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Let's see, do I want to share the Bad News first or the Good News first? The Bad News has been somewhat mitigated, so it's really just Not So Great News, so let me get that out of the way before I get to enthuse about the really Good News.
Couple of nights ago, I found a note taped to my front gate, from the retirees next door, requesting I call as soon as I got home. So I did.
The lady of the house answered and we talked a bit about a Notice of Public Hearing scheduled for February 7th - that I knew nothing about. Apparently the woman who owns the quarter acre right at the corner where our road begins, but lives with the son of the original complainant and has plans to rent out her little house - well, SHE requested the public hearing with the Board of Supervisors. And the subject of this hearing is her objection and appeal of the Administrative Hearing which upheld my right to keep chickens here.
Oh, my.
Well, Mrs. Retiree declared that "nobody" wants to deal with a Public Hearing "like this" and would I be interested in having a meeting at her house with the member of the Board of Supervisors who represents this part of the county and that neighbor or anybody else with interests in the Public Hearing? The roosters are driving everybody nuts and the gal who requested (and paid a non-refundable fee of $200.00 for the hearing) would be there, too. I did tell Mrs. Retiree I had just removed 5 roosters the previous night.
But I thanked her for asking me and agreed to come to the meeting - absolutely! Sunday at 2 p.m. I'll be there! I hung up, trying not to hyperventilate. Family friendly forum prohibits my sharing what I said aloud - with some heat - to nobody but myself in the privacy of my home.
I have not shared this information with ANYONE, at least not until John showed up this morning to do more deck construction. I was afraid I would blubber. Very casually, I told him I would have to go next door for a while to meet with the neighbors and the member of the Board of Supervisors they got involved in the situation. Someone who John knows very well and considers a friend. "You gotta be kidding me!!!"
Nope. John checked his watch to see how much time before the meeting, and began to mutter about "people." He then shared a funny story about his good friend, wondering if he should remind him of that particular occasion. We chuckled. Folks in public office really need to make sure they have nothing "interesting" in their lives. Should be dull, boring, not at all personable, lively or any fun at all.
So, I met this member of the Board of Supervisors at the retiree's home. He is an extremely personable fellow who also happens to espouse a sincere desire for reasonable solutions. He keeps a few chickens, but he's an enthusiastic horseman. LOVES his horses. He is quite familiar with the Deep Litter Method (important when addressing the gal's concerns about "chicken manure odors)." He refuses to "write law" and avidly supports my right to keep chickens. The Board of Supervisors, as a group, would be mightily annoyed to have to consider "such as small matter" as a neighborhood dispute about chickens. Certainly we are all reasonable and intelligent people and can work together to mitigate valid concerns, such as the noise produced by multiple roosters and possible environmental issues as run-off from my property which might contain objectionable matter.
He spent a bit of time congratulating me on how gorgeous a piece of land I'd purchased, how much I've improved the property in the few months I've owned it, and what a valuable member of the community and county I am.
This particular complainant is a veterinarian assistant. She loves animals and acknowledges my chickens are "gorgeous animals" and not abused, but they are "not kept more than 50 from my property line and they're excessively noisy." She would really like to live in the quiet neighborhood in which she invested and lives, and which it used to be, before I moved in with all my chickens. How could she possibly expect to find a renter when the roosters are audible everywhere and crow at all hours of the night as well as "constantly" during the day? She didn't expect to live near a "chicken farm."
Mrs. Retiree and Carl Jr (the person) who lives on the OTHER side of my property - with their own seven hens and a duck - are also bothered by the late night crowing. His father, Carl Sr., who works days, is significantly bothered, as well. Yes, my "good" neighbors are upset, not just the girlfriend of the Original Complainant's son across the street.
We discussed the matter at length. I have already begun a "rooster reduction program." Carl (the person) acknowledged it has been much quieter the past few days. Now he knows why. I will continue to reduce the flock by a number of roosters. The BofS member is extremely familiar with the ability of chickens to strip the ground of green, living plants. Denuded land creates a problem with run-off. Carl Jr. suggested "landscape wattles." In this context, "wattles" are those long tube-like rolls of netting which hold straw to reduce land erosion. I'll purchase and place some of those inside the front fence on the downward side of my property. This is what they are: http://earthaidusa.com/straw-wattle.aspx
The Public Hearing will be "continued" - or placed on hold for an indefinite period of time. He will handle that - just needs a letter from the gal to request it. This will leave it "open" - to be rescheduled - in case we are all unable to work with each other to solve this problem as best we can. She agreed to submit one. (Mrs. Retiree assured her she would help her compose it and even drop it off with the BofS's secretary, which they both knew by first name.)
