Now I’ve been accused of abandoning my chickens.

Friday around midday, just before the rain started, I went to our new location to tend the chickens and to unload the feed so it didn’t get wet sitting in the back of our truck. I was there maybe an hour, then went home for lunch. Noah and I then returned to pick up harvest bins and wash them. When we left there to go to the gardens on Maize Road, there were several school buses on the road, so I estimate it was somewhere between 2:30 and 3:00.

I spent the afternoon installing a water line and some homemade pumps at the community garden, then spent the evening harvesting vegetables for my CSA members, working until after dark. I have a refrigerator for eggs at the same place where the chickens are, so on our way back home, we swung by to pick up the week’s eggs (and to see if the hens had laid any more while we were gone) so I’d have them for the farmers market the next morning.

As I pulled into the drive, I saw a paper taped to the fence. I got out of the truck and saw it was a notice from a Humane Society officer saying that I was being investigated for abandoning my animals. Officer Pfeiffer had written the time of the notice as 16:13 (that’s 4:13 p.m. for all you civilians), and said that if I didn’t call their office in 15 hours, they were going to steal my chickens and either adopt them out or kill them. Fifteen hours after 4:13 p.m. Friday, as you’ve already figured out if you bothered to count, is 7:13 a.m. Saturday. It was about 10:45 p.m. when I discovered the notice.

Now, I don’t know if the Humane Society operates 24 hours a day, but I do know that if you drop off a notice late Friday afternoon instructing someone to respond before the start of business the next day, you can probably count on not hearing back from them by that time. Also, while opinions on poultry management differ, chickens really only need to be fed once a day. Since I had already fed them, it was just a lucky coincidence that I happened to be going back there to pick up eggs. Were that not the case, I wouldn’t have found it until the following afternoon after the farmers market. I think a pretty strong argument could be made that this notice was served with the intent of my not discovering it before the deadline, and that’s just downright unethical.

I called back immediately, and of course, no answer. The notice didn’t say they needed to speak with me, only that I needed to respond within 15 hours to prove that I hadn’t abandoned my animals. I left my name and the address, told them I’m there once or twice a day, usually for a few hours a day, and hung up. The next morning while I was at the market, Mayda also called. No answer again, and Mayda left both her and my cell phone numbers.

After the market, when I went to tend the birds, I saw another notice, this time taped to the front door. It said that I needed to call back and leave a contact number so we could set up an appointment. I called back, and again, no answer. I said that as I had already contacted their office within the time limit, I didn’t see how there could be any further question about whether I had abandoned my animals. I asked that someone call me to explain what the problem was.

I got a call a couple hours later. The officer apologized for the second notice, saying that she hadn’t gotten Mayda’s message before posting it. She said that the complaint alleged both that I had abandoned the animals and that they were living in unsanitary conditions. On the face of it, that’s a ridiculous allegation. If I had abandoned them, they wouldn’t be living at all! Furthermore, I had demonstrated that I had not abandoned them, so that, I would think, should clearly expose the complainant as a crank. This was a bogus complaint, probably lodged by someone who was upset because I haven’t cut the grass for a while or something.

But rather than drop the matter and go after the accuser for making a false complaint, they’re saying I have to have an officer over to inspect the place. Apparently, the term “probable cause” is not within the vocabulary of the Humane Society.

Last time, years ago, when someone complained to the Humane Society that we had a “sick rooster,” they dropped in for a visit and Mayda showed them that we had no roosters, and that the hens were all healthy. That was the end of that, but then we started getting visits from the Health Department and Zoning. I really don’t need to go through this crap all over again. We’re LEGAL. The chickens are on a plot outside city limits that’s over an acre, not in a subdivision, and not prohibited by the township. Any further intrusion at this point is just malicious harassment.

Given the long stretch of rainless days in the 80s and 90s, my 4-year-old son Noah and I watered the gardens last night. I like to involve the kids in any age-appropriate way I can, so that they grow up with a sense of ownership in the farm and the skills to run it. That, and Noah works for lollipops.

I loaded four 55-gallon barrels and one 33-gallon barrel onto the back of the truck and filled them with water while I made some improvements to the hen house yesterday. (Note to self: that works about to over 2100 pounds of water, just about the limit of what our old F-250’s suspension will handle.) Once we got to the gardens, we set buckets on the ground next to the truck. I got up in the bed and pumped the water out by hand while Noah held the pump hose in the buckets and moved it to an empty bucket once one bucket was full.

On the way home, Noah got his first good look at fireworks as we watched the illegal skybursts over North Linden. A stop for gas and lollopops, and our workday was done a little after ten o’clock.

