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Old 06-04-2004, 10:14 PM
Glenna Rose
 
Posts: n/a
Default garden police gone wild (revisited)?

writes:
I'm just waiting for the neighborhood nazi (i.e. the guy who called
the building inspector when I was building my garden shed) to squawk
about my ducks.


I sincerely hope that doesn't happen. Portland has a limit of 2 or 3
chickens, and I was afraid our town did also. I have ten. Something was
said about chickens at one of the meetings about the new ordinance. I was
asked by the man in charge how many chickens I had. I asked is there a
limit? He said no, so I told him I had ten. I was really concerned that
I might have had to get rid of some, and they are all such pets that it
would be really, really difficult to decide which ones stayed and which
ones would go. Both cities allow only hens, no roosters or pea fowl
because of the noise. I'm fortunate that my close neighbors (and some
far-away) love the chickens and comment often how happy they are to hear
them the rare times they do.

Many folks bring their little ones to see the chickens. When the tykes
gather eggs, that's a real thrill. They, of course, take them home to
have for breakfast. The smiles those ten ladies bring to city children's
faces are wonderful.


The way I figure it, if they have names, they're not livestock;
they're pets. So what if it's 6 ducks and a pullet in the backyard?
As long as I don't intrude on someone else's suburban bliss, WTF,
y'know?

Some people don't have enough to do, AFIAK. My backyard neighbor (a
totally sweet little old widow-woman) is tickled pink that we have a
garden and ducks...she wants me to build a set of steps over the fence
so she can come over and play around in *our* yard. She loves the
kids, she loves getting tomatoes and garlic...but the pinhead two
doors over, who could barely even *see* the garden shed as it was
going up, has decided to exercise his "civic duty" in order to...well,
to just be a plain old pain in the ass of whoever annoys him.


That's so like the jerk that complained about the dog house for my
daughter-in-law's guide dog for the rare times she was outside alone. It
just wasn't always practical for a blind mother with two toddlers to stay
out with the dog until it pottied. Some people simply don't have lives!

It seems as though most neighborhoods have one. :-(


I'd love to see my nice little suburban neighborhood populated by
people who have a sense of calm. People who would rather sit on the
back porch and listen to the "peep-peep" of the ducks...who would
rather piddle around with a bed of vegetables...who would rather turn
a compost bin than watch ESPN and veg out to the latest inane
sitcom...

...but that's just me.


There are more of us, really there are!

Glenna
who purchased a little concrete frog
and a turtle to put among the herbs