It’s cold and the firewood won’t stay lit.

Never one to take life’s mishaps sitting down, I’ve turned to Nora as a beacon of hope. If something so small and fuzzy can rise to the challenge and say, “Oh, so you don’t think cats can play the piano? PUH-LEEZE! Small-minded peon!”, then so can I. Enjoy the show!

I’m up to my elbows in jam, curd, and relish-recipes, that is. It’s down to the final month of writing before the first two books in the series make their way officially out of my computer and on to the rest of the publishing process luminaries. In the meantime (not that I really have much of a “meantime,” what with bee-keeping school and my dog injuring her paw on a nail from the old hoophouses, and a medley of other concerns; more like “in the leantime”), I’ve hooked up with the local Slow Food chapter and their fledgling Education Committee. Apparently, the mandate from this years Terra Madre in Turin, Italy (the big dog international meeting for Slow Foodies) was to emphasize the social justice part of Slow Food, as envisioned by it’s founder, Carlo Petrini. What that means on a practical level is making sure that everyone, everywhere has access to delicious, fair, sustainable foods.