Overthinking ~ Chickens

This past weekend we've been going to Coop Camp.  Coop Dreams  is a television show that follows Brad Hauter and his experience raising backyard chickens.  There are presenters talking about various issues with chicken keeping whether it be backyard chickens, breeders or farming.

It's been very informative.  Topics from chicken feed, chicken treats, chicken enrichment, treating sick chickens, rare breeds among many others have been discussed so far.  I was very lucky and was nominated for a scholarship and then Coop Camp went over and above and  offered a discount to the members of our Facebook group Glendale Backyard Farmers Movement.

After we got home tonight I started thinking, pondering, you know smoke coming out of the ears kind of thinking.  Our city turns a blind eye to some families they know are harboring illegal backyard chickens.  In the words of the Code Enforcement Director, code will not enforce backyard chickens unless there is a complaint and that is handled like a barking dog {this is false}, they won't look over a wall nor will they try to see if there are chickens through a fence.

Now say a person has a neighbor who will call code and complain about their neighbor having chickens.  Whether it is a nuisance, odor and just to nark.  If the neighbor who was complained on is asked to removed their chickens and they refuse, they could face a fine.  Here is the hiccup I have an issue with, how could the city impose a fine on someone who was complained about and not on those they may know about and are turning a blind eye on?

Would it be considered unfairness to those harboring illegal chickens in to city of Glendale who have neighbors that complain vs. those who have neighbors who are okay with their neighbors harboring illegal chickens?.  Shouldn't it be all or nothing and not a sort of picking who they enforce the code and fees on? Would this be considered a sort of discrimination?

What do you think?

M & S
Uptown Grange

Post Planning Meeting August 17, 2016

The meeting didn't go as well as I had hoped.  I knew our neighbor would be there to put in her 2 cents worth about why chickens shouldn't be allowed and she didn't disappoint.

Pro-chickeners were outnumbered by a group of older people who weren't still at work, trying to support their families.

Their concerns varied from chickens bringing in coyotes, rats and smells to that they moved into an HOA to have rules and that this would supersede those CC&R's, and even going as far as having feral chickens and being allergic to chicken feathers. (snort)

1. If the coop is enclosed the coyotes don't have easy access to them
2. Chickens eat rats, bugs and other annoying pests
3. Chickens don't smell unless their feces are in a moist environment, in our climate they only smell for a very short time, nothing compared to dog or cat feces
4. According to what was released, this would not change any sort of HOA CC&R
5. If you clip chickens wings on one side regularly they are not able to fly over any fence
6. I guess everyone will have to remove bermuda grass, ash trees, and anything else that causes allergies from there yards

One person even mentioned, the individual concerned about HOA CC&R bring over ridden, that property values will go down, the funny thing about that is is that I've heard of people not moving to Glendale because chickens aren't allowed.

Of course there are always two sides to any issue.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.  Those that spoke were very passionate about their feelings.  However, most of those against will not be around as long as those that are for allowing chickens. 

It was a real eye opener.

M & S

Uptown Grange

Planning & Zoning Meeting August 17, 2016

Tonight is the neighborhood meeting with planning and zoning legalizing backyard chickens.

The City has scheduled a public meeting to discuss this proposal for Wednesday, August 17, at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers located at Glendale City Hall, 5850 W. Glendale Avenue. All who attend will have the opportunity to share their thoughts on this issue. The projected timeline for future meeting is:

· August 17, 2016 Neighborhood Meeting @ Glendale City Hall (6 p.m.)

· September 1, 2016 Planning Commission – Workshop

· October 6, 2016 Planning Commission – Public Meeting

· November 1, 2016 City Council – Workshop (The City Council will be provided with neighborhood meeting and Planning Commission input and will be asked to provide a policy direction on this subject.)

· TBD (If necessary) City Council Meeting (The City Council, at their Voting Meeting, would conduct a public hearing on a proposed Zoning Text Amendment that would allow chickens in residential neighborhoods subject to certain conditions.

M & S
Uptown Grange

We're Home

We had a great day in Yellowstone National Park.  Grangeman loved the beauty of it and Doodles thought it was okay.  We got home Friday, and passed the atlas off to Dude who is heading to Alabama for 2 weeks with his fiancée and to spend time with his grandpa.

My new phone isn't cooperating so at the moment I don't have any pictures to post.

Our garden is still alive, well parts of it.  The summer heat is really hard on veggies.  The pumpkin is still thriving, it appears as though it may have choked out the bush beans, which I am not happy about.  The tomatoes under the shade have done well.

We lost the plum tree, it was under shade, but didn't look too good before we left.  I wash hoping it would pull through, but looks as though it will be returned to the store we purchased it from.  Our Golden Dorsett apple tree has all brown leaves.  We've revived this one once, I'm hoping we can revive it again.

Grangeman has been irrigating most of the afternoon.  The grass was crispy in some spots and green in others.  I ran the lawnmower over it this morning, it's bermuda grass so I know it will perk back up within a week so not too worried about it.  However, it has taken over a few of the raised beds again, so we will need to find another solution for clearing it out once and for all, next to purslane it is the bane of our existence.

