Behind the Willows » chickens

Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman

Jessie — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:54:48 +0000

Once we brought home Cows to the Rescue, which was pretty good, but nobody seemed to love it.

Chickens, on the other hand, now we are talking!

Not only do I just like chickens better but there is something really great about everyone shouting:

CHICKENS TO THE RESCUE! It flows off the tongue in a very pleasing way.

Would I recommend it? I would indeed.

Now I think I’ll go read it to my chickens- I’m thinking they are under-performing.

Make The Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese

Jessie — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:18:14 +0000

I think the full title says it all:

The Tipsy Baker

What it doesn’t say is that the stories of the efforts that went into this book are entertaining enough to be a book by themselves!

Make it or buy it? Do you know how to make a book? Me neither. Buy it.

Hassle: Minimal. In fact here is a to link help you out: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Bread-Buy-Butter-Shouldnt/dp/1451605889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353794791&sr=8-1&keywords=make+the+bread+buy+the+butter

Cost Comparison: The cost of the ingredients required to replicate these recipes alone would certainly make buying the book cheaper. Once you factor in goats and chickens it’s a no brainer.

Would I recommend it? Yes, we’ve happily made a handful of the recipes and it’s been the only cookbook we’ve read out loud together!

The Cow That Laid An Egg by Andy Cutbill and Russell Ayto

Jessie — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:16:04 +0000

I have admitted before that I always judge a book by it’s cover, and it’s even more true with children’s books. I mean really, the illustrations are at least half the package right? These books are practically begging you to judge by their covers, you woudn’t want to ignore an illistators best efforts now would you?

But sometimes those old sayings turn out to be true.

If you were like me a judged by the cover you would have left passed this book over and sighed when your kids dragged it home from the library the first time.

Then after having brought it home from the library multiple times and read it 5,789 times you would also have to admit to being completely and totally wrong.

The illustrations may not be exactly what I’m drawn to but there are bicycle riding cows, not to mention an egg laying one…

…the phrase “…an almighty commotion in the barnyard…” which is a good phrase if I’ve ever heard it.

And there are “crafty chickens” I personally have never met a crafty chicken but I like the idea of them anyway.

A super fun book and clearly one of Clara’s favorites!

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Jessie — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:00:09 +0000

Twelve years ago John and I were dating and I was in the hospital recovering from a surgery, doped up on painkillers. John came to visit me every day I was there and one night he rounded up a TV and VCR and brought in one of his favorite movies for us to watch – The Power of One. Sadly due to all those painkillers I have a vivid memory of John sitting by my bed holding my hand, a vague memory of a TV showing up and absolutely no recollection of the movie. Nothing. Nada. In fact it doesn’t matter how many times John has told me over the last twelve years that I have seen the movie, I still don’t remember it.

Two months ago I brought home a book a friend had lent us saying it was a good “guy read” and I should give it to John. I dutifully passed the message on to John telling him it was “something about power of one?” Which then spurred on the same discussion we have repeated over the last twelve years about how I have seen that movie, and I say I don’t remember any of it and he says he loves it… yada, yada, yada.

But now our conversation has changed because now I’ve read the book and he remembers the movie and I can say things like, “What do you mean the movie doesn’t have Hoppie in it?!” Which is far better than the I still don’t remember the movie conversation we had been having.

Would I recommend it? Yes. This is a good “guy book” in a way that isn’t just shooting people, running around and blowing stuff up. It should also be mention that while I am distinctly not a guy myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it and have recommended it to other not guys. Although my girlyness probably came out when the boxing made me cringe, I can’t help it, I’m not a guy.

The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Jessie — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:18:23 +0000

This book just wasn’t quite what I expected.

Which begs the question of just what was I expecting from “an unconventional memoir” of “how two Manhattanites became gentlemen farmers.”

I think the answer to that is that I was expecting more farming and less about the balancing act of relationships and life in general. Then I was disappointed and didn’t feel like being all introspective.

Then I found out that one of the men worked for Martha Stewart, in the words of my friend Katie, “Hilarious.”

Would I recommend it? ~~Yes. It was funny, and introspective and it’ll do you good to read about gay farmers.~~

No. It was at times laugh out loud funny but at the end of the day it is a book about gay men (one an ex-drag queen) who start a small farm. I think the nich of people who would enjoy such a book is too small to give it a full recomendation.

Heck, I’ve got no idea if anyone should read this, but I admit, I mostly liked it. If you want a peek at their lives you can check out their website here: http://beekman1802.com maybe it’ll help you decide!