Sitting at the kitchen table recently, watching the flicker of an old-fashioned oil lantern, the winter conditions outside reminded me of how wonderful it is to live out in the sticks.

Wintertime out in the country, unlike any other time of the year, brings to mind how far from the comforts of city life we really are – it feels freeing, in a sense, to sit at the table playing dominoes, no television in the picture, not dependent on any outside forces. Looking out the window, I can actually see the moonlight on the timber set 100 yards away. Man, does it look cold. I can say with some confidence that I will never live within city limits again.

The only frustrating thing thus far – we moved in at the beginning of October – has been too many projects for the amount of daylight with which we’ve had to work. Winter can be a difficult time for me, since Monday through Friday during the shorter days of winter I leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark. No daylight hours except for the weekends.

This old farmhouse (somewhere around 175 years old) calls to me, and I rush home at the end of every day, don a headlamp, and head out to walk the dog down through the woods, or to turn sod for next year’s garden. I’ve also worn that headlamp while making some chicken coop repairs and even dispatching an opossum that managed entry into our hen house.

Predator pressure aside, my first project is expanding our poultry-raising efforts. I’ve managed to barter lumber from a neighbor in exchange for a couple weekends worth of drywall help, so building a permanent coop with a rotational grazing model chicken yard (for our laying hens), then building a larger movable chicken tractor for 10 or so meat birds in the spring are at the top of my list. I’ve already budgeted supplies for the NathanWinters' Movable Birdcage, so once deer season ends, I’ll have my work cut out. The project is already sketched out, and war has been declared on the resident coon, opossum and coyote populations. Along those lines, be sure to check out “CopingWith Critters” on Page 13.

Recently, a reader called into question why we have so many bloggers on our site, since many of them enjoy writing about the same things. The answer, quite simply, is that there are multiple ways to skin a cat (or slaughter a pig), and to think we already know the best management practice, the wisest design for a chicken coop, the best way of doing anything, would just be foolish. The many voices in our community are constantly coming up with cool ways of doing things, and if you’d like to contribute, please don’t hesitate to email me (cregan@grit.com). Hearing from our constituents, our readers, really does make our community an incredibly effective way of sharing and gathering information. Hopefully, you’ll find something you can use in this issue of GRIT Country, whether that’s the DIY drip irrigation system for your garden or crucial advice for building a kitchen garden.

Until our paths cross again,
- CDR 

Here we are in late November, and it sure seems like it should be cooler. We experienced temperatures higher than I can ever remember last winter. In fact, records were broken across the country! Yet at this time last year, temperatures were lower than they are today. With so much uncertainty in my mind, I was excited and curious to flip through the pages of The 2013 Old Farmer’s Almanac and find out what we are in for in terms of 2013 weather predictions, particularly winter weather forecast 2013 predictions.

Despite what the current conditions in Kansas suggest, The Old Farmer’s Almanac tells me it will indeed be a little cooler this winter than last. The 2013 Almanac indicates that throughout rural America, folks can expect lower-than-normal temperatures this winter from the East Coast westward to a line from the Dakotas to Texas. West of that line, except for portions of the Desert Southwest, temperatures will actually be warmer than those of the 2011-2012 winter.

In terms of winter snowfall, the Almanac’s forecast is a split decision: “Snowfall will be above normal in a swathe from the Carolinas to West Texas and within a hundred miles or so of the Great Salt Lake; it will be near or below normal elsewhere.” Snow in the South and in much of Oklahoma and central Texas! The good news is that the Almanac believes that there will be enough precipitation (rain and snow) that the areas hit hard by drought conditions last year may see some relief.

Spring will bring welcome rain, too, according to the Almanac.

“Rainfall will be above normal from the Carolinas southward through Florida, from the Ohio Valley southwestward through Texas, and from the Upper Midwest westward into the Dakotas; it will be near or below normal elsewhere.”

Florida stands to benefit particularly. The Old Farmer’s Almanac says the Sunshine State will experience a much rainier season than normal – easing its drought conditions – while Georgia will continue to experience dryer-than-normal conditions.

Moving into the summer, we can expect summer temperatures to be higher than normal along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the Ohio Valley, but cooler than normal elsewhere.

