UPDATE: YAY! Doin' It In Saint Paul MN

[Harrietsmum]

I am excited for you and I wish you the best.
(I have to say that it stuns me every time I read on here how hard it is for ordinary citizens to do anything in 'the land of the free.'
Your forefathers moved to America to get away from the stifling rules in the old countries. What would they think if they knew that their descendants were living in a the new country bound up in red tape?)
Enjoy your chicks...you have had to work so hard to get them. Do post pictures of your coop and the three girls. Regards, Colleen

 

[theFox]

Don't forget the bungee cords to secure that trash can lids, those rats may have problems without them but the raccoons won't.

 

[Whitewater]

Oh, yes, bungees are an integral feature of pest control for me! The whole metal-trash-can-with-lid-and-bungee thing worked for *years* when I was a kid, learning how to ride horseback, it worked *really* well to keep out not just raccoons but dogs or other animals, including the horses, who might have developed a taste for sweet feed.

Horses are smart enough to knock off a trash can lid, but they couldn't figure out how to unhook a bungee cord.

Although considering that our chicken's feed will be in our garage, it will be a determined raccoon to be able to get in the garage at all, but you never know. I learned very early on in life not to underestimate the beasts who feed themselves through stealth instead of brawn!


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

Ok, so, here it is, Sunday the 13th, late afternoon, I'll bet you all are waiting with baited breath to hear what Animal Control had to say about our chicken set-up, right?

Well, I'm right there with you waiting too.

The officer never showed up. I called the dispatcher and she took my name and phone # and said she'd have him call me . . . 45 minutes ago.

I have waited all afternoon. His appointment time came and went. Even the CABLE guy is more on the ball than this!!!

*sigh* I am about to call the dispatcher again. And if I don't see somebody today, I will be on the phone with AC's office 1st thing in the morning tomorrow.

I might not be working on Sunday, but my time is valuable too. Not to mention that I set this up with the AC office this past Thursday and they CHECKED TO SEE IF THE SCHEDULE COULD HANDLE IT before writing my inspection in.

And I hate like poison to be ignored.

Whitewater (you know, there WERE about a half a dozen errands I could have run today . . . )

 

[Whitewater]

Oh. EM. GEE.

*I* could do a better job!!!! ARGH!!!!

5pm. After calling Ramsey County Dispatch TWICE . . . I just got off the phone with them for the 2nd time. My, my, my. Is THIS what my tax dollars are paying for? The sheer ineptitude of this whole business ASTOUNDS me.

When I called this 2nd time the general dispatch woman could tell I was miffed and after asking a couple questions to get the lay of the land (and after saying 'didn't I talk to you an hour ago?' to which I replied, 'yes, you did, and I haven't heard or seen Animal Control YET') the dispatcher called the AC emergency # for me (or possibly a special secret in-house direct line, I dunno, she certainly had better luck than I did when I tried!) and got a gent on the line who when prompted, replied that he was new, that he didn't know where the paperwork was, apologised for dropping the ball, asked us to hold on, FOUND the daily instructions, apologized for not knowing the routine over there, and said he'd be out within the hour, "I'll make sure to get there before I go home", ie, before 6pm. *siiiiiigh*.

At least he is genuinely sorry and dismayed that he missed such a big chunk of his day. Wonder what other appointments he neglected?

I dunno, I think I'm VERY thankful that this is the last I have to do with Animal Control, at least for the next 12 months.

Sheesh!


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

I was on the horn all afternoon for a two minute walk through. Dang.

But, it was NOT in vain for we are now OFFICIAL and LEGAL to get our chickens. Yay!

The guy liked the size and the heft of our coop/run and he approved muchly our mouse-proof 'feed bin', ie, metal trash can with bungee.

Incidentally, the officer also approved of my well-behaved, well-socialized dogs (his words). *I* know they're well trained, but it was nice to see another opinion.

Here's hoping the dogs remain just as non-reactive when the chickens arrive!


Whitewater

 

[FarmerJamie]

Now the real fun begins! BRING ON THE CHICKENS!

We want, nay demand, cool pictures of the launching of the coop and its new residents when they arrive!

Whitewater, awesome determination!

 

[Harrietsmum]

We have to have photos!!!

Coop photos, fuzzy butt photos, and photos of fuzzy butts in coop.

: clap

: clap

 

[Whitewater]

I will get pics of the pullets, never fear

Everything will get posted on this link -- http://community.webshots.com/album/577727046doZyzb -- my coop building pictures are already up there. I may post a few pictures just in a post when we get our birds, too, we'll see.

As for determination and all that, I dunno. I am just a stubborn-old-coot-in-training, I think! Been this way all my life, the more difficult a thing, the more determined I am to do it, LOL. Guess I just like to make life difficult.

But yes I am a curmudgeon, and a stubborn *young* coot, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with why we just didn't give up. That, and I wanted to finish the coop regardless, just to see if I/we could.

Anyhow, I wasn't going to waste all that time, money, or effort, oh, HECK no.



Whitewater (shortly to move onto how to solve the problem of WAY too much rain, it's ruining the garden!)

 

[theFox]

Quote:
Raised beds with drainage (a lot of work), only downside is they require that you pay close attention to watering if you get a dry spell.

They were likely the only reason that we were able to get anything from our garden during last years damp and wet growing season. Now if the fine folks at the big box stores hadn't stocked up with biological devices (late blight laden tomatoes from away) I might have also had a lot of tomatoes to cook down and freeze, or been able to do a couple of batches of my grandmother's piccalilli etc.. .

The real gotcha was we didn't buy a single infected plant but we didn't stand a chance between the three big box stores within a mile and a half of here and the fact our next door neighbor bought and planted some from them.