What's the big deal about chickens in the back yard?

It is a big deal. Town by town, governments have legislated whether or not homeowners can have livestock in their yards. No cows in the front yard. No herds of goats chatting noisily over the backyard fence. No roosters crowing before sunrise. No pet pony happily clopping down the street with smallfry on board.

As is usual with omnibus legislation, one size does not fit all. Take chickens, for example. A family with 2 or 3 chickens in a coop behind a fence in the backyard can have plenty of fresh eggs. Add a vegetable garden, and you get self-sufficient sustainability at its best. Chickens make less noise than that barky lab protesting every human, cat, and squirrel walking past its domain and are just as clean as a well tended kennel. (And no, you don't need a rooster to get eggs.)

There's a guy in Roswell who has to go to court because the town code prohibits ALL livestock and some Pharisee complained because IT'S AGAINST THE RULES. The three chickens he hand feeds and tends to in a well built, modest coop are illegal. With yolk-yellow hat on head and fellow chicken coopers in tow, he headed to court, only to have his hearing postponed while the town council thinks things through. (For comic relief, former governor and presentday gadfly Roy Barnes is representing the guy.)

Decatur is a model for sustainability. Vegetable gardens abound, people can walk throughout the community, and there's even an upcoming "coop tour" hosted by the Oakhurst Community Garden for people interested in setting up their own fresh egg station in the back yard. There are few towns more urban than Decatur, tucked right alongside the city of Atlanta. But they're nurturing self-sufficiency and sustainability with equanimity.

I'd like the city of Dunwoody to clarify our own legislation, to specifically allow a few chickens in a fenced back yard (no roosters necessary).

Please?

Knitting inside the square

Happy Sunday! Today will be filled with St. Luke's Presbyterian Church's first-ever Homecoming celebration, a potluck lunch, the start of a new Youth Group year this evening with our new Youth Minister, Phil Brown, and some quiet time in between to enjoy just being together.

I had a really good time yesterday morning. I took a Square-Foot Gardening class at the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, with the comfy and knowledgeable team of Bob and Lyn Bernstein.  It was sunny, very hot, and we dodged red ants and bees the entire time . . . conditions that added a happy dose of nostalgia to the lesson. A group of students from nearby Agnes Scott College were volunteering, working hard with clearing invasives and past-their-prime growth and composting merrily in the heat. 

Midway through our class, the staff released the chickens from their coop. They strutted throughout the garden, observing us with some disdain and engorging themselves on the wealth of bugs and worms hopping among the vegetables.  Oakhurst is a charming bit of real-world practicality in the heart of Decatur, with its juxtaposition of urban sensibility and small-town values.

I can't wait to build our box this winter. The timing is perfect since I have plenty of time to prepare the ground and work on the compost bin.

The afternoon was busy as usual, but I did sneak in half an hour of knitting on the sleeves of the Central Park Hoodie for AG. I really want to finish that so I can start on a sweater coat for myself. It'll be a design-as-I-go proposition, but I have the basic structure in mind.

It's time for church.  What a splendid way to begin the week!