The Woefield Poultry Collective (35 page)
Read The Woefield Poultry Collective Online
Authors: Susan Juby
I said I was staying at the farm because I like it and my stomach doesn’t hurt when I’m with my chickens. He said he understood and he was going to try and get set up for when I was ready to spend time together and we’d “revisit the subject in the fall.” I said he could come and see the chickens whenever he wanted. I even said he could come to the next poultry show, as long as he doesn’t get in any fights. He swore then, but to himself, and before he could say anything else his walkie-talkie went and he had to go drive another person home.
It was good talking to him and also good to see him leave.
I went to visit Earl in his cabin to see if he’d teach me to play the banjo or the mandolin, whichever is easiest. When I got to his porch, Travis and Seth and Prudence and Eustace were already sitting there,
up on the porch with Bertie. And Earl was saying, “Goddamn it, I don’t want to talk to no goddamn reporter or be in no book.” But they all just laughed. And so did I. Because he didn’t mean it. He almost never means what he says.
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank all the people who dream of growing their own food and those who actually do it. Thanks to my mom, my brothers, Bill Juby, Stephanie Dubinsky, Greg McDiarmid, Susan Nielsen and Hilary McMahon for reading and rereading the manuscript; John and Shirley Alcock-White for giving me a tour of their little patch of abundance and regaling me with tales of sustainability; Megan McDiarmid for telling me about the apples sold at the market outside the Bronx Zoo; and Jeremy C. from the computer department at London Drugs for saving my life, or at least this manuscript. Finally, an extra special thanks to my editors, Iris Tupholme and Jeanette Perez.
The Woefield Poultry Collective
Copyright ©
2011
by Susan Juby.
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EPub Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN: 978-1-443-40552-2
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
FIRST CANADIAN EDITION
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Juby, Susan, 1969–
The Woefield Poultry Collective / Susan Juby.
ISBN 978-1-55468-744-2 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-55468-743-5 (library hardcover)
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PS8569.U324W64 2011 C813’.6 C2010-906987-0
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9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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