Now, about my roosters.... at one point in the meeting, I started to have trouble staying perky, composed and accommodating. Tears welled up into my eyes - but did not spill over. I had trouble keeping my voice even.
My neighbors fell silent. Oh, great. Now they'll hear me sniffle, too!
Our member of the Board of Supervisors said some conciliatory things - sincere words - and began to tell us about his 35 year old horse with special needs. He loves his horse. He loves all his horses but he REALLY loves this mare. He and his wife have differing opinions about how - and where - to care for her. He has had to negotiate with his wife to develop a plan to eventually have the mare housed in a new stable adequate for her care. There is a timetable for this action to come to conclusion. Can we - all of us residents affected by the situation - work together to come to some middle ground, on a reasonable timetable?
If I supply leaflets, my neighbors will be glad to place them on bulletin boards at their church, various stores, and other public locations in an attempt to re-home my roosters, perhaps with 4-H kids, or farms which may really like to have a good rooster or few. None of them - at least during this meeting - want me to have to "butcher" my pets. Especially since the noisiest ones are bantams - nobody would get much of a meal from them. They didn't even like to hear about them being butchered.
Our public representative departed, asking us all to continue to talk together for at least half an hour. Which we did. And then we went outside onto the retiree's deck, to smoke together and talk some more. I explained some things about chickens to them in response to a few questions.
What causes them to crow at night? Well, Carl the dominant rooster reacts to sounds or movement outside of the coop, as he is the flock protector. He crows an alert. This sets off the other roosters, and sometime the geese. (Which are REALLY loud.) Unfortunately, I'm of an age which makes me need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. This is sufficient to awaken Carl.
Do they all sleep in the coop at night? Yes, there is an automatic chicken door for them which allows them free entry and exit during the daytime. Plus, I keep all their feed in the coop; they only get "treats" served to them on the "uphill" side of the coop, or in my driveway - which I hand feed to the entire flock. And I hang the occasional Tether Cabbage for them, outside. (Mr. & Mrs. Retiree have seen the Tether Cabbage.)
How do I catch them? I either pick them up, or I wait until dusk when they have gone inside the coop and roosted. It's very easy, then.
Don't chickens have mites on their legs? Only if they aren't treated for mites and other external parasites. I treat mine. I spent some time telling them what I had to do with Red, the hen I rescued from someone else, who had a HORRIBLE scaly mite problem. Her feet looked like gnarled, arthritic hands, all knobby and painful. Plus she had feather mites and was malnourished when I got her. There were appropriate "Ohhh" sounds indicating they knew I was a loving person who deeply cares for her chickens.
And then I asked about "the tortie cat" they might have seen around... Yes, they had, and Tony (another neighbor on another street "behind" ours) was feeding it. Gosh, I'd love to give her a home! (That's Lizbeth!!!) Mrs. Retiree will call Tony and if he can catch her, they'll make sure she gets delivered to me.
We said our good-byes, either hugging or shaking hands as was appropriate for the recipient, and I walked down the driveway ("Be careful, Linda, it's very steep!") back to my own slice of noisy heaven.
So that was the Not Very Good News. The GREAT news is John is further along in building my deck, and after he heard my rendition of The Meeting, he has decided not to blackmail his Board of Supervisors friend.
Pictures of the progress:
.
.
I'm fascinated by the process, as it's not at all how *I* thought decks were constructed. I have once again seen the magic of The String to make things level and square. I've learned how the geometry of Triangles is used to support posts floating in air, not attached to the ground. John will pour the concrete for the posts tomorrow, beneath those suspended posts. After the concrete cures, the posts will be secured to the concrete footings.
This will be an 8 X 12 deck, with half of it covered. The plastic in that one open hole is to create a buffer space between the concrete footing and the corner of the concrete lid section over the septic tank. That one cover piece (there are six rectangular concrete lid pieces covering the septic tank) comes VERY close to one corner deck post. The lid pieces are longer, no, wider than the septic tank beneath them, so John chipped away just a smidgeon of the lid piece without touching the tank at all. In this way, IF the septic tank ever needs to be TOTALLY uncovered, that one lid piece can be removed by sliding it instead of lifting it directly upwards and damaging the deck footing.
