When a fox is your neighbour, and your chickens cluck and cackle, enjoying a measure of outdoor freedom, trouble could be around the corner. That’s exactly what happened on Gail and Uwe Jonas’s farm in the North Country of Oak Lake. Through Gail’s love of storytelling, incidents in nature and on the farm grew into a published book.
Farmer Gail and The Hen House Mystery is 33-page book published by Friesen Press. Kyla Wiebe’s charming illustrations accompany every page turn with printing sized for the youngest of readers to take off on their own, reading this countryside tale.
The Hen House Mystery has the ring of authenticity, as it should, because two of the co-stars of the book come to meet you when you approach Jonas’s home – Marcie the cat and Ben the dog are the driveway greeters.
“Really this began years ago. I was having different farm experiences and I would tell my grandsons stories about the farm.”
Jonas explains the hook in the story. “The story started out with one of my chickens going missing.”
A neighbour across the road reported seeing chicken feathers near what appeared to be a fox den. So, Farmer Gail went to investigate and sure enough, she found feathers and a fox den. Staking out the den site, she wanted to see the fox, and the story expanded as the fox herself turned out to be a mottled, calico colour.
“I got wonderful pictures of the fox over the period of a good six months.” Her watch was well rewarded. “Sure enough, pretty soon there were three kits that started to come out at dusk as well and they would play around.” They paid her no mind.
Her pictures and observances became a story. “I decided, ‘I’m going to write this into a proper story for my grandsons.’” And she did.
With photos for every page, Jonas printed a three-chapter account of The Adventures of Calico Fox, the Animal Menagerie and the Grown-up Kits through an online photo book service.
That was simply a family book, but from it came this story, tailored for young children: Farmer Gail and The Hen House Mystery.
Calico foxes are rare, but they do exist, and shiny black hens do lay farm fresh eggs. Some farmers don’t get their guns at the first sign of a fox, and it can still all work out.
Many of the first printing, hard and soft cover books, have been snapped up by friends and family, but Jonas expects a second printing soon. Her books will be available through several Virden outlets, Oak Lake’s Aspen Street Market and in Brandon, The Green Spot.