Someone just called me asking if I could take some chicks she has as a result of a school project. There are 3 chicks, one week old, unknown breeds. One is black, one is black and gold, and one is all gold. If you’d like to take these little birds off her hands, contact Heidi Hall at (614) 570-8633 or hhall@columbus.rr.com .

This isn’t the first such call I’ve received. I’m happy to help place little birds. The more small, backyard flocks, the better! But it kind of irks me that schools are encouraging children to hatch baby chickens that they have no way to care for, nor any intention of caring for. It seems irresponsible.

I think they’re also missing a great educational opportunity. The lesson shouldn’t end once the chicks are out of the shell. Children could learn nurturing and responsibility by caring for the birds. When the Girl Scouts first started out in Scotland (I think they called them Girl Guides back then), the girls raised money by selling eggs from hens they raised themselves. And toward the end of the year, the older children, say middle- or high-schoolers, could slaughter the birds for the cafeteria to cook up. It illustrates the full circle of life, teaches the kids useful, recession-proof skills they could use to feed themselves and/or earn a living, and teaches the importance of thinking ahead. Hatching is just the beginning.

Thanks to Greener Grocer’s contribution to the hens’ diet, last year’s hen run is now a jungle of volunteer tomatoes. There are a couple mystery squashes growing in there, too. I thought about moving them to one of the gardens where they could get more sun, but clearly, they’re happy where they are.

Last week as I was loading the tiller into the back of the truck, it fell off the ramp onto its side. The broke the carburetor. I took it in to get fixed. It was supposed to have been ready yesterday, but the repair shop received the wrong parts, so it’s going to take a while longer.

…which means I didn’t get to till yesterday.

…which means I didn’t get to plant.

And now, it’s raining. A lot. Probably too much to till on Wednesday, which is fine, really, because I’m already booked for Wednesday. I was supposed to do some landscaping for someone yesterday, but rescheduled it for Wednesday so I could get some work done in the gardens.

And I did! The owner of the place where I have most of my gardens won’t let me fence the deer out of his yard, so I put a deer fence all the way around one of my plots. I just planted it maybe two or three weeks ago and I see raccoon tracks on the landscape fabric. Anyway, I got that fence up, mowed down the weeds on last year’s sweet corn patch and potato patch so I can till them up…and that’s it. Of course, I went to the feed store and tended the chickens and such, but I didn’t get nearly as much gardening done as I’d have liked.

It’s supposed to rain again Thursday. And Friday. Saturday, of course, I’ve got a market. And at some point, I need to mow the yard. I’d hope to garden Sunday, but I doubt it will be dry enough to till after raining all week.

This is why I shouldn’t start my veggie CSA in June. I’ve got stuff planted–spinach, kale, lettuce, arugula, bok choy, cabbage–and as soon as I can till some more, I’m going to plant beets, carrots, radishes, rutabegas, and potatoes, with winter squashes, beans, and cucumbers soon to follow. (Mayda planted some cukes here at the house, bless her heart.)

On the bright side, the stuff I’ve planted so far is all in beds covered with landscape fabric. It lets water through but keeps the weeds down. I learned the hard way that it’s better to burn holes in the fabric rather than just cutting x’s, because the flaps don’t stay open and the sprouts end up getting smothered. But I haven’t had any problems with weeds there yet. And once I get some money for drip tape, I’m going to lay it down under plastic for the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squashes, fennel, etc.

I think, while I’m stuck inside, I’ll plant herbs in containers.

I noticed that the place where I get sawdust also has a dumpster full of wood scraps, some of which looked like they’d be suitable as tomato stakes. I’ll have to ask the owner about them.

Starting fresh: since I had a new batch of chickens processed last week, I took the unsold parts that have been piling up in the freezer since last summer and gave them to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank on Tuesday. It came out to 315 lbs. of backs, wings, gizzards, and legs. Then I came home and remembered I still had another small bag of legs and wings in another freezer.

I also found a local purveyor of Caribbean food who gave me dinner in exchange for a couple bags of chicken feet!

My plan had been to make breasts and Italian sausage out of the next batch of birds, but since this batch is nearly sold out–I have about enough for tomorrow at Clintonville and for the CSA shares for the next few weeks–I might not. I could have them keep out some whole birds and make breasts and sausage from the rest, but then there might not be enough to meet the 80 pound minimum for making sausage. We’ll see. It’ll be a surprise. I’ll either have sausage in a couple weeks or I won’t.