Cool, huh?
Couple of nights ago, I found a note taped to my front gate, from the retirees next door, requesting I call as soon as I got home. So I did.
The lady of the house answered and we talked a bit about a Notice of Public Hearing scheduled for February 7th - that I knew nothing about. Apparently the woman who owns the quarter acre right at the corner where our road begins, but lives with the son of the original complainant and has plans to rent out her little house - well, SHE requested the public hearing with the Board of Supervisors. And the subject of this hearing is her objection and appeal of the Administrative Hearing which upheld my right to keep chickens here.
Oh, my.
Well, Mrs. Retiree declared that "nobody" wants to deal with a Public Hearing "like this" and would I be interested in having a meeting at her house with the member of the Board of Supervisors who represents this part of the county and that neighbor or anybody else with interests in the Public Hearing? The roosters are driving everybody nuts and the gal who requested (and paid a non-refundable fee of $200.00 for the hearing) would be there, too. I did tell Mrs. Retiree I had just removed 5 roosters the previous night.
But I thanked her for asking me and agreed to come to the meeting - absolutely! Sunday at 2 p.m. I'll be there! I hung up, trying not to hyperventilate. Family friendly forum prohibits my sharing what I said aloud - with some heat - to nobody but myself in the privacy of my home.
I have not shared this information with ANYONE, at least not until John showed up this morning to do more deck construction. I was afraid I would blubber. Very casually, I told him I would have to go next door for a while to meet with the neighbors and the member of the Board of Supervisors they got involved in the situation. Someone who John knows very well and considers a friend. "You gotta be kidding me!!!"
Nope. John checked his watch to see how much time before the meeting, and began to mutter about "people." He then shared a funny story about his good friend, wondering if he should remind him of that particular occasion. We chuckled. Folks in public office really need to make sure they have nothing "interesting" in their lives. Should be dull, boring, not at all personable, lively or any fun at all.
So, I met this member of the Board of Supervisors at the retiree's home. He is an extremely personable fellow who also happens to espouse a sincere desire for reasonable solutions. He keeps a few chickens, but he's an enthusiastic horseman. LOVES his horses. He is quite familiar with the Deep Litter Method (important when addressing the gal's concerns about "chicken manure odors)." He refuses to "write law" and avidly supports my right to keep chickens. The Board of Supervisors, as a group, would be mightily annoyed to have to consider "such as small matter" as a neighborhood dispute about chickens. Certainly we are all reasonable and intelligent people and can work together to mitigate valid concerns, such as the noise produced by multiple roosters and possible environmental issues as run-off from my property which might contain objectionable matter.
He spent a bit of time congratulating me on how gorgeous a piece of land I'd purchased, how much I've improved the property in the few months I've owned it, and what a valuable member of the community and county I am.
This particular complainant is a veterinarian assistant. She loves animals and acknowledges my chickens are "gorgeous animals" and not abused, but they are "not kept more than 50 from my property line and they're excessively noisy." She would really like to live in the quiet neighborhood in which she invested and lives, and which it used to be, before I moved in with all my chickens. How could she possibly expect to find a renter when the roosters are audible everywhere and crow at all hours of the night as well as "constantly" during the day? She didn't expect to live near a "chicken farm."
Mrs. Retiree and Carl Jr (the person) who lives on the OTHER side of my property - with their own seven hens and a duck - are also bothered by the late night crowing. His father, Carl Sr., who works days, is significantly bothered, as well. Yes, my "good" neighbors are upset, not just the girlfriend of the Original Complainant's son across the street.
We discussed the matter at length. I have already begun a "rooster reduction program." Carl (the person) acknowledged it has been much quieter the past few days. Now he knows why. I will continue to reduce the flock by a number of roosters. The BofS member is extremely familiar with the ability of chickens to strip the ground of green, living plants. Denuded land creates a problem with run-off. Carl Jr. suggested "landscape wattles." In this context, "wattles" are those long tube-like rolls of netting which hold straw to reduce land erosion. I'll purchase and place some of those inside the front fence on the downward side of my property. This is what they are: http://earthaidusa.com/straw-wattle.aspx
The Public Hearing will be "continued" - or placed on hold for an indefinite period of time. He will handle that - just needs a letter from the gal to request it. This will leave it "open" - to be rescheduled - in case we are all unable to work with each other to solve this problem as best we can. She agreed to submit one. (Mrs. Retiree assured her she would help her compose it and even drop it off with the BofS's secretary, which they both knew by first name.)
