Jan. 24, 2012

My friend Skeeter brought a gift to my house last night that made me blubber like a baby.  Skeeter’s mom & dad have a farm.  They have a garden and animals and Brenda has regularly blessed our house with gifts of food from her home.  In return she’s sampled some eggs from my little stamp of earth and not much else.  We’ve swapped stories about our animals, families and the current movement in some circles to find wholesome, humanely raised food for our table.  The woman is smart, funny and incredibly generous.  Skeeter has kept her abreast of my battle to keep the girls and the unfortunate result we got on Friday.  The timing of my friend’s present did much to lift my spirits at a time when they needed lifting.  Get a load of this…

Click on it to get a closer look.  This is an old timey cheese-wheel box.  Brenda lifted photos from the chickendiary to make a decoupage masterpiece.  You can plainly see enlarged photos of Violet, Rosie and Daisy and other images from my posts.  Look carefully at the broken pieces of egg scattered throughout the scene.  These are actually fragments of the eggs I sent her in weeks past.  The background is green grass and chicken wire.  But this is just the outside….

Inside she lined the box with chicken fabric which is also decoupaged to a lovely sheen.  She included a sweet note as well.  I would show you the back, but it has a little return address sticker on it with her home address as well as a photo of a jaunty rooster.  She painted a pink breast cancer ribbon (I had no idea she knew about that), and the date of the gift.  There are even little felt feet on the bottom of the box.  Needless to say, when Skeeter and her daughter Hudson brought the gift, the dam broke and I boo-hooed.  It’s not the first time I’ve had a bit of a pity party over this whole thing, but the kindness of this one person edged out (for a moment) the whole frustrating, painful experience of giving up my pets.  And here’s the kicker folks…I’ve never even met her.  Thanks Brenda, and thanks Skeeter for introducing me to your very cool mom.  We’ll meet in person after the weather clears when we can make the journey to your little slice of heaven.  “Thank you” doesn’t quite cover it.  I’ll find some way.  🙂

Jan. 20th

At 2:00 today we have a meeting with our property manager and a board member to determine if we can have a vote to change the ordinance which prohibits “poultry”.  We prefer to call them “pets”.  We have many well-wishers and wonderful neighbors who requested that they be allowed to come to the meeting with us to voice their support.  We asked, but it seems that there will just be four in the room.  Jim is prepared with his statistics, moving presentation and generally cute and charming self to wow the board member and persuade him that urban chickens are DA BOMB!  (OK, Jim would never say “da bomb”.)  He even wore a tie today, and if you know Jim, this is HUGE!  He has to take 1/2 day of leave to get back here for the meeting, but hey, we can start our weekend early–hopefully with a glass of champagne to celebrate our victory.  I got up early and cleaned the coop, raked the yard of all visible signs of chickens (poop) and I told the girls they have to be on their best behavior this afternoon when we bring the nice man down to meet them.

I'll be good.

We have invited him to see our set-up and we do hope he takes us up on our invite.  I’ll have grapes at the ready and the ladies will entertain him with their athletic jumping and hilarious chicken antics.  All we hope to gain from this meeting is the chance to put the ordinance to a vote.  We feel confident that if given an opportunity the assembly members will vote to change the rule and pave the way for more backyard chickens in our beautiful neighborhood.  There is a chance, (however small) that they will NOT change the rule, and we are prepared for that too.  We have a lovely home nearby where the girls can live a great chicken life and we can come visit from time to time.  As soon as the meeting is over and I have some news, I will relay it here.  Thanks again to everyone who has shown so much chicken love!  POWER TO THE POULTRY!

Jan. 13th

Our neighborhood property manager is arranging a meeting between us and the board next week.  We’ll have a chance to tell our side of the situation and hopefully persuade them that the girls are no menace to society.  Jim will do most of the talking and there is a reason for that.  A friend of ours recommended that Jim give me  a sedative before the showdown.  He was only half-joking.  I do tend to get over emotional and run off a the mouth at times.  Again, many of you are NOT shocked.  We are thrilled that the 15 day execution has been postponed, and for now the girls are safe while we negotiate their freedom.  This is all we ever asked for. 

Daisy gets her "Dukes" up

Meanwhile, the chickendiary has gone “viral”.  Yesterday’s post generated so many views we broke the previous record for busiest day.  This is so encouraging.  I got supportive messages from all over the United States and from folks I have not previously heard from.  Thank you too, to all my friends and neighbors here in our neighborhood who have encouraged us to fight to keep our beloved pets.  We are not out of the woods yet, but this is a great beginning.  Viva la Chickens!

Jan. 12

Although I had resigned myself to putting the chickendiary on hiatus until spring break, events have unfolded that makes today’s entry imperative.  We received a certified letter in the mail yesterday stating that we have 15 days to find new homes for our chickens or my neighborhood will “enforce all rights and remedies allowed for compliance.”  I have asked the management for a meeting so that Jim and I can present our case and try to persuade the board to change the covenant which does not allow “livestock or poultry of any kind” in the neighborhood. 

WANTED: Daisy Chicken: For crimes against ordinance #11

We have compelling points which might cause a change of the rules.  Further, we have raised the chickens since April and have had only one complaint from a neighbor who was concerned about the noise of a rooster and attracting predators.  If others are unhappy with our chickens, they have not come to us to let us resolve whatever problems they have.  We have also welcomed the management to inspect our chickens, our coop, and our back yard and ask any questions they might have concerning our unusual pets. To our knowledge, none of the board members have come for a look.  I am hoping that after we speak to the board, the neighborhood might be able to take a vote to change this rule regarding chickens.  In light of the urban chicken craze sweeping many major cities in the country and in our own state, they might agree that the rule is out of date. 

Power to the POULTRY!!!

 We love our neighborhood and so do our chickens.  I have two viable homes for them should we be forced to give them up.  My dad will take them, or my good friend GT said they could have a home with his brood in the country. 

Will Mr GT feed me grapes?

I do hope it doesn’t come to that.  Wish us luck!  I shall keep you posted.