The treasure...the trash...and the city officials....

Good Morning All!

I think that I have referenced a couple times that I am from Montana?  Well, I am! I grew up in a small town, have mostly lived in a small town all my life and I will pass on in a small town...I have traveled extensively, been to every state in the U.S and overseas  Australia, Indonesia, Tasmania and New Zealand as well as Canada and Mexico...Though it was exciting traveling to foreign countries, I could never wait to land my feet back on my native soil...America is the one for me...we never know how " free" we truly are until we take a sabbatical to a foreign country...

Being from Montana, I have always enjoyed the sight of farms, lived on a farm or had family on one...Montana is immense and it is mostly an  agricultural state...I took that for granted...it is the fourth largest state in the U.S with less than a million in population...I always felt truly free there...It is a harsh land with amazing cold and unpredictable weather...I hardly remember a year that it did not snow in summer...

Looking out my front door...at "home"...

I miss it...as anyone from Montana will tell you...it is a whisper...a calling...a part of you...you could never extricate it from your soul...Once a Montanan...always a Montanan...

Life has made choices for me...and I chose to leave my state and adopt Michigan as my new home...I love it here...it has enabled me to have what I do now....The American Dream...When I first got here I could not resist the opportunity to get chickens, ducks...and in the future...goats and a couple pigs to grow out...Michigan is, also, a mostly agricultural state...and here is the point of my post today:

I had a visitor yesterday...a man who is 20...he brings his wife and daughter to visit my chickens...never been around them, never held one...never been close...he is a "city" guy...he sits and watches them scurry around..it is, for him, "chicken therapy". They amaze him...he wants his own...

you have to bleach the tub after...hee hee!

To me, that is the easy part! I have hens, a rooster...in the spring, I will give you chicks to raise! They are like garden seeds...you give them to friends and neighbors to proliferate...and I am an avid educator and fan of grow your own food!  Someday, the way this country is going...we may not have any in the grocery store... "oh, I can't, I live in town!" was his response..."hello! you live a block from me...so do I" was my response...

"Well, my step dad is the Mayor...and there has been talk at the council meetings of people having chickens and such in town...and they are all in violation of the by-laws."

Hmmmm...WELL! here is a piece of information for you...and the MAYOR! Michigan has a Right to Farm Act...as do a lot of states and Ontario Canada...it was enacted in 1981 to protect Michigan's small and large farmers alike...as long as you grow something for the good of human use, you are considered a "farm"...one sign...even if it 3 inches long...with 4sale...eggs(etc.) even if it for $20 a dozen...even if it is one dozen a year or one chicken a year or you make pallets....you are a farm...and this law overrides and makes null and void any city, county, village...ANY local law...they cannot preempt State law...they can complain about you to the Department of Agriculture and they will come and check you out...but as long as you are conforming to" acceptable practices" ie; composting straw and manure...not dumping it on the road side...you are conforming..


.http://www.chickencrossing.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6864
http://www.farmfoundation.org/news/articlefiles/129-hipp.pdf

If there are more than 3 complaints? the fourth one, the complaining party has to pay out of their own pocket for the investigation....and anything to do with government employees?  is EXPENSIVE...

I am considered unique by my neighbors...they mostly think meat and eggs come from the grocery store...they are out of touch as to where their food comes from...I tell them that not long ago, American's grew everything they used...

Chickens and ducks are, by far, the easiest animals to keep...they require very little and they give so much!  Each bird requires only two square feet of space...their housing can be as simple as a truck topper on the ground, as long as it is draft free and dry...their feed is inexpensive......but they give fresh eggs and meat...and "chicken therapy"....and education...3 chickens will give up to a dozen eggs a week...that would keep a family of four...the ducks are messier...they love to dig in the mud but I have not had one slug eat my beans since I got them! my breed lays 265 eggs a year...that is one duck egg = 2 chicken eggs... they are delicious!

My ducks range all over the yard...but they do have a small pen for nighttime...

I encourage everyone to get back in touch with their American side...this country was founded on freedom...the freedom to live as we choose, pursue happiness! and every time I go feed my chickens and ducks? I am happy!

It is the right of every American to choose how they want to live... Everywhere you live nowadays...there is a commercial, a sign, a billboard...a message...GO GREEN! Save the planet...sustainable future...eat local...but the city officials say you cannot? Pretty confusing...it is up to us to change our country back to the way it was...prosperous...sustainable...and AMERICAN!