time permitting
I must be doing okay with this two children thing, because I'm already turning my mind to plans for expansion. Which is to say, I'm getting excited about chickens again. I put off thinking about our chicken project for the past month so that I could do some heavy duty nesting myself, but now I've had a lull in wanting to knit or sew anything so I'm back to poking around online for chicken coop designs.
We can buy these plans for a cute simple coop that builds up in under $200. It would technically be too big to live on our lawn without a permit, but so is anything in this town. Seriously, I think we need a permit to SIT out on our lawn. Every time I look at coops I think, oh hell, we should just go get that building permit for the coop and the animal permit for 10 chickens. Then I look at the permit applications and weep openly. All the departments I need to placate! Code enforcement plus conservation plus the health department. I might as well try to open a restaurant! Apparently, post-baby I am mentally prepared to take care of tiny birds but not quite ready for paperwork.
We can get 4 chicks this summer without the animal permit, and I wouldn't feel too bad throwing a $200 coop together in the back unpermitted since it wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to take it down. (Unlike the multi-thousand dollar fence which WOULD be the end of the world if it needed to move.) Part of my rational brain says that 4 chickens is a good start, especially since we'll be starting them at the end of the summer rather than in the spring, so they may need to spend more of their growing time inside the house and it'll be a good experience learning how much room 4 growing chicks take up before I go ahead and order 8. Still, all this work for 4 chickens that won't even make food till next spring...
And then I think, maybe I should just go sew some more hats.