I haven’t written in forever it seems.  My usual excuse….we’ve been busy.  It’s no excuse for not writing but it’s the only one I have!  I have plenty to share so you’ll be seeing a variety of topics in the near future.  Just a teaser…we scalded and scraped our hogs, OH MY!! 

I figured a perfect return topic would be exactly what my title says. The New Wish Book:  Grit Magazine.  The girls still enjoy looking at the ToysRUs book at Christmas time but every month they are more excited to see Grit in the mail.  Even before I get to look at it the oldest is paging through with her sisters at her side, standing in the kitchen saying “Mom, look. Mom, we need this.  Mom, Dad could do that. Mom, you could do this.  Mom, we could do that.  Mom.  Mom.  Mom.”      

Hopefully the day comes that we can have our own farm and then the girls can have SOME of everything that they want.  We keep telling them to save their money, they are going to need it with the wish list they have.  So far here’s the list: 

•  A Milk Cow – Regularly I joke that I need a cow because of the amount of milk they drink.  Aurora is the leader of this band wagon and the other morning when we ran out of milk (I was going to the store anyway) she argued that if we had the cow we wouldn’t have run into that problem.  She was as serious as serious could be. 
• Goats – Eliza is behind this one.  She bought goat milk soap at the Mother Earth News Fair and loved it.  Seriously, the stuff is amazing and even Chad tells everyone that it is great.  Liza says that it would be a good thing for us to make and she read that the milk is good to drink.  We’ll be our own variety dairy mart with cow and goat milk! 
• Lambs  
• A Maple Sugar Camp  
• More Chickens  
• Bees – They aren’t fans of store bought honey. 
• Turkeys – Royal Palms to be exact.   
• More Hogs – They may get their wish on this one. 
• Pheasants  
• Our Own Cattle – They like the Highlands, Herefords, long horns, and short horns. Oh and don’t forget the miniature cattle too. 
• A Bigger Garden – Apparently we didn’t plant enough cucumbers, lettuce, or turnips last year and we forgot the brussel sprouts and yellow squash.  The size of the garden is not a problem.  I could fix the cucumber and turnip issue without increasing the size of the garden.  They would have to quit eating them while they are picking them. 
• Fruit Trees – We have crab apples and pears but they want big apples and oranges.  We can work on the apples but the oranges would take a miracle! 
• Horses – Here again we have it down to certain breeds.  Belgians or black percherons.    

The list continues to grow every day.  We discuss each addition including things like the responsibilities, supplies, feed, and so on that is associated with owning whatever we are talking about and if need be, why it wouldn’t be possible to have it.  There’s no need to quickly reply no.  Who knows there might be two Belgians residing in the barn one day!   

Well I’m off to make some bread bowls for tonight’s asparagus soup.  We are also blessed with three girls that love to eat everything and anything and don’t have to have chicken nuggets in order to survive.  By the time they are teenagers and have *gasp* boyfriends, we will have to butcher 2 beef, 3 hogs, and a gazillion chickens!!  Have a great day! 

 Day 1 at the 2011 Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs Pennsylvania offered the chance to mingle with livestock, speak with animal owners, and listen to presentations from leaders in the animal husbandry world.



 

My own responsibilities, helping at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's Animal Husbandry Tent, meant I was assembling poultry and rabbit cages, leading ponies to pens, and even in once case carrying a non-halterbroke sheep from a trailer to her pen about 50 yards away.

Some of the coolest things from this Fair, for me: talking with livestock owners of various animals, and even getting to know individual breeds; it offers one of the few chances in this business to have a direct interface with readers, and it’s refreshing to hear about their homes, farms, gardens, animals and lives; seeing speakers like Pat Foreman, Carol Ekarius, Harvey Ussery, and Joel Salatin, not to mention the presentations given by my own colleagues at Ogden Publications; a refreshing chance to get to know those colleagues better, outside of our office cubicles.

