Chickens

I'm thinking about getting chickens.

Why would a vegan need chickens? Because this vegan is faced with a flea and tick epidemic of unseen proportions! Though we've mostly kept it until control by dousing our cats monthly with chemicals, every year has been a new groundbreaking year for the amount and stubbornness of local fleas and ticks. (Not just at our house, like it's newsworthy and the chatter in the vets waiting room is always what product(s) you are using and how well it's working.)

I found yet another tick on James yesterday--again, a dog tick, but we either need to spray our entire yard with chemicals, make our cats outdoor only (which we don't want to do, they've already been banned from our bedroom), or perhaps, get chickens. Chickens eat a LOT of fleas and ticks and it wouldn't involve any chemicals. PLUS chicken manure is great for gardens.

I'm thinking of getting a rooster along with the chicks and just sort of letting them self-perpetuate and shut them in at night and give grain during the winter but let them be pretty free. I'm not sure what we'll do with the eggs or how it works when you have a rooster around, I'll have to do my research.

But I'm pretty seriously considering it.

Book Recommendation: Having a Baby Naturally

Mothering Magazine came out with a book in 2007: Having a Baby Naturally.

I got the free sample on Kindle and I would HIGHLY recommend it. You can also read it on Amazon if you follow the link and click "look inside" and go to the first pages. You may or may not want to invest in the whole book but just the SAMPLE is highly enlightening.

I wanted to share a few tidbits:

-With pregnancy, you may be surprised to find