Category Archives: Philosophy

Molting and debating chickens in Greeley

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UPDATE: 2013: For the current chicken rules of Greeley, see this post.

Molting and debating chickens in Greeley. This title is a shout out to Wheel of Fortune’s “before and after” category. 🙂 We have two of our chickens currently molting which means fewer eggs. For some reason, as we are learning, chickens molt in the dead of winter…when it got below freezing again, just like last year. Luckily, two of them are still laying though. We have also been busy debating the chickens’ very existence in our backyard with the Greeley City Council. Last night we had a work session that covered  the ‘chicken committee’s’ recommendations. As you may know, from previous posts, I thought they were micromanaging the issue, but we felt like it was something of a compromise.

Henrietta Molting

Last night, the Community Development section of Greeley government put together a powerpoint that highlighted our recommendations. The problem I had with it is that it put the cart before the horse. In my work, I have learned that if you are to ever make a policy change, you must show the WHY before the HOW. I felt like last night the city staff didn’t address the “why” fully. And of course, the why to me is: food safety, food security, responsible pet ownership, property rights, environmental and economic sustainability and healthy food, few of which were addressed in the presentation. Instead the presentation talked about all the nitty-gritty of set-backs, coops, number of chickens, etc -the “how”. Now we will need to back track in order to educate the community about chickens.

It’s interesting to me to see how many people are ignorant about chickens. Britton said it best last night at the council meeting when he said that he had the same hesitations as most of the council members because he’s been a city boy (albeit not a huge city) and lived in Greeley his whole life without much exposure to chickens. All of these worries washed away within the first month of having our first chickens. However, when you put the “how in front of the why” people look at it differently.

For instance now with the idea of a permit planted firmly in their heads, they (one council woman in particular) see $$ dollar signs and want to charge for people to raise chickens. To me, this just defeats the whole purpose! We should be encouraging people to become more self-sufficient, to decentralize our food. Has anyone seen Food, Inc? Come on. There were also some comments about the set-back and some discussion of on-site slaughtering/processing. I don’t think I could kill our particular chickens (when they have names they say it’s nearly impossible) anyway, so that is not of such a concern to us.

I had a friend on Facebook (become a fan of Greeley Backyard Hens on FB and get updates about this issue) ask me why we would care about this issue if we are moving the Puerto Rico anyway? Well, I did not ask for this fight to come to me, but I will fight it for others (with your help!). This is something we believe strongly in. It is not only our right to have chickens, pets, or raise our own food, but our civil responsibility to be actively engaged in the process. Those who don’t stand up and speak up must be content with the decisions made by others… When the new mayor, Tom Norton, asked why people who want chickens don’t just move, it felt like a slap in the face. In the end Britton and I said, you know, maybe our ideas are just too different for Greeley. Maybe that is part of the reason we DO want to move. Greeley may have wide streets, but very narrow minds.

We just seem to have an uphill battle in this and that concerns me. When people are unfamiliar with something, their first instinct is to be afraid of it. Change is scary to people. What we should really be scared about it leaving it as it is: leaving our food, our very existence, to some outside entity be it the government or the huge multi-national corporations that currently run the food system. Raising chickens is our small way of saying we care, and I think that we as individuals should have the right to do that.

How can you help? Write letters to the City of Greeley (1000 10th Street, Greeley, CO 80631) showing your support, become a fan of Backyard Hens on Facebook, come in person and give testimony. Contact us! There is a lot you can personally do to help. Also, you can get educated about our food system. Here’s the trailer for Food, Inc. I strongly recommend it.

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Today I went to jail

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While technically that it is true (I did go to jail), it’s not what you might think. As part of our Leadership Weld County group, today’s outing consisted of learning about our public safety organizations such as the jail, Sheriff’s Office and Police Department. So, I did go to jail, but only for a visit. I thought the jail presentation was the most fascinating. They did a demonstration of how to extract a misbehaving jail inmate.

We also got to watch someone get tased! Wow. Just wow. I hope I never get tased. I asked what would be the criteria to tase someone. They said that it depends on the amount of danger that could occur to the police or sheriff. Only if the behavior of a person is at the same level of danger as a taser can they use it. If it is misused that could be reason enough to lose their job. I was happy to hear that! Similarly for using guns (we got to go into a SWAT vehicle and see their guns! scary), they should only be used if life is threatened since it is considered “lethal force” whereas the pepper spray and tasers are considered “less-than-lethal”.

At the jail I found it strange when we were in the area to watch the jail inmates. They could see us somewhat through the darkened glass and were making funny faces at us and making signs. I felt weird because it reminded me of being at the zoo, only instead of animals they were people. I also thought about how it would feel to be on the other side of the glass as a prisoner. The sheriff deputies talked about how so many of these people live in poverty and so being in jail is somewhere actually a little better for them to go. They have 3 meals a day, they are relatively safe, they have health care, and a warm bed. It may seem like a lot to us to give up our freedom, but to many of them, it’s actually better than how they usually live, especially for those with mental illness and/or substance abuse issues on top of poverty. They said that 80% of the inmates in there were return visits! If that’s not a case for prevention and rehabilitation in jails and prisons, I don’t know what would be!

