I've definitely been living in chicken land lately, so before I get to that, here's a photo of half of our raised bed gardens. Cam thinks they look great, I think they look like a mess. I don't think I really care for the exact square foot gardening method. One of these years I will find my perfectly artistic gardening style and I'll love it and it will be perfect. I love this too, the learning part and the part where I get to go out in my back yard when I'm hungry and pick something fresh to eat. That's good stuff.

So on Saturday, June 28th we had our screening of Mad City Chickens. We had 35 people come to see the film including city council member Amy Correia. It was so exciting to have even one council member take time out of their day to learn more, I was honored. This photo is of Seth and the film makers Tashai and Robert trying to get the projector set up.

After the film we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to host Tashai and Robert for the night. We enjoyed and incredible dinner of mostly local eats from our CSA: Gooseberry Hill and our own garden. We had so much fun hanging out with Tashai, Robert and our good friend Seth. We were really sad that our dear friend Alicia had to miss the whole thing because she was sick. We missed her a ton but had a really blessed day.

Luckily Alicia was well enough today to come to the city council meeting in which we presented our petition with 676 signatures urging council to consider an ordinance allowing urban chickens. It was a scary experience for me to stand in front of the council and speak, but by the grace of God I did it and they accepted our petition! Next step is showing up at public work sessions to answer questions and concerns about raising hens in city limits, that should happen at the end of July. I'm relieved that the petition is out of our hands now but I know there is still work ahead of us. How do people do this political stuff all the time? It's totally exhausting, but well worth the effort!

Iris Galore

I love irises. They are one of the flowers that I will never forget from my childhood. For as long as I can remember gardens growing up I can remember irises, I remember stroking the hairy "beard" on the petals, inhaling the grape-like aroma and wishing I could eat them. Yep, I'm the weird one who finds flowers so delectable I long to devour them. Ha!

We've been blessed to have been given several varieties of iris by friends and family. We're not even really sure where they all came from exactly but we really are grateful for them. They look so exotic and the colors are wonderful. Three cheers for irises!!!

Mad City Chickens

IC Friends of Urban Chickens and Cedar Rapids Chicken Chat groups are bringing the independent film Mad City Chickens to our cities this June. We're really excited that the film makers will be present at each public screening for an educational Q&A session immediately following the film. I love the idea of community coming together and having a forum available for those who have questions and concerns regarding raising chickens in town. I'd like to say that I could answer all of those questions but the truth is that I'm just a novice myself and everything I've learned has been from research, not actual experience.

Witness if you will Gallus Domesticus…the backyard chicken. A mere few pounds of feather, bone, and muscle; a creature regarded by many as a rather humorous, though not so intelligent agent of food production.

And yet make note of a most singular phenomenon now taking shape across suburb and city. From backyard eggs to the family’s new favorite pet, the urban chicken is forging a fresh place in the pecking order of human importance.

Mad City Chickens deftly weaves multiple stories and contextual issues on city chickens and their keepers in a non-linear fashion that one rarely sees in a documentary. From leading experts to urban newbies, experience the humor and heart of what’s fast becoming an international backyard chicken movement.

Iowa City Screening

IC Friends of Urban Chickens and Iowa City Environmental Film Festival presents

Mad City Chickens

Saturday, June 27, 2009

2 p.m screening with film maker Q&A to follow

Robert A Lee Recreation Center

220 S Gilbert St Iowa City (downtown)

http://www.iowacityurbanchickens.ning.com/

Cedar Rapids Screening

Indian Creek Nature Center presents

Mad City ChickensSunday, June 28, 2009

2 p.m. screening with film maker Q&A to follow

Indian Creek Nature Center

6665 Otis Road S.E. 52403

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

For more information about efforts in Cedar Rapids email greenat50@yahoo.com or join Yahoo Group Cedar Rapids Chicken Chat

I'm into collages right now because I have no time to blog. So here is a collage of some springtime flowers around the Driscoll homestead.
I'm happy to report that Mother's Day this year was the best ever. For many reasons, but one particularly exciting point of interest being that my vegetable garden is now completely planted aside from one 2x8 bed on the south side of the house. I think that will be Adi's special garden this year.

