SUMNER — On Wednesday, March 13, the members of the Plantation Garden Club were welcomed at Julia Turnipseed’s sunny home, where we were all enjoying one of those pretend spring days just before another frost jumped upon us. It is always a wonderful thing to feel the warmth as friends gather in each others’ home.
Each home is unique, and as a guest I often just marvel at lovely things like some country bumpkin who just came to town.
Well, this country bumpkin fit right in Wednesday. There was talk of a pet pig running the streets of Sumner, visiting with the town folks’ dogs, sharing their lunch and going home for supper. Charleston had Scissors, Sumner has Penelope.
Judith Mitchener gave a presentation of redbud trees, which some local lore calls the freeze tree, because it will soon freeze just as it blooms. A new variety, rising sun or 100 days, is hardy in our area and shows well.
Getting to business, our topic was all about chickens, presented by Brandon and Tracy Lewis of Pope. These two aren’t as near country as this here chick, as they got their schooling in Baltimore. Brandon had a fellowship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a piano tuner. He is a talented musician playing the trumpet.
As famed piano tuner George Hayes retired at 93, Brandon and Tracy made a business decision to return home to Mississippi and fill the very large need for his craft. Tracy, on the other hand, fell in love with chickens, the kind that you give names to, follow you around and you bring in from the cold if you think it’s necessary.
Pictured are examples of some of the birds tended by Tracy and Brandon Lewis. (Photo special to The Sun-Sentinel)
Tracy started with nine chickens; now they have 60 hens, 20 roosters, two turkeys, ducks, geese, Bantam and Guinea. They come in all varieties and thus probably make new varieties. Tracy knows each by name and Brandon has been known to write a song about more than one. Brandon is partial to the Bantam and believes the Guinea talk too much. From experience, geese are too messy to bring inside the utility room when it’s cold out.
Tracy does business with a hatchery in Ohio and also in Memphis, and feed and supplies are bought locally from farm-type supply stores.
Tracy and Brandon have their yard fenced off for their dogs, and separately for their chickens, but do not expect a grand showing of lovely flowers or greenery.
They are not operating a business, subject to health laws or regulations. They have this hobby that allows them to share a variety of colored eggs with family and Tracy’s coworkers just in time for Easter. For inquiring minds, they do enjoy a nice chicken meal, just not their pets. Those get to live long and prosper.
For those who may not know our hostess, Julia raises chickens, but my allergies made me decline a tour of her hen house. I’m betting it was decorated and colorful, as mine would be.
The table was elegantly set for refreshments at the close of the Plantation Garden Club's monthly meeting in Sumner. (Photo special to The Sun-Sentinel)
I sure did not decline the refreshments, the centerpiece a grand work of art by Julia’s own hand of currently blooming redbuds, daffodils and forsythia all in abundance and most grown by Julia’s mother, Judith Mitchener. The table was filled with the tasty treats all enjoyed as much as the company. I’ll leave you with these closing words by Frank Lloyd Wright: “Regard it as just desirable to build a chicken house as a cathedral.”