For a Kansas guy like me, the prediction of cooler summer temperatures is music to the ears; however, taking a look at these two maps and flipping through the Almanac pages, it occurred to me that my part of the country might experience below-average rainfall, which is not.

Our grandpas and uncles were always worried about getting enough rain, and very little has changed on that front. No matter what slice of the countryside you call home, hopefully Mother Earth will be kind and you can make the most of whatever weather you experience in 2013.

Once in a while at a media event, you run up against a machine that wows the small acreage nut. Call me easily amazed, call me enthralled with UTVs that perform backbreaking work while allowing you to get after it in the trail-riding realm, call me even more impressed with an engineering group who can answer every question you have enthusiastically while getting some sincere joy out of watching their creation be truly put to the test: the Polaris Ranger XP 900 impressed bigtime at the 2012 Model Year 2013 press launch near Great Falls, Montana, last week.

Our folks, the GRIT community, have time and time again indicated you like machines that are capable of real work, be it drilling a 36-inch hole by tractor-mounted PTO auger, splitting Osage Orange (hedge) wood into cords of wonderful heat, a tiller meant to cover your acreage - be it a Mantis 2-stroke or a beefy TroyBilt - or the old Alice Chalmers you inherited and drives like a beast but gets it done wherever you live.

At the 2012 Polaris event, I hammered on multiple units with you in mind: Polaris Sportsman 850 ATV, Polaris Ranger 800 mid-size that is still available and is a best-selling make and model, Polaris RZR XP 900 that now boasts 12 ½ inches ground clearance (guys at dinner tell me competitive riders are buying these turn-key on the way to dunes events, and winning), and most of all the Ranger XP 900. 

The Ranger XP 900 is much quieter (in large part because the engine is now located under the box), the chassis is two times (100 percent improvement) more rigid than its predecessor, it has 10 percent more suspension travel, and it delivers - at 60 hp - 75 percent power to the ground. In the world of small-scale agriculture, this thing stole the show. In my mind, it outperformed the popular but older mid-size Ranger (800s retail for around $12,300 base, while the new 900 is about $1600 more for the base rig) hands-down, even under the humble load of square bales I could track down and take to the trails all afternoon. At 1,500-pounds total payload, and one-ton towing capacity, I wasn’t even scratching the surface with those square bales, but I wanted to at least simulate some real work.

At one point, I was straight gettin’ it, sliding sideways around a corner on gravel at around 45-50 mph, wondering a little apprehensively – I admit it – how the top-speed would feel at 60 mph. I wouldn’t feel the need to go that fast on pavement, that’s for sure, but that’s where the Speedkey accessory adds real value; especially if you have kids.

And that American-made Polaris Sportsman 850 gets after it, too. Man, was that fun. 

When I think back to summers as a boy, I remember a farm pond with a legendary stock of crappie, working a roughly one-acre garden, campfires out by the tractor barn, riding horses through the “motherland” to watch the sun set with my dad, and waking up of a morning to roam the family acres in whatever way my brothers and I could imagine. Horizon to horizon, shared with my best friends and thousands of head of cattle.

We’d get chewed on good – and rightfully so – for running cattle or messing around in crop fields. And our parents warned us of numerous dangers. But generally, we were left to our own devices and could venture as far as you could see in any direction, our canvas for testing the laws of nature.

I learned what a rope burn was descending the hayloft when my brother Andy jumped on top and came along for the ride. I also learned to respect just how tough and strong Andy was watching him ride a rank horse, Bucky (appropriately named), through a thicket – and ride him to a standstill.

From my brother Josh, I learned patience. Not many youngsters could sit for hours at a pond waiting for fish to start biting. Not many youngsters can walk for days with a shotgun without seeing much. Watching my older brother, I had no choice. He taught me to appreciate hunting and fishing, hobbies I still love to this day.

And when our older half brother, Danny, came out to the farm, it was full-blown go-time. Mom and Dad let us off the hook for the most part, and we could let loose, chore responsibilities and work largely ignored.

However, most days did involve work, although we didn’t have to milk cows or do many of the other traditional farm tasks. Our chores consisted of cleaning cockleburs out of the horses’ manes (dreaded, tedious work), dealing with firewood, mowing the huge yard, harvesting fruit in the orchard, and helping work that large garden.