We're glad to be home, but so glad we had the opportunity to go on this vacation and see family we haven't seen in years and to even meet a few.  With no chickens to take care of it seemed the best time to do it.

Will post pictures when I can access them.

M & S
Uptown Grange

Free Ranging Heading Home

We will begin our journey home tomorrow.

My phone crashed on me last week and just figured out how to get into the blog to post. Will be posting when we get settled tomorrow night.

Sad that we have to leave beautiful Montana, but we know we will soon be returning.

Grangeman got to fish in Big Horn Lake and took some beautiful pictures.

He also got to fish the Yellowstone in Hysham.

Above picture has some Eagles.

He caught and released between the 2 days about 23 small mouth bass.  So he was finally able to go catching instead of fishing.

We had a nice vacation and hate to go, we've so enjoyed visiting family and meeting some new family members.  

M & S

Uptown Grange 

Free Ranging - Day 6 Final Destination

We left Rapid City, SD around 9:30 in the morning and headed to Mount Rushmore.  The drive was beautiful and cool.  The road was winding as well, but the beauty was worth it.  There were several one car tunnels with u-turns which was fun.

After Mount Rushmore we headed to Deadwood, SD.  

What we thought was going to be a short driving day ended another 10 hour day.  We were pretty exhausted by the time we made our final stop on Billings, MT.

Grangeman & Doodles at the Montana border. Montana was the final state Grangeman needed to reach every state west of the Mississippi.

We arrived around 8:00 Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, we walked to the Yellowstone River from my cousins house in Billings, it's about 2 blocks away. Doodles found some cool rocks for his collection.

We went to lunch at Pug Mahone in Billings, the home on the big pork chop sandwich that was on Diners Drive-Ins & Dives.  Huge portions or food there and reasonable priced.

After lunch we went and visited my parents house in Lockwood, MT.

Tomorrow Grangeman is going fishing Thursday & Friday while Doodles and I go antique shopping.

Will share more adventures as time allows.  Lots of relatives to visit here.

M & S

Uptown Grange Free Ranging

Free Ranging Day 5 - Up The Missouri River

HaPpy 4th of July!!

We love America so much that we decided to go through 7 states of it today!!

Left Ponca City, OK at 5:00 am, just outside of the city we noticed fog.  Ponca City is maybe 20 miles from the Kansas border.

The fog was much thicker in Kansas especially just at daybreak.  And hung on a good portion of the morning, even into Missouri.

Was overcast all the way until Minnesota where we got little bits of sunshine into South Dakota.  When we were at least half way through South Dakota it actually got up to 96°.  Got a little bit of rain just before hitting Rapid City.  There was a wrong turn made, so rather than going to Luverne, MN we ended up in Worthington, MN...about a 60 miles detour.

This was at least a 14 hour day...a long long day.  Now we are off to one of Grangeman's high school friends house for dinner.  At least we can sleep in tomorrow a bit before getting our day started!

Grangeman: Kansas, Minnesota, South Dakota...so far....only one more to go for him and he'll have all the states west of the Mississippi.

Doodles & I checked off Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota & South Dakota on our places that we've now been.  We've already been to Montana, although Doodles doesn't remember.

M & S
Uptown Grange - Free Ranging

Free Ranging Day 4 - Newkirk & Pawhuska, OK

Today was the day we went to the cemetery in Newkirk, OK to see the grave marker for Grangeman's paternal grand parents.  Lots of different types of grave markers here, there are about 5,000 resting souls here.  His grand parents were spread at sea, this is where they are from so it was decided to put a marker up here.  

After we went to see the grave markers, we decided to explore a little around Ponca City.  I did some research because I knew Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman lived in Oklahoma.  Well, she lives about an hour away from Ponca City in Pawhuska, OK, so we went on an adventure to see if we could find her place and the mercantile store they are opening in Pawhuska.

I didn't have any expectations in finding their actual place.  But, we struck gold! We found the ranch, and took a picture of their ranch sign.

Just as we were leaving we saw her maroon truck pulling up and turning down the road under the sign, what were the odds of that happening, and it was coming from the direction we had just come from.  We couldn't believe it.  We don't know if it was her, but it was her truck.  We were beside ourselves with excitement.  Doodles wanted us to turn around and ask her if her could meet Charlie, but we let him know we shouldn't intrude. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

We continued on to Pawhuska to find the merchantile store, found it after passing it a few times and I'm not kidding we saw Marlboro Man's truck exiting from behind the building and turn in the direction we were going to be heading on the way back to the hotel.

Doodles again really tried to convince us to stop by, but again, you can't just do that....right?!?

Tomorrow we leave Ponca City for our next adventure.  We are driving up to Luverne, MN along the Midwest states borders.  The route we are taking will allow us to hit, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and our goal on the fourth of July is Rapid City, SD.  We will visit Mount Rushmore and try to hit Crazy Horse as well.

Stay tuned.