This video was a quick interview with Anne Hallowell of Mercer County Pennsylvania. The Hallowells raise Classic Llamas, impressive multipurpose animals that perform well as guardian animals, companions, and most notably pack animals. I’d never seen a pack rig like this for a llama, and the idea of using this animal to pack up for a camping trip and then employ that animal to protect the campsite on that trip is pretty cool.

It’s inspiring to interact with Fair-goers, exhibitors, and presenters alike.

A couple weeks back, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural MOTHER EARTH NEWS Fair, September 25 and 26 in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. From talking to GRIT readers to attending a workshop on small-scale home meat processing, this was an excellent opportunity that I’m thrilled to have seized.

My duties at the Fair were multifaceted, but initially I was to go and work a booth promoting GRIT’s partnership with the U.S. Belted Galloway Society involving a giveaway of a young, registered Belted Galloway heifer. The drawing is mid-March, by the way, so there’s still time to get in. All you need is access to a couple of acres, and you could have a gentle, hardy, beef cow that will do excellent on grass.

 

Turns out, this was the perfect venue for talking with people about which breed they’d pick for starting their own herd, and I hope this won’t be the only cow (or other livestock) sweepstakes we do at GRIT. We love putting useful stuff in the hands of our readers, and what has more utility and vast returns than loveable livestock for your farm?!

Photo: courtesy David King

Aside from working the booth, I got to get out and mingle with Fair-going folks, shoot some video and ask some questions. I met a young woman who’d won tickets to the Fair via a GRIT facebook giveaway. I talked to Twenty Twenty (his real name, reflecting a desire to perceive things in the most accurate way), who gives nature walks and workshops on how to forage for food in the wild. His wife, Carol Wingert, hopes to contribute photography for upcoming issues of the magazine.

Craig Russell, president of the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, was in a booth right across from us.

I got to meet and talk with Paul Gardener, a GRIT blogger and writer/contributor with whom I share a passion for hunting and rural life.

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Nutting, an owner of Ogden Publications who expressed his affection for GRIT and the direction we’re headed. We also talked about a topic we’re mutually passionate about; baseball. (The Nutting family owns the Pittsburgh Pirates, and one of my best friends, a cousin, plays for them.) But hearing Mr. Nutting talk about how he reads every issue of GRIT made me downright giddy.

The one workshop/presentation I actually got to attend, the meat processing one I mentioned earlier, culminated with the actual skinning and evisceration of a rabbit. I learned the setup and tools I need for doing my own hogs one day (more willing friends, among them). I’ve long been enamored with the thought of having the ability to process my own meat, and this allowed me to talk to a guy who does just that, and see his operation in photos. Since that presentation, I’ve come to understand this is a trade I can learn, it’s realistic and affordable on all levels. I’ve even inquired into the prospects of working one day per week as a sort of apprenticeship with a local butcher.

 

So multiple things I saw that weekend inspired me.

But nothing touched talking to GRIT readers. In this business, you don’t get that interface often. Once in a great while – I think it’s happened twice in the 2-plus years I’ve worked at GRIT – you randomly meet someone who reads. For the most part, it’s easy to become focused on the routine of it all: writing and editing, tracking down art, more editing, final production, putting the magazine on our website, rinse and repeat. We love it because we love the lifestyle and the content, but we seldom get to share it in person with the readers we try our darndest to serve.

Hank and I even had a little fun thinking about what a GRIT Fair might be like. Here’s Hank’s take: “At the GRIT fair, I suspect we’d see a little more Red Man and a little less American Spirit – more boots instead of Birkenstocks. But in both cases it’d be a celebratory gathering of thoughtful, committed and smart people who are passionate about getting the most they can from this life without ruining the planet for their children.”

Photo: courtesy Hank Will

Ahhh, maybe one day. In the meantime, if you’re attending a Mother Earth News Fair, catch one of us GRIT editors on Facebook, Twitter, or via email (first initial, last name @grit.com, so for Caleb Regan it’s cregan@grit.com) before the fair, and make an attempt to shake hands. It really will make our day – more like make our event.