handle with care

[asakiyume]

I arrived at the post office today as a postal worker was bringing a wide, low rectangular box out to a car. The box had holes, and I could hear peeping. As we both walked into the building, I asked, "Were those chicks?" And indeed they were.

The post office was very quiet at that time of day--except for cheeping and peeping! From the back room.

"I know I can't go back there," I said, "But can you take my phone back and take pictures?"

Well, he did better than that. He brought out a box of ducklings...



and then came a box of chicks!



"I guess these are all spoken for," I said wistfully.

"No, they're mainly going to tractor supply stores," he said.

But even though B'town is a right-to-farm community, I live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association, and sadly, poultry is not allowed. We talked about backyard chickens, the price of eggs and the cost of feed, and homeowners associations.

I love my post office and the USPS generally. [That is your veiled political commentary for the day]

Comments

[cmcmck]

Awwww! :o)

[asakiyume]

sweeties ^_^

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

One of the things people need is the right to meet their own survival needs, in this case, the right to grow their own food. It is increasingly banned in the places where people live, and that's a problem. When the vast majority live in urban areas, banning food production there runs up the hunger rate.

HOAs are generally human-hostile, Earth-hostile, and cause a lot of other problems. Helpful things they routinely ban include leaving lawns unwatered, leaving lawns unmowed, replacing exotic grass with native plants, replacing exotic grass with a xericulture landscape, and drying laundry on a clothesline -- all things that would help both the biosphere and humans. The exact things people are encouraged to do in the face of climate change.

Re: Thoughts

[asakiyume]

100 percent agree. Fortunately this particular HOA does *not* do most of that stuff (I have a clothesline, my lawn lawn is allowed to be wild, etc.) It's very live-and-let-live. But they do have the ban on livestock, and it would be great if we could get rid of that.

[gwynnega]

I would like a box of ducklings.

[asakiyume]

They are so appealing!

[light_of_summer]

Yay for ducklings and chicks! \😀/

I regularly read a couple of tumblr blogs written by women who either own or help out with livestock. They also post about a lot of other things, but tags can help with finding the livestock-specific posts. If you'd care to have a look, they are:

bomberqueen17 (who helps out on her sister's chicken, turkey, and pig farm, notably including doing chicken and turkey processing after slaughter), and

kedreeva (who raises and breeds peafowl and coturnix quail and fancy mice, mostly for pets, but I think also somewhat for meat and eggs?)

I've found them both very interesting to read. Let me know if you'd like tips for reading while getting around at least some of tumblr's attempts to make people create an account and log in.

bomberqueen17's #farm life tag

archive of kedreeva's #peafowl tag
archive of kedreeva's #quails tag
archive of kedreeva's #mice tag

[light_of_summer]

Belatedly: And YAY for the workers of the USPS!

[asakiyume]

Oh wonderful; thank you--I'll take a look! (I have a [pretty much inactive] Tumblr account, so I'll be able to get around with no troubles, I think.)

[asakiyume]

Definitely definitely!

[rachelmanija]

AWWW. Those ducklings are so cute!

[asakiyume]

Right? The one in the back definitely looks like its egging the one in the front to make a break for it!

[umadoshi]

So cute!

[asakiyume]

And they sounded as cute as they look!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

The solution for that is Let's You And Him Fight. Check your locale for Earth-friendly and climate change organizations. Also check your state's programs and advisories for things people should do. Compare those with your HOA rules and make a list of conflicts. With the livestock issue, check organizations that work against hunger. Your objective there should be small livestock such as hens (not roosters) and rabbits. Then go to those other orgs and say, "I'd love to do what you ask, but this HOA bans it. You'd get more people following your instructions if you made the HOA stop preventing them from doing so." It's a lot easier to take down an HOA for another organization than for an individual.

An alternative is to recruit neighbors who also want to change the rules, and attempt to break into the board that makes those rules. This is a lot more work and a lot lower chance of success, but some people prefer it.

[osprey_archer]

Look at those DUCKLINGS!

I also live in a neighborhood where poultry is not allowed. I don't even particularly want poultry (although I'm sure my cats think the ducklings would make delightful playthings...) but I feel a bit crabby when I think I CAN'T have it.

Re: Thoughts

[asakiyume]

I should have said "we" rather than "they" because I'm actually a member at large *on* the board. I can bring it up. We talked about it back a while ago when someone had ducks. No one complained about them, and no one on the board is into intervention for intervention's sake, and most of us love the idea of backyard poultry. (How did we end up with these rules, then, you ask? We moved here and they were already in place...) The duck people eventually stopped keeping ducks, and no one else has had any backyard livestock since. (One person has a pig, but it's a mainly indoor pig.)

If we get rid of the rule, though, we wouldn't be stuck having to try to enforce it if someone *did* complain.

[sovay]

I love my post office and the USPS generally. [That is your veiled political commentary for the day]

*hugs*

We raised ducklings for a couple of years when I was in elementary school. I have many affectionate memories of their peeping and their tiny inquisitive bills and tiny soft-webbed feet.

Re: Thoughts

[sovay]

The duck people eventually stopped keeping ducks, and no one else has had any backyard livestock since. (One person has a pig, but it's a mainly indoor pig.)

Dismantle the inherited rules! Ducks for all!

[asakiyume]

I would enjoy a couple of chickens... though with all the coyotes and bobcats around, would I really? Would I, who turned over my shed to squirrels rather than engage in proactive maintenance, actually build a chicken house and take care of the chickens? Maybe they're better in theory than in practice.

But bees. What about bees? Maybe I could do bees...

I should see how people feel about removing that restriction from the covenants, though.

At least I can have the laundry line! I know that's something you can't have. How large is your association? Maybe people would be willing to change and permit laundry lines...

[asakiyume]

When I was in second grade, one of the second grade teachers always incubated some. It was SO FUN to watch them hatch.

Re: Thoughts

[asakiyume]

DUCKS FOR ALL!

I've got some stuff for making protest lino prints. Maybe one can be DUCKS FOR ALL (although as I said to ysabetwordsmith, since in this case I'm actually *on* the board, probably I should just .... propose the change).

But lino prints! But ducks for all!

[osprey_archer]

Right, I like the *idea* of chickens, but feel doubtful that I would actually enjoy the maintenance. The cats may be the extent of my ability to look after a living creature!

I think you would be an amazing beekeeper, but this is based purely on vibes, as I have a very vague understanding of the actual mechanics of beekeeping. But you'd be great at telling the bees all the family news, at least.

The association actually has a meeting on May 6, so I should saunter over and test the waters. For the moment I've been drying everything on the drying rack + the upstairs bathroom shower curtain rod + my metal bedframe, which works fine, and might be better in cold weather than an outside laundry line in fact... but there's something about sun-dried clothes in summer, you know?

I wonder if I could put the drying rack on the patio and argue "Well it's not a laundry LINE" if anyone argued.

Re: Thoughts

[osprey_archer]

If everyone on the board is fine with ducks, it sounds like it might be as simple as proposing the change in this case, yeah!

[asakiyume]

The notion that laundry lines are unsightly is such nonsense--and/but even if one is offended by their looks, in this era it's just such a commonsense good thing to do. But yes, in terms of rules lawyering, I think your drying rack would be totally fine! It's not a line! It's a rack!