Posts from — February 2009

I was trying to do a little bit of research today on urban chicken-keeping in Iowa City, since I know that it used to be allowed and Kevin and I would really be interested in participating in it if it were possible. Apparently, his grandparents used to do it at their house over on Roosevelt Street, which is a cute little neighborhood pretty close to our house. After digging around a little on the city council website, I found the transcript to a special work meeting of the council from earlier this month when it was brought up (search the document for the word “chicken”). While a few of them sounded pretty dismissive of the idea, it seems like it could actually fly if addressed properly and if cases of it being successful in other cities were shown. Iowa City prides itself on being progressive, and two other very progressive towns in the US (in fact, ones that Iowa City loves to compare itself to) are currently allowing urban chicken-keeping: Madison, WI and Portland, OR. It sounded from the transcripts like they’d be willing to entertain the idea if shown the model these other cities used.

This is very exciting! Ever since reading my friend Alice’s LJ posts about visiting her friend Alia and having fresh eggs around, I’ve been dreaming of having a few in my backyard. Fresh eggs! Obviously, we wouldn’t be butchering them ever, and we’d only keep enough to have eggs to eat and share, may three or four. But oh, fresh eggs!

I’ve emailed the city councilman who brought the idea up at the meeting, to see what the process needs to be to approach the board, and also to see if he could put me in contact with the other citizens who brought it up to him, to see if we could form some sort of coalition or something. Self-sustainability is on the horizon, and this would be a big, huge step in that direction.

So, Madison and Portland friends, please let me know if you have any good resources about how your cities implemented their ordinances regarding urban chicken-keeping. I’ll be googling, but if you have any tips on where to look, I’m all ears.

Pictures taken by Alice in Portland, OR.

A friend told me this morning about a NY Times article she read, about the Giffels family from Akron, Ohio, that reminded her of me and sent me the links. The couple, David and Gina Giffels, had bought an almost-condemned home in Akron 12 years before and had spent the years following attempting to restore the house to its former glory. David, a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal, wrote a book about the process that was published last year.

The article had an accompanying slideshow of pictures, and while his 1913 Tudor house with six fireplaces and a solarium has almost nothing in common with my kitschy little 1950s Ranch, the before and after effects were still very, very awesome.

Some of my favorite tips of his from the story, which have definitely proven true so far, are:

• “Be cognizant of the fact the last 10 percent of any project takes as long as the first 90 percent — it’s all in the details.”
• “Allow yourself to believe that some things can wait, even if you don’t believe it.”
• “Do not begin one project until you finish another.”

I’m really excited to find and read his book. Have you found any extreme renovations on the web? Show them to me!