the neighbors next door

[digitS']

My neighbors to the West are having an outdoor family gathering, today.

Must be the entire family, there are folks I've never seen before in the 8 years, or so, this young couple has lived across the fence. The neighbors, her mom and probably an "odd" aunt or 2 know that I've kept chickens for years but I don't want them to have to explain that to everyone in the backyard. My coop is right up against my fence even if they can't actually see the chickens on that side of the coop.

As the tables came out this morning, I called over and asked if it would be any problem if I mowed my lawn real quick. "No problem, go right ahead!"

Before many people had shown up, I'd finished along that side but as I was doing so, a few thoughts occured to me on how to keep the chickens at a low profile. First of all, I was filling the air with the scent of fresh-mown grass. I drifted over into the mints along the fence with the weed-wacker and the fragrence of chocolate, apple and spearmint (even took out a couple of basil plants that had gone around the bend, pretty much) added to the mix.

We'd collected quite a few onions and cabbages from the garden yesterday. I peeled the outside cabbage leaves and cut off the onion tops, placing them in a "compost" bucket. The bucket went behind the coop beside the fence. The neighbor keeps his garbage cans there so this should really add to that mix

!

Then it was into the house to collect a radio. I carried it out in a box so as not to be too obvious and positioned it on the other side of my garage about 50 feet from the neighbors. Back into the house, I waited a few minutes and then threw the switch to the garage outlet to turn the radio on. Some darn station my daughter listens to . . .

Things seem to be going well on the other side of my fence and I'm sure a good time will be had by all. (My chickens included . . .

)

Steve

 

[Mahonri]

Sounds like you are keeping a low profile.

 

[dacjohns]

OK, what's the point?

Just commenting on your day or is there a question I missed? This would be a good post for The Horrors of off Topic Posts (THOOTP).

 

[Chickenfiend]

I really don't think this is an off topic post. This is an everything forum. This post is giving advice on how to keep your chickens neighbor friendly. It shows the upside of keeping chickens in the city which is more than I can say for a lot of posts about neighbors.

 

[Kanchii]

Quote:
She's just explaining how she's trying to keep the fact that she keeps chickens, which she obviously isn't supposed to be doing, unnoticeable so that these new people don't rat her out.

How can you be off topic on the everything else chicken thread? it's about anything and everything to do about chickens.

 

[Linda in San Diego]

Quote:
She's just explaining how she's trying to keep the fact that she keeps chickens, which she obviously isn't supposed to be doing, unnoticeable so that these new people don't rat her out.

How can you be off topic on the everything else chicken thread? it's about anything and everything to do about chickens.

Seems totally on topic to me! No horror. Rather than have all the party goers ohing and humming about the chickens, the poster has added pleasent scents and background sounds to her neighborhood to keep nosey poseys from rubbernecking over the fence.

dacjohns - this is the 3rd time I have read one of your responses to someone else's posts and wanted to say, "If you don't have something nice to say - keep it to yourself." There, it is said, PM me if you wish, but it is my opinion.

 

[dacjohns]

Thank you all. You are much better at discerning the nuances of the post than I was.

It wasn't obvious to me that he wasn't supposed to have chickens. It wasn't obvious that he was in a city.

It wasn't meant to be mean, that is why I added a smilie.

It is also typical of many of the THOOTP posts.

I was only trying to figure out what was going on. I didn't know if the OP was asking for advice or just commenting on what was going on.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone and also sorry that I was misunderstood.

 

[Buster]

DigitS', I'm glad you are so careful in keeping a low profile. Hearing your story though makes me glad that I live in an area where I can have chickens and I am very thankful for my great neighbors. My Orps caused traffic problems the other day when they strutted around in the middle of my rural road.

 

[digitS']

No offense taken . . . I was just humored by the efforts I was a making not to cause discomfort on the other side of my fence and wanted to share the story

. I thought some might see it as an invitation to share their experiences at keeping the neighbors comfortable with their livestock-keeping - especially when there are suddenly a good number of visitors.

I can legally have chickens but live on a fairly small lot. There are neighbors on all sides and across the road.

The folks next door have never shown anything but tolerance for the chickens. Their kids have now gotten too old to take much interest but they used to like to come over to pet them. It seemed to me that it is one thing to have good neighbors but it is another to expect an entire yard full of people to be comfortable sharing space with livestock. The population next door has grown from 4 to maybe 40. The chickens' proximity to a family gathering made me feel it necessary to do something!

I try to keep the odors down but today, all of these other things were at hand. I decided that they presented a good way to camouflage any coop smells. And, then that kid's radio station - there are more kids in 2 neighboring houses who could just as well be responsible for that rather than the old guy with the chicken house. Whatever the case, the radio isn't producing anything more than a little background noise interspersed with some rather unmusical comments by the birds. They can certainly drown out the radio without half trying but I'm hoping that they won't.

It looks to me that there will be some camping in the neighbor's backyard . . . I wish I could be sure that the birds won't intrude. There's no rooster, so no wake-up calls, at least. There's plenty more mint but I think I'd better not add any more onions and cabbage leaves to the ambiance . . .

Steve

 

[dacjohns]

Thank you Steve.

Good story. I can smell that mint too. You sound like a very good neighbor.