I just came across this story about a town in Wisconsin that voted against allowing chickens. “Janesville City Council denies request for backyard chickens.”

Following is a comment I left there: Continue reading Urban Sensibilities Cripple Small Town’s Self-Reliance…

I just got off the phone with a high school student who’s hatching some chicken eggs for a school project. She’s expecting three chicks and wants to find homes for them. She doesn’t know what breed(s) they are, and after my experience mixing Rhode Island Reds with Cornish-Rock crosses a couple years ago, I’m disinclined to take them. I figured this sounds like a good number for a backyard hobbyist, though, so I told her I’d put the word out.

If you want these chickens, contact Benisha Bruce at (740) 632-8284.

I wanted to share this article with you. Detroit and Flint have been the canaries in the coal mine with regard to industrial collapse and de-urbanization. I’ve been watching with interest what role urban agriculture will play. Mayda and I have talked about how cool it would be if the Mock Park area of Columbus/Mifflin Township were declared an urban agriculture zone as an economic development initiative, but Detroit’s going about it all the wrong way.

Essentially, Detroit is now a sprawling, sparsely populated city. It can’t afford police and fire services for the whole area without the tax base to support it, so it wants to concentrate the remaining population into a few neighborhoods. Some of the people don’t want to go. The city is talking about eminent domain to take these people’s homes away from them.

I have mixed feelings about this. I think shrinking is a good plan for Detroit, but I dislike heavy-handed authoritarianism, especially about something as severe as uprooting people from their homes and seizing something that’s such a major investment for most people. I’m cool with eminent domain for the abandoned houses, but I think the people still residing there should be given the option to stay with the understanding that services will no longer be provided to that area. Disincorporate those areas. Put them under county control. Rezone them as agricultural.

Moreover, give the residents first option to buy the surrounding properties, perhaps with the stipulation that they have to demolish or re-purpose unoccupied houses. If they want to further require that agriculture be practiced there, I suppose they could do that, too, though that might be pushing the envelope just a bit. Why should residents be penalized for hanging in there for so long? If they like living in a less populous place, why should they be forced to live in a densely populated neighborhood just because they used to live in one? It’s ridiculous for them to presume they can tell people where to live just because their treasury has shrunk.

Can you imagine Columbus ordering people in Westerville and Gahanna to move downtown and start paying Columbus taxes so the city can pay for the police budget next year? Maybe Detroit could start snatching people off the interstate highways and forcing them to live in these new communities. Really, what’s the difference? They’re talking about conscripting people to live in their new, smaller city, and coercing them into it with the threat of homelessness. “We’re gonna take your house now. You can come live downtown and pay taxes, or you can beat it.”

That really is what it comes down to, because fair market value–what a government is supposed to compensate a landowner when they exercise eminent domain–is not enough for them to buy a home anywhere else. Detroit will probably offer them a break on a house in the new dense parts of the city, maybe even an even swap. If they don’t take it, well, here’s your fifty bucks (or whatever a house in Detroit is worth these days–I’d heard they were going for as low as ten dollars in some auctions where lots were bundled together).

Let’s see if Detroit can manage to create an appropriately sized, well-designed city that incorporates agriculture without resorting to Machiavellian tactics.

Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

Continue reading Detroit Rezoning to Allow More Agricultre…

Growing food in the city isn’t just a trendy thing to do. Our very survival depends on it. If there are to be cities in the years to come, they must start pulling more of their own weight where resource production is concerned, and food is one of the most basic of resources.

For the time being, let’s set aside the issue of geophysicist M. King Hubbert’s “Peak Oil” theory that postulates that for a given geographical area, oil production follows a bell-shaped curve, and that after that area reaches peak production, efforts to extract oil are both increasingly expensive and decreasingly fruitful, thereby driving the price of oil to the point that it’s no longer profitable to drill. Some of you who slept through Earth Science in Junior High may think that the Earth is like a giant cherry cordial filled with more petroleum than humanity could ever find a use for, while others—the so-called “abiotic oil” theorists—believe that oil just happens, and that the millions of years’ worth of accumulated organic matter from the Carboniferous Period had nothing to do with it. Or, like many, perhaps you’ve simply never given the issue any thought, and you automatically dismiss any topic that makes you uneasy. To all of you, discussion of fossil fuel depletion sounds like the sort of thing brought up by people in tinfoil hats ranting about alien abductions and secret societies, so you tune out. For now, then, we’ll set aside concerns of fossil fuel depletion, despite it being an even greater certainty in the scientific community than global climate change. Instead, let’s talk about something there’s no denying: the economy.
Continue reading Why We Need Urban Agriculture…