Against the Grain

Seven Quick Takes

1. I attended my first pre-k field trip today (Peter's fourth -- he's gone to Orchestra Hall, a farm, and Underwater World already) to a nature center.  I did my best to appreciate the fact that he wanted to sit next to me on the bus and gladly held both my hand and his buddy's hand (2 kids per parent volunteer) without my having to remind him to stick together.  He has never gotten dressed or out the door so fast on a school day.  Those kids were so wound up!  I love the joy emitted by 36 five-year-olds all doing their best not to bounce off the walls.  I also have newfound appreciation for their fabulous teacher who can quiet them without raising her voice.
2. Other than a brief visit at supper, Dan has a 16 hour day due to Baccalaureate and Commencement.  Wednesday was Senior Honors Night and was almost as long.  Ah, the end of the school year...
3. Dan's car, the 13 year old Cavalier, started smoking as it tried to shift gears recently, and after determining that it would take $3,000 and a rebuilt transmission to get it functional again, we donated it today to Cars With Heart.  We're using my sister's car until school's done, then we'll do the single-car thing until we replace it in the fall.  The big question -- do we get a cheap, small, efficient, old car?  Do we buy one of our sister's not-quite-as-old-or-cheap, efficient, small cars?  Do we buy a Mazda5 or minivan, using every penny we can save in the next 3 months?  They would be not efficient, small, or cheap, but we wouldn't need to buy anything else for a few years.  If only Dan's school was transit-friendly or close enough to bike/walk even in December.
4. We've had the chickens for two weeks now.  We got the oldest ones available -- 1 and 2 weeks old at the time.  They're cute, which has endeared them to the contrary neighbors, but they won't be laying until Halloweenish.  We've got 3 Americaunas and 3 Barred Rocks.  We're slowly naming them as we learn to tell them apart.  So far, we've got Stripey (Peter and my favorite, who actually likes us because Peter keeps feeding her inchworms), Raccoon, Sassafras, Curry, and Tarragon.  
5. I'm really ready for Peter to be done with school, if only so that he can go to bed at 9pm without being a terrible grouch the rest of the day.  It's light out so late here and pleasant to sit outside in the evenings, but ugh, the fallout is awful.
6. Leo has developed a cute but irritating obsession with sprinklers, hoses, and anything that pours water.  We have to leave the exterior faucets turned off from the inside to prevent him from constantly turning them on to water things.  The boys will also run through sprinklers even when it's cold enough for me to put on a jacket.  Our water bill will be crazy this month -- it hasn't rained in weeks and we decided to care what our lawn looks like, maybe to mitigate any annoyance about the chickens. 
7. With Dan gone tonight, I told the boys to get their shoes and meet me at the car for a surprise.  I brought them to Dairy Queen, where I had a B1G1 coupon and they had their first Blizzards.  Ice cream!  And M&M's!  Together!  I admit it -- I took a full medium and split the small between them.  We all finished at the same time...

More quick takes at Jen's Conversion Diary here.

Bring on the chickens!

Tonight, our suburban city council gave us permission to have 6 hens. 

We started the permit application process after building most of the coop in March so that we'd be able to accurately describe the coop.  Our city, unlike St. Paul and Minneapolis*, has quite picky requirements about outbuildings, including chicken coops.  If we'd known this before starting, we would have chosen exterior grade plywood rather than assuming chickens could handle painted OSB and a heat lamp in the winter.  Apparently, there's debate whether insulating a coop keeps them warm or isolates them too much.  The city wante

d us to put siding on the walls and shingles on the roof and told us it was illegal to compost food.  Oooookkkaaaay.  We made some changes, promised to do others, and got the approval of all the inspectors.  Then the city sent a notice to all the neighbors within 200 feet of our property lines (using a measuring approach that added a few on the corners in addition to including 8 homes whose properties are EXACTLY 200 feet away, across both an alley and a street).  Using that wacky math, there are 31 homes (all single-residences) within the range.  One next-door neighbor started avoiding us.  Our behind-the-alley neighbor came over to say she was worried about smell, noise, and rats.  Our other next-door neighbor said he had angry neighbors calling in ho

pes that he'd get upset and show up at the meeting to complain.  Other neighbors wandered by, excited about our plans.  I spent a week wringing my hands over the fact that people nearby are angry with me and don't have the decency to tell us what their problem is. 

Last night, we went a few blocks away to a neighbor who has two unpermitted hens (permits are only required for 3+).  For the 20 minutes we were there, we didn't hear a squeak out of them and smelled nothing.  They said they'd had a raccoon try to get into the food stored in the garage once, but no predators had even tried to get into the coop and they hadn't seen a single rodent. 

Tonight, Dan went to the council meeting dressed in his tie from work while I escaped to an Usborne books party so as to not make things worse.  Our disapproving neighbor showed up to air her grievances along with another neighbor on the edge of the boundary.  Our two-doors-down neighbor came to support us.  

In the end, we agreed to block off the coop better on the neighbor's side -- it's 15ish feet from their unfenced property--and to come back in a year for neighbors to talk about any problems that may develop.  I'm hoping we can just put up a privacy fence along that section of backyard and make everyone happy.  Because we have to live next to them, our kids like playing together, and I'd rather find a way to make everyone happy than say "Ha ha, we won suckas!!!".  At least I won't to their faces :)

Coming this weekend, I hope -- photos of the new ladies taking up residence in the backyard. 

* The inner cities require approval by animal control, which does not involve siding, but does check to make sure the hens will be healthy and safe.  They're pickier with neighbor approval, which makes some sense with 40' wide lots.  80% approval within 150' is required, although streets aren't crossed.  So you can have one pissed off neighbor, but probably not two, and you need signatures of approval, which is trickier than just requesting people come to a meeting if they're opposed.  We didn't have any exact neighbor requirements.