Thank you for all of your comments on the 1,000th Post Key Chain Giveaway! So many of you, like me, love old pickup trucks. If you have a copy of Tillie Lays an Egg then you can probably guess that this is my favorite spread.

Tillie Lays an Egg by Terry Golson

Sadly for me, this is not my truck. But I do get to see it driven around town by a friend.

From your entries it also seems that we all have a lot of barn doors to latch/lock/secure and people and animals to care for and love. A magic key to hold them near and dear and well should be on all of our key chains.

The winner is Deanne G. Congratulations!

Through this website I am connected to a world of like-minded chicken friends. I’m not one of those people who bemoan the collapse of community because of technology.  At least in my life, it has broadened my circle to encompass the globe. (Anyway, let’s save that on-going argument for others.) But, it is true that email and websites aren’t the same as meeting in person, so I schedule events at which I can do just that.

Today I’ll be at a Fern’s Country Store, in the center of my little town (it’s the only store!) to sign copies of Tillie Lays an Egg. I’ll be there for 2 hours this afternoon from 2 to 4 pm with a number of other authors from town for this event. The owners of the store noticed how many people in Carlisle are writers, and thought that a book signing would be a nice Sunday afternoon community event. I agree! If you’re anywhere nearby, do stop in and say hello. There will be plenty of time to talk about chickens and writing.

I’m giving a Chicken Keeping Workshop here at my home in Carlisle on September 22. A few spaces remain. It’s easy to sign-up on my Events page.

On October 3, I’ll be in Somerville, MA to give a talk about Urban Chicken Keeping. If you’ve been thinking about keeping chickens in a small backyard, this is the program for you!

If you have or know of a venue that would like to book an event with me, please get in touch via email. I look forward to meeting you on the ‘net or in person!

This week I wrote my 1000th post on HenCam. Instead of petering out, I find myself with more and more that I want to share with you. I have a notebook filled with ideas for posts, and everyday something happens in my backyard that is story worth telling. But, right now I am crazy-busy. I have two publishing projects in the works (more on those when they are closer to being sure things) and I have a lecture and a workshop coming up. I’m also consulting with a nursing home to bring the joy of chickens to their residents. A coop will be installed, and a landscaped pergola will be constructed so that people can sit outside and watch the hens. I’ll be doing programs with their memory-loss residents, bringing feathers, eggs and a live hen for them to see and handle. Such exciting work!

So, as much as I have a lot more posts to post, in the next month or so, I might not be able to get to this everyday. In the meantime, I have a small giveaway to celebrate the 1,000th post. I’ve made this keychain and two magnets from a Layena feed bag.

To enter, tell me what key you would hang on the chain. It can be a real key, like the one to your front door, or one you wish you had (I’d take a pickup truck, horse van and horse!), or one to something intangible, like the key to a loved one’s heart. Leave your comment here for one entry. If you post this contest on FB, let me know here and you get a second entry. If you post on Twitter, come back and tell me and you get a third entry. I’m happy to ship anywhere in the world (I had a reader from Tanzania the other day!) The contest closes on Sunday, September 9 at 9 pm EDT. The winner will be picked by a random number generator.

Thanks for being here with me on HenCam. Good-luck!

The meadow that I view from my office has gone to weed.

A conservation organization owns it, but no one has been by to caretake all summer. Invasive buckthorn is crowding in along the stonewalls, brambles are growing in what was once a hayfield, and golden rod and Joe Pye weed are taller than me.

Across the street, in my backyard, the goats say that they are hungry. Only boring grass is left in their pasture. All of the good brambly, thorny, leafy things are gone.

So, I cut and gather armloads of weeds and put them in the goats’ manger.

My harvest doesn’t make a dent in the meadow, but the boys are happy,

and that last hay bale in the barn will last a little longer before I have to go to the feed store.

(photos taken with Instagram)