My most dreaded garden task was picking green beans. We had beans for miles – the amount of which time has no doubt helped to exaggerate – which my mom canned to last throughout the year. We spent hours stooped over the bush bean plants, getting stung on our hands, working down the rows, and standing up every few minutes to straighten our backs.

Then we’d get to snap them sitting in the lawn chair beside Mom, which was – and still is – the best part of the chore.

Beans added so much to our garden, and are still one of my favorite garden crops to this day. Check out Page 13 of the June issue of GRIT Country, “All About Growing Beans,” and add hours of fun and fulfillment to your backyard growing space.

Campfire cooking – be it a wienie roast or a mess of crappie in a cast-iron pan – was another staple of summer, the part of the day when you knew the work was finished and Mom’s baked beans were warming in a pot. Take outdoor cooking to a whole new level after reading “DIY Wood-Fired Outdoor Cooker” on Page 7. These plans require some construction skill, but if you’re feeling up to taking on a summer project, this one is as worthy as any, and it will enhance suppers in all seasons.

And finally, one of my favorite recently read articles, Karen Keb’s “Keep a Family Milk Cow” breaks down what a milk cow actually produces for your family – how much money it saves – and details how to go about raising one. It doesn’t get any more Grit-ty than that.

Enjoy, and if there’s anything you’d like to see in particular, send an email my way at cregan@grit.com.

Until our paths cross again,
Caleb D. Regan

Last year, life was good to me.

First and foremost, my wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in a tree-house cabin in southern Missouri, hidden from the world on the North Fork River. We fished for wild native trout by day and ate exceptional food like deer tenderloin and homemade dill bread in the evenings. 

Earlier in the year, after a meaningful weekend deer hunting with my father-in-law, I took about 40 pounds of whitetail deer meat from pasture to freezer. I’d harvested several deer in previous years, but always relied on the local butcher for processing the meat.

I’ll never forget the feeling last fall as my wife and I sat at our little kitchen table, carefully carving meat away from bones and – for the first time – actually seeing to it myself that nothing went to waste. It felt like such good work, to both of us, and was a fulfilling
experience.

Back in the spring, we caught more than 19 pounds of trout that supplied us with some excellent-tasting fish, a catch that nearly lasted us all the way through the hot Kansas summer of 2011.

We processed around 40 broiler chickens in November, an annual event that puts some meat in the freezer and bonds our staff and community here at GRIT in a way that office discussions cannot.

And we added a deep freeze last winter – a gift from family – that now allows us to affordably purchase quality meat for the first time. Be it half of a grassfed steer, or half of a bison split among friends, my family is closer to consuming in a manner of which we can be proud.

Really, we’re closer to living how we want to live. After looking at country homes for more than a year now, we’re months away from moving out to a modest little A-frame house that sits on a few acres of pasture, a move that will allow us to raise a few head of cattle, keep the chickens we already have, and maybe add rabbits or a pig or three.

Personal events of the year as great as they were, being given the opportunity to be more involved in the editorial decisions here at GRIT – the nation’s most iconic, historic rural lifestyle magazine that has remained in continuous publication the longest of any – means I get to work more directly for you. It’s such an honor to work on this title every day, and to hear from the folks of rural America on a daily basis; folks like my Uncle Fred and Grandpa Goodno – folks cut from the same cloth as I am. We live and love the lifestyle, and we also listen. We love to listen.

One of the things our readers indicated recently is every editor’s dream: You want more. Our editorial survey team (join at www.Grit.com/surveys) suggested that 72 percent of you would like to receive an electronic PDF-format digital supplement to GRIT that would be published halfway between print issues, a shorter six additional issues of the magazine, if you will.

So, fairly soon, we'll be sending out our first-ever issue (Volume 1, Number 1!) of GRIT Country, and we’d love your feedback. It’s entirely free the first time around, and we look forward to providing you with 12 issues a year of your favorite rural lifestyle magazine. Subscribe to GRIT Country right here. Each interactive issue of GRIT Country will contain at least one gardening article and one DIY project – make sure and check out the DIY doghouse on Page 7 of the April GRIT Country, and consider giving your pooch a new set of digs he or she will love, for cheap.

