Michigan

[Opa]

Speaking in the 3rd person? Heck, I have enough trouble keeping track when it's 1st person.

 

[Olive Hill]

Olive wonders if Juise discovered this leaky sillcock while hoeing.

 

[Juise]

Wait a second, why are we offering Juise? Juise is not for sale, even if she has to do a lot of hoeing!!!

Congrats, Opa! Hope the others all hatch as well.
Speaking of hoeing,

OLIVE,

what do you do instead of hoeing, do you not loosen up / turn the dirt before planting? Mine is always rock hard come spring, and hoeing seems to be the easiest way to weed, as well.

 

[Juise]

Quote:

Olive wonders if Juise discovered this leaky sillcock while hoeing.

Juise wonders if she will ever get her butt out of the fire. Juise needs to stop feeding ammo.

 

[RaZ]

Raz - I won't say anything more about this, since I tend to tick people off when I post about RTF, but make sure your packet of information includes the new exemptions. The city attorney is likely to know more about it than your judge did.

Raz- sounds like you were very calm and collected. Having documentation on hand proves to be very useful in situations like these because they can see you are serious and not just talking and making excuses. Good job. Now onto the next!

eta- Olive makes a point. Know the law inside and out. Nothing shows better than being able to reply to all questions/rebuttals than being able to counter without hesitation and with marked documentation to provide to prove your point.

To clarify -- because Olive does not wish for her comments to, in any way shape or form, be construed as support for using RTF to defend backyard flocks -- her only point was to give Raz a tip about recent amendments to the RTF Act that he may want to look into before his pre-trial meeting.

I think that in a lot of cases the RTFA is mis-used by city dwellers as an excuse. The original intent of the 1981 law was to put a stop to the city people who moved to the "country" and then wanted to shut down the existing farm operations.

However, with some revisions of the law, the opportunity arose for people to make challenges to local ordinances. Then the Court of Appeals issued decisions that local or home rule does not supersede state statutes. Whether RTFA has been used correctly or not depends on many factors. What I personally will not lay claim to is that I am a "farmer" or even have a "farm". However, I should not be prohibited from trying to be self-sufficient in my attempt to feed myself.

Suffice it to say, it is a tool. Proper use of any tool is important. Mis-handling a tool can cause harm to the user, so care should be exercised. In my case, it is one of several tools in my toolbox that I can and will use to challenge this ordinance that has been unchanged since 1963.

Sadly, this whole thing has come about because one person got mad at me for something completely unrelated and decided to turn me in after having chickens for more than a year. There are 5 surrounding neighbors who actually enjoy my chickens nearly as much as I do.

I also agree that the new city attorney might be up on the law and latest revisions so I will have to be very prepared in making my arguments. On the other hand, that position is contracted out and the turn over has been quite high. I'm looking into the experience of the latest hired gun as I plan my defense.

Had the neighbor been direct with me and expressed her concerns, I would not be in this position. But I was pushed and I'm pushing back. Nice thing about this country is that one can decide to capitulate to absurdity or stand up against it. I choose to exercise my rights and respect the rights of others.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Olive Hill]

Speaking of hoeing,

OLIVE,

what do you do instead of hoeing, do you not loosen up / turn the dirt before planting? Mine is always rock hard come spring, and hoeing seems to be the easiest way to weed, as well.

Two words: John Deere.

I've regular row gardened, raised bed gardened and container gardened. What I've come away from all that with is a combination of techniques that, imntbcho, makes for the best and eliminates the downfalls of each. The main ground work is done with a tractor and then I plant intensively which mostly eliminates weeding by mid-summer.

 

[Juise]

/sigh *kicks not-working tractor* *breaks toe* *gimps around like Olive*

 

[uchytil]

/sigh *kicks not-working tractor* *breaks toe* *gimps around like Olive*

What's wrong with it?

 

[uchytil]

Quote block?

In one word Kubota. Ever since Deere started using outsourced foreign engines you may as well go orange, anyway, "nothing runs away like a deer(e)"

 

[Olive Hill]

What I personally will not lay claim to is that I am a "farmer" or even have a "farm". However, I should not be prohibited from trying to be self-sufficient in my attempt to feed myself.

I wish you the best of the luck, but lets call a spade a spade. If you have any intention of arguing your case with the RTFA you are, indeed, claiming to be a farmer with a farm. The very description of the Act is, "to provide for circumstances under which a farm shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance". Section 2, not even a quarter of the way down the first page of the act, defines a "farm" as, "the land, plants, animals, buildings, structures, including ponds used for agriculture or aquacultural activities, machinery, equipment and other appurtenances used in the commercial production of farm products."

Every single protective provision in the act begins with "A farm or farm operation...", the latter being very similarly defined as the first. If you're not a "farm or farm operation" it does not apply to you. If you're going to walk in there and claim you have protection under it, you are by extension claiming to be have a farm.

You gotta do, what you gotta do. At least own your actions, though.