Carla Emery is a mother, speaker, and writer - especially of encyclopedias. She is the author of the critically and publicly acclaimed encyclopedia of Country Living, a basic reference work in the field of family food production ("goats and gardens"). In print for 30 years, currently in its updated ninth edition, this old-fashioned recipe book and how-to manual now has over 500,000 copies in print.

Carla's a country girl (a Montana rancher's daughter) with some city veneer from going to college in the big city for many years. She met Mike Emery while at Columbia's East Asian Institute and shifted from becoming an M.A. (B.A., Poly. Sci., Roosevelt U.) to being a Mrs. Somehow, along with being a wife, mother, goat keeper, and garden grower, Carla also managed to write the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Country Living (then titled An Old Fashioned Recipe Book). Being an encyclopedist suited her wide- ranging interests and wandering educational background.

Her performing life began in the mid-1970s when she spent four years traveling from one appearance to another in a small van together with her children, spreading the news about her Encyclopedia of Country Living (some 500,000 copies now in print), and her School of Country Living. During that time, she frequently appeared on "The Mike Douglas Show" and Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." She guested on "Good Morning,America," "Good Morning, L.A.," "Seattle Today," and "To Tell the Truth." With the help of Angel, the goat, Carla demonstrated country living skills such as goat milking, bread making, and butter churning, on the morning talk shows of local and national TV stations across America--and also on the "Donahue" show.

In 1979, however, she abruptly rejected the Hollywood scene in particular and the performing life in general, choosing instead to stay home with her husband and children (sometimes homeschooled). After Mike left and her marriage ended in 1985, Carla continued mothering, writing, and researching. In 1994, after her youngest children became independent, she spent six years traveling the country giving writing workshops, speaking on country living, and writing up a decade of research on hypnotism and other mind-control technologies. Thus, in 1998, Carla released her completed second basic reference work, Secret, Don't Tell: The Encyclopedia of Hypnotism, an expose.

Then she returned to speaking about family food production and country living, and to developing a 10th edition of her Encyclopedia of Country Living. In late October, 1999, after 15 years alone (a period of time when Carla was convinced she would never love again), she suddenly wanted to try again. She had the intention, but not the guy. It took nine months of false starts before she finally found him. (Or he found her?) Donald DeLong saw Carla's ad on an internet personal site, and began an e-mail courtship. Three days later, she was driving to meet him in Arizona. The two have been inseparable ever since.

About Don DeLong

Photos: Copyright by Robert Spitzer

Why the Banty-Hen-Trying-to-Hatch-an-Ostrich-Egg Logo?

‘Cause that's how I approach life. I take on BIG projects: 36 years (off and on) of work for The Encyclopedia of Country Living - 12 years spent researching Secret, Don't Tell. God willing, sooner or later, I hatch ‘em! The drawing  was done by my oldest son, Dan Emery.