We also got to visit the fire station and I got chosen to sit in the fire truck! I felt like a happy little 3 year old boy :-).  We also saw the paramedics. Both the fire department folks and paramedics talked about how they are becoming many people’s first line of care in treating even fairly minor health issues because they don’t have health insurance. Yet another facet of the health care debate that I don’t think many people who have health insurance consider. When the paramedics and firemen and women are out answering these calls, they can’t help you in a true emergency. It was also interesting to discuss the amount that Medicare and Medicaid pay out for these rides and whether or not the cost of paramedic rides should be covered in the same way that fire and police services are (pre-paid with our taxes).

In my line of work at the health department I mainly work with women, so it was interesting to see the jobs that are mainly done by men. Overall, quite a fascinating day and a totally different world than my daily reality.

In a fire truck
Sitting in the fire truck

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I’m on the News…again! And other synchronistic events

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Last night we had a huge H1N1 clinic that was open to the entire public where we worked to vaccinate almost 2000 people.  The Greeley Tribune as well as Denver Channel 4 News covered the story. When I came in to work today, a couple of people said, “I saw you on TV last night.” I thought I’d better check it out. Sure enough, a little ways through the clip I am standing there with my yellow vest smiling and greeting people. You can check it out here. Just click on the video to the side of the story.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been on the news. About two years ago I was involved in helping to create an ordinance that eventually eliminated free tobacco from being given away in the city of Greeley. It was a great accomplishment, but a very stressful time in my life. I have finally been able to get a copy of the video for you all to see. I had to record it off the computer, but I think it turned out ok. What do you think?

What was even weirder about last night was that the Greeley Tribune reporter was one of the very last people to go through the line and get vaccinated himself. We had already started cleaning things up and so I just walked him back to a vaccination station. As we were walking back he asked me if I had ever taught a sociology class at UNC. I said, yes, during my graduate program. He said he was a former student of mine! I was like, wow, what a small world. After he got his vaccine, I asked him how he was doing and how he liked working at the Tribune. We chatted for a while but I still couldn’t remember his name, so I asked him. Colin Lindenmayer.  Man that names sounds familiar, I thought. Then it rang a bell in my head. The chicken article! Of course. He had been the reporter on the chicken article. We had talked on the phone, but because I had changed my name after getting married to Britton, he hadn’t recognized my new last name.

A series of strange events like this keep happening to Britton and me lately. I am taking them as good omens. You never know who you have touched and the impact you made on them. And that they make on you. Maybe it is a simple glance, a word, or even just a tidbit of information you picked up on the nightly news. 🙂 Whatever it is, sometimes I really feel that we are truly all connected.

Is it synchronicity if just a few days before I finished reading “Hypnotizing Maria” a book by Richard Bach? Or that Britton and I found out that we had a renter at the very moment we pushed play to watch the Pixar movie “Up” a movie that summarizes how we feel about life in so many ways, not to mention is a throw back to our first date watching “Toy Story 2”?

Life is strange. Sometimes I don’t think I would believe it if you told me it was real and it feels like a dream I need to interpret to make sense out of it. But dreams are always in metaphors that only you can understand. Maybe that’s how life is. A series of stories and challenges that teach you lessons in unexpected ways. Or maybe not. All I know is that it is weird in a cool way. Or as the saying goes, “What’s the difference between fiction and reality? Fiction needs to make sense.”

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Poor Kitty and Home Remedies for Pets

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This morning Kitty was fine. Then this afternoon we came home and he has an open gash in his foot. We have no idea how or why this happened.

Kitty's wound
Kitty’s wounded right back paw

Close up of wound
Close up

So I used my basic first aid skills and put together a few items to help him:
First Aid Supplies
Alcohol, neosporin, cotton balls, bandage, tape

Kitty's bandage
Kitty’s Bandage -He really wants to chew it off

I hope he’s ok and doesn’t get infected or something. We rarely take our animals to the vet because we do a pretty good job of treating things at home. When Schnoodle had liver problems – her eyes were turning yellow from jaundice, she was moping around and drooling- and she almost died, we took her in, but the steroids didn’t work. Our last option was to use herbal remedies;  we found out that milk thistle helps livers, and ever since then we just give her a little bit of that in some “treats” and she has lived another 4 years or so since then! So now we take milk thistle too, as a preventive medicine.

When Kitty had a blocked urethra and was trying to pee everywhere in the house, we called a veterinarian friend of ours (who lives in another state) and she told us to take him to the vet immediately because he could turn toxic and die. Well, it was a Sunday night about 9:30pm and when we called the on-call emergency vet office they said it would be about $200 just to see him, let alone what it would cost to “fix” the problem. So we took a risk and looked up alternative medicine regarding that and found that male cats often don’t drink enough water and get clogged up down there. We fed him canned tuna in water with concentrated cranberry  juice and he was fine by the next day. He also has ever since lived outside.

We were not so lucky with the black chicken, but overall, our rate of home remedy success for our pets has been pretty high! And that’s true even for our own personal health as well.

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