To receive that first issue, all you have to do is either subscribe to GRIT Country, or make sure you're signed up for our newsletter, GRIT eNews, and you can sign up for that at www.grit.com/newsletters. 

It was a fun one to work on, since for the first time ever we could include live links in an issue, and we're working toward including videos right in the PDF; the possibilities are fun and intriguing to think about.

Finally, to add your voice to the discussion, join the editorial advisory group at the web address above, or drop me a line at cregan@Grit.com. We’ll do everything we can to provide you with the cream of the crop.

Until our paths cross again,
Caleb D. Regan

Photos: courtesy Gwen Regan 

Getting ready for Thanksgiving, I was thinking the other day about locating heritage turkey breeders in my area to source a high-quality bird for the family dinner table.

Corresponding with Slow Food USA via Twitter and email, those folks made me privy to an exciting new technology not all that unlike the heritage breed locator on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s website that I used a couple weeks back to find a replacement Hamburg hen for the backyard.

Slow Food USA has put together the Slow Food Thanksgiving Guide, complete with a heritage breed locator, 72 recipes in various courses that you should feel good about feeding your family, and general tips and tricks to having a “Slow Food Thanksgiving”.

Looking for farms that fit the Slow Food mission with dedication to raising appropriate breeds of animals the right way, Slow Food USA turned to the ALBC, Heritage Turkey Foundation and Local Harvest, among other organizations, to come up with a list of farms that ship nationally and do things the right way.

Visit a farmers’ market, source a turkey, check out the Slow Food USA Thanksgiving Guide, and cook a meal that would make small farmers everywhere proud. Also, take a moment to check out these websites and resources, and direct your attention and respect to these organizations fighting the good fight.

As for myself, I’ll have the privilege of slaughtering my own heritage bird Saturday for next Thursday’s feast. There is much to be thankful for this holiday season.

Follow Caleb on Twitter at @calebdregan. 

Midget White tom image: courtesy American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

Last Saturday, thanks to the ALBC breed finder, we headed out to the home of GRIT and MOTHER EARTH NEWS reader Margaret Kramar to pick up a replacement hen for the wonderful layer we lost in the 113-degree heat this past summer.

Margaret and her family were a pleasure to talk to, and in this business you often don’t get the opportunity to interface directly with readers; it’s such a nice alternative to emailing and phone conversations.

Here’s our new little Hamburg hen (speckled, pretty, smaller bird on the left). She was just hatched this past spring, so I'm glad to get her in her first year. There was a little scuffling and establishing pecking order in the first few minutes, but when I went out later that first night with a flashlight, our two hens were roosted right next to one another in the coop on the same roosting bar. I think now it's safe to call them buds.

We’ve never named our hens, not for any other reason than we have two different breeds, so they are simply: the Hamburg and the Dorking. I really don’t buy into the if-you-name-it-you-won’t-want-to-eat-it philosophy, so maybe these girls end up with a name at some point.

Our chickens are laying hens, definitely, but a few years from now we will end up stewing them as well. I’ll probably have to take them away from the house and wife for the processing, since it’s not the most pleasant thing for anyone to process the animal they raise, but it’s completely necessary in my opinion.

By the time I got to our former Hamburg, rigor mortis had set in, so she was buried in the backyard instead of reaching the proverbial stew pot. Really, she should have been burned to prevent any chance of disease, I know, but we currently live in town and that’s just not possible.

Anyways, I strongly endorse the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s online directory and rare breed locator on their website. Type in the species or even specific breed you are looking for, your city or zip code, and proximity parameters, and you can locate a member of the ALBC closest to you. It’s a breeze.

One phone call to Margaret, and we had ourselves a replacement Hamburg that will be just as appreciated as her predecessor, and hopefully we can see her through to an older age. It certainly was an added bonus that the Kramars are dedicated to country living and rare-breed conservation – values that I think are probably widespread among the ALBC members by definition – not to mention good GRITty folks!

Now, just to convince Gwendolyn to add a couple of meat rabbits to the space we have, and between poultry, venison and rabbits, we’ll be doing about all of the home-meat processing that we can until we make our way out where the pavement ends.