Now, about my roosters.... at one point in the meeting, I started to have trouble staying perky, composed and accommodating. Tears welled up into my eyes - but did not spill over. I had trouble keeping my voice even.
My neighbors fell silent. Oh, great. Now they'll hear me sniffle, too!
Our member of the Board of Supervisors said some conciliatory things - sincere words - and began to tell us about his 35 year old horse with special needs. He loves his horse. He loves all his horses but he REALLY loves this mare. He and his wife have differing opinions about how - and where - to care for her. He has had to negotiate with his wife to develop a plan to eventually have the mare housed in a new stable adequate for her care. There is a timetable for this action to come to conclusion. Can we - all of us residents affected by the situation - work together to come to some middle ground, on a reasonable timetable?
If I supply leaflets, my neighbors will be glad to place them on bulletin boards at their church, various stores, and other public locations in an attempt to re-home my roosters, perhaps with 4-H kids, or farms which may really like to have a good rooster or few. None of them - at least during this meeting - want me to have to "butcher" my pets. Especially since the noisiest ones are bantams - nobody would get much of a meal from them. They didn't even like to hear about them being butchered.
Our public representative departed, asking us all to continue to talk together for at least half an hour. Which we did. And then we went outside onto the retiree's deck, to smoke together and talk some more. I explained some things about chickens to them in response to a few questions.
What causes them to crow at night? Well, Carl the dominant rooster reacts to sounds or movement outside of the coop, as he is the flock protector. He crows an alert. This sets off the other roosters, and sometime the geese. (Which are REALLY loud.) Unfortunately, I'm of an age which makes me need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. This is sufficient to awaken Carl.
Do they all sleep in the coop at night? Yes, there is an automatic chicken door for them which allows them free entry and exit during the daytime. Plus, I keep all their feed in the coop; they only get "treats" served to them on the "uphill" side of the coop, or in my driveway - which I hand feed to the entire flock. And I hang the occasional Tether Cabbage for them, outside. (Mr. & Mrs. Retiree have seen the Tether Cabbage.)
How do I catch them? I either pick them up, or I wait until dusk when they have gone inside the coop and roosted. It's very easy, then.
Don't chickens have mites on their legs? Only if they aren't treated for mites and other external parasites. I treat mine. I spent some time telling them what I had to do with Red, the hen I rescued from someone else, who had a HORRIBLE scaly mite problem. Her feet looked like gnarled, arthritic hands, all knobby and painful. Plus she had feather mites and was malnourished when I got her. There were appropriate "Ohhh" sounds indicating they knew I was a loving person who deeply cares for her chickens.
And then I asked about "the tortie cat" they might have seen around... Yes, they had, and Tony (another neighbor on another street "behind" ours) was feeding it. Gosh, I'd love to give her a home! (That's Lizbeth!!!) Mrs. Retiree will call Tony and if he can catch her, they'll make sure she gets delivered to me.
We said our good-byes, either hugging or shaking hands as was appropriate for the recipient, and I walked down the driveway ("Be careful, Linda, it's very steep!") back to my own slice of noisy heaven.
So that was the Not Very Good News. The GREAT news is John is further along in building my deck, and after he heard my rendition of The Meeting, he has decided not to blackmail his Board of Supervisors friend.
Pictures of the progress:
. .I'm fascinated by the process, as it's not at all how *I* thought decks were constructed. I have once again seen the magic of The String to make things level and square. I've learned how the geometry of Triangles is used to support posts floating in air, not attached to the ground. John will pour the concrete for the posts tomorrow, beneath those suspended posts. After the concrete cures, the posts will be secured to the concrete footings.
This will be an 8 X 12 deck, with half of it covered. The plastic in that one open hole is to create a buffer space between the concrete footing and the corner of the concrete lid section over the septic tank. That one cover piece (there are six rectangular concrete lid pieces covering the septic tank) comes VERY close to one corner deck post. The lid pieces are longer, no, wider than the septic tank beneath them, so John chipped away just a smidgeon of the lid piece without touching the tank at all. In this way, IF the septic tank ever needs to be TOTALLY uncovered, that one lid piece can be removed by sliding it instead of lifting it directly upwards and damaging the deck footing.
Cool, huh?
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