Oakhurst, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Tas)

Forget chickens.  Urban homesteading pioneer Allison Adams, who played a key role introducing Decatur to the world of backyard poultry, is taking it to the next level.

From her blog The Southern Urban Homestead…

Meet Nellie Oleson, my first baby bison.

Nellie arrived on a methane-powered livestock truck from a ranch in Montana. She is a domesticated breed of the American bison, meaning that genetically she has some cow in her. This makes her (and the additional head I will acquire as I gradually grow my herd) easier to manage as livestock — hopefully she won’t knock down the rain barrels, for example, or trample my dog in a stampede.

…I believe that the bison’s presence in our city signifies a restoration of this land’s once-great biodiversity, not to mention the virtues of homesteading at its most Ma Ingalls authentic. But don’t get too attached. My plan is to raise Nellie to become a protein source, and I’m really looking forward to a nice, thick rug for my own hearthside. In the meantime, the manure is working wonders for my early spring crops.

Allison says that the city has thus far been very helpful and will soon change its municipal code to “accommodate this most American of efforts.”  I can’t wait for that city commission meeting!

In the interest of getting this out to you, I’ll hold my dissection of this document for now.  (At first glance, there seems to be a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.  Should occupy us for weeks!)

Want to read through the final version of our 2010 Strategic Plan?  DecaturNext just posted it!

Click the image below and go straight to the full PDF.

First on DM: Always out to challenge and entertain the more bookish among us, I received word last night that the Decatur Book Festival’s keynote speaker this year will be none other than The Jersey Shore’s “Snooki”, who – in case you missed it – actually released her first book, “A Shore Thing“, late last year.

Personally, I had trouble believing it.  Both that Snooki had a book out and that the DBF was willing to go quite this far in pushing the envelope.

Though the source of this info was very reliable, I certainly needed confirmation from the DBF itself.  So I sent an email off to both DBF Executive Director Daren Wang and Program Director Terra Elan McVoy.   Their almost immediate replies seemed to signal their anxious excitement for this announcement.  Wang was first….

“Over the years, a central tenant of the festival has been to not take itself too seriously. Last year, we launched the tour for one of the most acclaimed authors of his generation, Jonathan Franzen, fresh off the cover of Time Magazine. We thought we’d go in a new direction, go for something more lighthearted and fun. And from what I’ve heard, there’s no one more fun than Snooki, fresh off the cover of Rolling Stone. A Shore Thing is a great read: a taut, genre and gender-bending page-turner.”

Gender-bending?  Hmm…alrighty.  And then McVoy…

“In all honesty, I thought Lady Gaga would be ideal for our keynote this year, but since she hasn’t got a book out (yet), Snooki makes a fine fit.”

Should we expect a Lady Gaga keynote in the years to come?  I’m not sure she’d stoop to a southern-city-suburb festival level, but hey, everyone wants people to think they’re smart and what works better in casual cocktail conversation than mentioning your upcoming keynote at a book festival? RIght?  I’m mean look at James Franco.  When does that guy sleep?

I gotta wonder what Bookzilla thinks about all this.  So far, I have not been able to reach him for comment.

Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not discussed here over the past week.

Comments close Monday.

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