Be careful what you promise or you could end up with a long list of stories never told. Such is the case on the Rebuild blog where I left many readers hanging by a nail on some very important issues. I am sorry for any sleep lost out there. These are real nail-biters.
The Book
“Where is that thing anyway?” Good question. These things take a ridiculous amount of time to produce well. I will offer a combination digital and print book package soon. You’ll receive the digital copy immediately and the print book as a bonus when it comes back from the printer. Look for details by the end of January.
Mom’s videos
They came out of the gate strong during the summer and just disappeared. We got great feedback on the videos but we got a number of comments about the volume. The volume and picture quality of the food videos plus the video quality on the organic dairy eulogy inspired us to buy a new camera. The problem was that the new camera required using iMovie08 instead of the previous version. iMovie08 is a whole other critter, so the video production got further and further behind. Finally I got the bright idea to outsource the project to a documentarian friend of ours. Expect new food videos this month.
Henny the Huge
You heard about Henny first in the post “She’s at Least a Triple D,” a post that made the Ethicurean blog digest. We bought Henny thinking she was a White Leghorn, a traditional laying hen with a very small frame.
The first Henny, Henny Penny, was lost in the spring to our friend Bob the Bobcat in a story somewhat inspirational and worthy of reading if you have missed it. Henny the Huge also had a sibling who we lost in August in a notorious post that caused many unsubscribes from this blog. Read with caution and without children on your lap.
In the Triple D post I mentioned that Henny the Huge’s fate was on our dinner table. I planned to slaughter her and dress her myself. No one else in the house was willing to do the deed. In a bout of mania in November, I actually emailed a local talk show and told them we planned to have Henny for Thanksgiving Dinner. I mentioned the popularity of the Eat Local movement and the fact that the word “Locavore” had just been dubbed 2007 word of the year by Oxford University Press. Henny would make a good, local Thanksgiving Dinner. The station didn’t respond and when it was time to follow up with them or pitch another station or paper, I was laid up and recovering from the busiest four months of my life. It would have been fun, but it also may have killed me. (My high school ag teacher volunteered to help me with the slaughter, by the way.)
Henny lived through Thanksgiving and almost made it to Christmas when she became dinner for a predator. I asked Sander for pictures of the feathers. He said “I’d rather not.” We were packing for a holiday trip, so I did not see the scene. Now that I reflect on the situation, I will have to take Sander’s word that it was an accident. He was never keen on the Henny slaughter and had been campaigning to let her out into nature to become someone else’s dinner. He claims that the predator got into the hen house.
The Mother’s Day Makeover
I had a “makeover” and never posted the before and after pictures. The shock of the before pictures (which could certainly keep me from ever being elected into public office) took the wind out of my sails and I didn’t even take a proper “after” picture. Here is a picture just after the makeover in the post about our visit to a Bug Fair.
The Rock Group and Depression Buster Contest
Yeah, I dropped the ball. Life just got out of control. Send in some nominations and read the funny ones that have been entered:
Bowling for Soup
Black Eyed Peas
Hall and Oates
The Beatles
Meatloaf
The Beastie Boys