M & S
Uptown Grange - Free Ranging

Free Ranging ~ Day 2 New Mexico, Texas & Oklahoma

Nothing exciting happening in New Mexico, except rain, there were some really pretty mountains that almost looked like they were painted {sorry no pictures}. Oh yeah, the Super 8 off of Juan Tabo is a renter beware type of place.  The staff was nice but the rooms left much to be desired.

Leaving New Mexico arriving in Texas there is about 100 yards of no man's land, we joked with Doodles that that land must not be owned by either state, he promptly said, we'll then I'll take it.  So Doodles has claimed it as his with a population 2, him and his dog.

In Texas on I-40 there was a lot of windmill farms {I don't know what they are called} and nothing but flat brown land. There really wasn't anything exciting that happened here, we were just thankful it was the smallest part of Texas we had to go through.

Another little fact we forgot about is time zone changes, as soon as we hit the Texas border our clocks changed, so now we are now 2 hours ahead of Arizona, boy did this really throw us off. Our bodies aren't ready for bed but our clocks are telling us, it's time for bed.

Just before entering Oklahoma Doodles and I swapped seats, he was doing the chicken head bob in the front seat.  Poor guy did not look comfortable. When we swapped seats he stretched his legs a bit and ran into his first pile ever of what appeared to be fire ants, he promptly walked back to the truck. Another thing we aren't used to is the humidity ...OMG...it was humid and miserable...my hair just is not cut out for this weather.

Just inside of Oklahoma there is one of the nicest visitor/rest stop EVER.  The workers were nice.  I think western Oklahoma is beautiful, muggy, but beatiful and green.  So glad we came and that I can check this one off my list!

                     

Doodles got a kick out of the trashcans at the rest stop.  They looked like saddles, for horses, not sure why he is riding it like a bill.

                     

We hit 1000 miles away from home today just outside of Kingfisher, OK.  Here is a bit of trivia it is the birthplace of Sam Walton. Just in case you wanted to know, Grangeman is a very distant relative of his as far as ancestry.com indicates.

It was about an 8 hour drive to our first destination in Oklahoma in Enid.  One of my dad's cousins lives there and she and I haven't see, each other since we were both about 6 years old.  Yes, my dad has a first cousin 30+ years younger than him, that's what happens when your parents have large families... I've been dying to re-meet my great aunt.  I can't say how much that short visit tickled me and how much it meant to me. I have to admit, this surpassed standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ for me.

After Enid our final destination in the first part of our trip...Ponca City, OK.  We arrived safely, the scenery is absolutely beautiful.  I guess this was or is a big refinery town and some big wigs live or lived here.  

Tune in tomorrow for more about that, as I'm not entirely sure what else we are going to do other than stare at each...that's no fun.

M & S
Uptown Grange ~ Free Ranging

Free Ranging ~ Day 1, New Mexico

We left around 1:00 today.  Stopped got out drinks before hitting I-17. We saw 2 Austin Martin distributer cars, really neat, the 2nd one we saw had two younger guys driving in it, I bet they would have a blast if they could let it loose.

First stop was Maguireville rest area, {76° outside} Grangeman and Doodles went in first while I guarded the luggage...yeah right, how am I going to stop someone.  While I was waiting I saw this kid almost fall head first into a trashcan, he decided he needed to walk on the wall.  I just chucked to myself.  When it was my turn I walked to the restrooms and I noticed a worker raking the rocks and doing it so lightly just to get the pine needles out, lines were perfect in the rocks, you can get row of pine needles towards the bottom of the picture.

There was a decent amount of rain on the way up to Flagstaff.  When we arrived in Flagstaff it was a beautiful rainy 61°, so nice and relaxing.

Leaving Flagstaff going East on I-40 there was a lot of traffic, but got to see parts of Flagstaff Doodles and I haven't seen before.  On the stretch between Flagstaff and Winslow we got a semi truck to honk his horn, now did that bring back some memories. Doodles had never tried it before and he got a kick out of it...memories being made right there.

Finally made it to THE corner in Winslow Arizona. You would think being a native I would have visited or been here before.  This so far is the highlight of my trip.  There are a few knick knack sort of shops on the main Route 66.  Met a nice old man who probably could have told us the history of Winslow...

Stopped at a Flying J for gas and a break. I always looks for Big Hunk candy bars at truck stops because they usually have them and they are my favorite.  Was bummed that this one didn't carry them.  I did get my Route 66 sticker though.

The rest of the trip into New Mexico we just sight saw and played tag with cars.  They would pass us, we would pass them.

Once we hit New Mexico, we started getting giddy. We were like a bunch of kids having a sleep over, laughing over the silliest things.

We discovered that at 7:00 on in and around Grants, NM, they either close shop and roll up the streets because we tried a few places to stop and get something to eat and they were all dark or the power was out in the area.  We got a kick out of it the rest of the trip joking about about it.

Doodles divided that he knows the history of everything and declared himself a historologist, later he became something else....well, he is something else.

We made it safely to our motel room in Albuquerque, NM around 8:30 Arizona time.

Tomorrow will be an easier leg of the trip, since we'll be leaving in the morning.  Good Night.



M & S
Uptown Grange ~ Free Ranging