Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

Looks so far like the backyard chicken flocks in western Kentucky have been spared a recent outbreak of bird flu in that state. I first heard about the outbreak from a friend in Kentucky. We had to dig for some coverage and thanks to the iFarmer, I was led to this story by Channel 13,Continue reading “Bird Flu Outbreak Confined to Factory Farm Chickens”

I couldn’t be happier with the Peeps in Law gallery at ABAJournal.com. So far, most of the dioramas I hoped would be submitted have been, including O.J., Madoff and a We the Peeple Constitution scene. There are also some beautifully photographed and staged scenes that the gallery doesn’t do justice. I haven’t settled on aContinue reading “Peep Watch: Law Favs”

I’m loving news out of Detroit that area farmer John Hantz wants Detroit to let him turn 70 acres of vacant and blighted land into a large vegetable farm with a cider mill and riding trails. Stories at UPI.com and the Detroit News say this would be the largest urban farm in the world. WhatContinue reading “Cool. Motown Could End Up With the Largest Urban Farm in the World”

We did our first round of decorating blown and hard-boiled eggs. The crayons didn’t work as well as hot wax for writing. Next round, we’ll go with wax if I can remember how to do that.Looks like we’ll be eating a lot of eggs this week. Update: Bella cried and cried until we promised notContinue reading “Egg Art, Round 1”

There are some creative dioramas this year on the Trib site, but here’s my latest favorite, Dust Bunnies Bite by Julie Jansen: I also absolutely love this blog: 100 Ways to Kill a Peep Morbid, but brilliant.

All four of us sat down over the weekend to watch my new acquisition: Mad City Chickens. I was excited to see a regionally-produced documentary about the backyard chicken movement. Those familiar with this site know that we now have chickens on The Farm and know that I’ve been designing backyard coops (in my mind)Continue reading “VFG Review: Mad City Chickens”

I’m sad to say that at least so far, my son’s Peep diorama “Jedi Peeps” has not been accepted in the Tribune gallery. I don’t have the heart to tell him, especially since he worked so hard coloring the light saber (Q-tips), constructing the background and putting the Millennium Falcon on the landing pad. SoContinue reading “Latest Peep Favs”

I’ve been entertained this weekend by blog reports of a purported letter sent by a Big Ag advocacy group, the Mid America CropLife Association, to Michelle Obama. The letter, because of a related e-mail that’s being circulated, is being viewed as a protest of the Obamas’ new organic garden at the White House. I’ll beContinue reading “Really? A Group is Protesting the White House's Organic Garden?”

My straw hat is off to Kate Braser, who submitted four dioramas to the Tribune today. Some are more painstakingly detailed than others. But this is by far my favorite, both in its cleverness and simplicity: Of course, I’m holding out hope that readers will submit more law-themed dioramas for this gallery:

Today Hoosier Outsider asked me for a piece of graph paper. Amazingly, I actually have some. It’s leftover from college. Over the years I’ve used it a couple of times to plan changes to rooms or dream about home remodels. But what graph paper is really good for is planning a garden. That’s why IContinue reading “Cool Find: Virtual Graph Paper for Garden Planning”