One day last summer I was contacted by Down East Magazine about being featured in their magazine.

As a new subscriber to the magazine since we moved up here to Maine in August of 2015, I knew it to be an extremely well-respected, well-written regional publication that's very popular in the state.

Of course, I eagerly accepted the invitation and we set up dates for a photographer and staff writer to come to interview me and take some photos.

The day quickly arrived for acclaimed photojournalist Greta Rybus to come do a photo shoot - and the excitement was palpable as we awaited her arrival on our farm. 

Greta was amazing. She spent a few hours following the girls around as they did all the things that chickens normally do, snapping the shutter all the while. I couldn't wait to see the final images that would be chosen for the article.

A week or so later, writer Virginia Wright appeared at our doorstep to interview me for the piece. Turns out they didn't send just any staff writer - they sent their Senior Editor!

She was just wonderful to work with and it felt less like an interview and more like an afternoon chatting with an old friend.

And to top it off, Virginia is an author as well. In fact, she's the author of The Maine Lobster Book (Down East Books, 2012), a copy of which I just happened to have displayed on our coffee table - and which she graciously signed before she left.

(It's a fun book by the way and you'll learn WAY more about lobsters than you ever realized there was to learn! Pick up a copy on amazon here.)

But the excitement about this magazine feature was hardly over! Several weeks later, Virginia let me know that it looked like Martha Stewart (yes, THAT Martha Stewart!) might be guest-editing the issue.

They were planning a spring issue that revolved around some of the things Martha enjoyed about living in Maine. (She has a summer home named "Skylands" overlooking Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island.) They cautioned me it wasn't set in stone yet, but that they were hopeful that it would work out.

Well, fast forward to last week and copies of the April issue of Down East magazine started arriving in mailboxes and on newsstands all over Maine and beyond. And sure enough, Martha is the guest editor. In fact, she even wrote a sidebar to my article!

I wonder what she thought of the wallpaper in my coop....and the nesting box curtains....I guess if we ever meet in person, at least we'll have something to chat about.