Chicken legalizing efforts are moving along beautifully. I recently met with a group of great folks from the community who are excited to get things moving. We have several events planned, which is why I have very little time to blog about all the other awesome stuff going on around our homestead, such as neighbors directly behind us planting their first garden at that address this year and next door neighbors installing rain barrels! Hurray :)

Hopefully I'll have more time to write about the goings on in chicken world soon - if you are interested in keeping up to date you can sign up for the mailing list on the right side of the page.

Spring Things

It's always fun to see spring flowers coming into bloom. Though we don't have many spring flowers, I did take a few photos to share. I'm not sure what these first flowers are called. The neighbors have some and we never planted them but more and more show up each spring in our yard. Birds must be dropping seeds or maybe seeds blow over, I don't know. We enjoy them either way.These are crocus flowers, some of the first early spring flowers to bloom. I love them, they're so cute.
And of course forsythia. We enjoy the bright yellow flowers on our forsythia bush every spring. They really are a touch of sunshine on a cloudy day :)
I have more photos coming. The magnolia tree has bloomed and is nearly done. Our apricot tree also had wonderful blossoms that attracted many bees. We've been told that it should be self-fertile so we'll see... And we did finally get a second cherry tree, this one is a black cherry called Stella. It will be a cross-pollinator for our Bing tree in the backyard.

More Chicken Talk

Photo by Matthew Holst of the Iowa City Press-Citizen printed in the Des Moines Register So cute, Adi kept popping up with chicks that she wanted to show the photographer, too. I'm so glad they chose one of the pics that had her in it too :)

So the word is spreading more and more. I owe a much of that to the local media. I didn't even have to contact them, they've all contacted me and that's a blessing because I'm certainly not an extroverted personality so this aspect has been very helpful.

Yesterday, the Iowa City Press-Citizen printed an opinion article that favored urban chickens and an Iowa City resident, Eric Johnson wrote an opinion letter also in support of chickens in our city. This is so wonderful, I love to see our community coming together like this.

Again, I want to urge people who are interested in raising urban chickens (or just want the right to do so if they choose) to contact city council. You can call our council members, write a letter or send an email. The more correspondence they receive from Iowa City residents (in addition to the petition), the greater our chances of getting chickens allowed in town.

It seems at this point the next steps are strategic ones. I've received several emails from interested residents who are anxious to have an organized effort. Organization is my friend, but I've never organized this type of effort so I'm turning to some pros for pointers and doing lots of research. I'm also adding new links to my sidebar for reference.

DI Opinion Article

Today I found an opinion article in the Daily Iowan and thought I would post it here.

The article makes mention of Iowa City being a transient community. I agree that the student population is transient, however, I was born and raised in Iowa City and though I haven't lived here my entire life, I do intend to live here for many years to come. An argument based on the transient nature of the university student population creating an atmosphere of abandoned chickens once the academic cycle is complete sounds like a student-centered perspective.

The article also sites:

Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey — who said her grandmother owned chickens — said she was not interested in supporting such a move because supporting local business leads to a more dynamic economy, but she is interested in hearing what others have to say regarding the matter.

I appreciate the fact that our Mayor Regenia Bailey is open to hearing the opinions of the residents. Contrary to the assumption that allowing property owners to raise urban hens would negatively affect local businesses, one must consider the businesses that will be supported as a result: Orscheln Farm & Home sells the chicks, feeders & waterers, chicken feed, heat lamps, etc., other local businesses supply wood, chicken wire, and other supplies for building coops. These local businesses will certainly be well supported.

If a more dynamic economy is what we're looking for, how about local grocers choose to buy and sell eggs from local producers and skip the suppliers that factory farm their chickens in huge chicken houses where the chickens live under constant lighting to produce more eggs, sit in their own poop and never see the light of day only to ship their eggs hundreds of miles to the consumers all for the sake of saving a buck?

That's not really what this is about. People are just afraid of the unknown. It's been a long time since chickens were legally raised in Iowa City's city limits and somehow there are people who feel like their urban lifestyle will be threatened by a few hens next door. If the chickens are well kept, neighbors will have to look for them before noticing they're there. They're less of a nuisance by far than my barking dog in the backyard. But she's legal, and she doesn't even lay eggs for food ;) I should be done now. Ha!