Cozy Chickens

Image Gallery Pierette and C.J. Miller making a warmer home for their chickens.

Country Lore

Keeping the coop warm; and MOTHER welcomes out youngest Lore contributor.

Recycled Insulation

My wife and I would like to tell you what we did to insulate our chicken coop. We knew from the beginning that we couldn't spend much money on this project, but the answer came to us in our Christmas gifts—Styrofoam packing chips! After we saw an ad in our local paper we received a couple of good sources. We loaded bag upon bag into our truck and took them home. We vapor barriered ,starting from the floor up stapling a few feet at a time. Filling the spaces between the studs was quick and easy because the chips poured straight out of the bags. We then used salvaged paneling and placed them backwards to use the unmarked mahogany as sheathing. Voila! A cozy poultry palace and less garbage in a landfill site. It takes an amazing amount of this packing material (in our case a 10' x 13' building) to be used in this fashion.

—Pierrette & C.J. Miller & family South Gillies, Ontario

The Perfect Potato

My name is Scott Hixenbaugh and I am 12 years old. I am writing to this magazine because I like your articles. I want to tell you about our farm. We have cows, cats, dogs, chickens, and pigs. We do not own a lot of today's things, such as a riding lawn mower. We rough it around here. We also grow a garden that we grow every year. We grow carrots, tomatoes, beets, potatoes and other vegetables. MOTHER EARTH NEWS gives us ways to do things such as how we grow our potatoes. The way we grow them is we mix the dirt and put the seed potatoes on the ground, put fertilizer on them, and spread hay on them 2-3 feet high. That way we know as it compresses it will still be pretty thick.

I want to thank you for writing such a good magazine.

—Scott Hixenbaugh Burton, West Virginia

Foiled!

Here's a way to make a dreary household chore a little bit easier. I remove tarnish from silver flatware, pitchers, candy dish es, and jewelry by placing them in a bucket of lukewarm salt water to which I've added small pieces of aluminum foil. After letting the mixture stand overnight in a ventilated area (it'll give off a sulfur odor), wash the silver next morning with sudsy water and dry carefully. It will all come out looking like new.

—Sally Halfaker St. Charles, Missouri

Round-the-Clock Care

When one of my children was sick, I found it difficult to get my household chores done with a fussy patient constantly requiring food, drink, puzzles, the radio or just a bit of company. But I solved the problem with the aid of an alarm clock. I set the alarm for 30 minutes, and used that time to read to (or otherwise entertain) my child. Then, when the alarm went off, I would reset it for another 30 minutes, with the understanding that my child would amuse himself or herself and save their requests so I could do some housework. When the alarm rang again, I'd return for 30 more minutes of play. The technique worked well, helping me get my work done and avoid yelling the typical too-busy mother response: "In a minute!"