The Case of the Crowing Rooster

Our chicks back in April, just a few days old on Easter Sunday

Backyard city chickens are fun. Free lawn fertilizer, speedy hands-off compost production, and endless entertainment. Quiet, goofy, and worth their weight in eggs (we hope).
 City roosters, on the other hand....not so much.

A few days ago, I was out in the yard with my girls taking care of the chickens and tending the garden. Lexi and Lyla were playing with the hose and giggling in the cool spray. That's when I heard it. The unmistakable crow of a young rooster.
Lexi heard it too.
"MOM!" she shouted. "Did you hear that? I think it was a ROOSTER!!!" (This girl does know her animal calls, city born and raised as she is).

The next day, we kept hearing it again. And again. And again.
This rooster went from crowing a few times a day to rapidly gaining in confidence and blasting us with a doodle-doo EVERY FIVE MINUTES.

I told Eric that night and we resolved to find it. Not that I mind the crowing so much (I mean, I did live in Mexico city for a few years and woke up every day at sunrise to our neighborhood macho rooster), but roosters in the city give backyard chickens a really bad rap. It's people who have roosters in the city who end up getting chickens banned, due to the noise and irresponsibility. You simply CAN'T raise roosters in the city. Period. Neighbors will complain and the whole thing will get shut down.

I've been on rooster hunt since the first crow. And today, the dude really is ruffling my feathers (forget about his). He broke the five minute interval rule and is now crowing as frequently as he can grab breath! AGH!

I'm laying down in my room trying to rest between his obnoxious belting (at my house, we ALL take naps at naptime - no exceptions), when the doorbell rings. This sets the dog barking, the rooster still crowing, and me- yelling at the dog to "BE QUIET!!! IF YOU WAKE UP THE KIDS I WILL.....!!!" -stumbling to the front door half asleep.

There is a young Latino boy standing there, probably eleven or twelve years old.
"Hi Ma'am, I was wondering, do you want to buy our rooster?"

I laugh aloud. "It's YOUR rooster that I keep hearing?"

"I think so, yeah." He looks sheepish, possibly embarrassed by his pet's countrified behavior.

"He just started crowing the other day, didn't he?"

"Yeeeaah." He sighs. "You name the price and he's yours."

I give the boy credit. He came to my door on his father's request (most likely as the English speaking spokesperson of the family), in an attempt to find a solution to get rid of the crowing bird, and further proving our suspicion that everyone in the neighborhood knows us as being the "Chicken House." I love it. Any time anyone walks by our house, they stop and gawk at the chickens, who have taken to hanging out all day under the hedge that lines the chain link fence in the front of the yard. Kids especially love to stop and get really close to the fence to have a chat with the feathered ladies, and if Eric is outside, he will almost always catch one and bring it out front for the kids to pet and see up close. If you are ever looking for creative ways to get to know the neighbors, get ten chickens and make them visible to the public eye. Being introverts, Eric and I are ever looking for someone else to make the first contact anyway. ;-)

Late May, and we have an almost hen

Back to Mr. Doodle.

I got the dad's cell phone number and address (turns out they live right across from the alley from us just two doors down) and promised to call after my husband and I talked about it. The boy emphasized again that all we had to do was name the price. These guys are desperate. I then promptly called Eric and told him the whole story. Case closed. Mystery rooster found. We were so adamant about finding that rooster (we were going to go hunting for him tonight), and in the end, the owners (no doubt annoyed and exasperated with all the vocal flaunting) ended up coming to us at the chicken house. Because surely WE would know what to do with him!

No, we will NOT be introducing the Mister to our lovely flock of ladies. The LAST thing we need around here is a boisterous flamboyant male messin' with the ten women and makin' chickies. We are already in over our heads with an addition of four Muscovy ducks and approximately TWENTY-SEVEN ducklings due to hatch in the next few days!

If we do buy him, we will do one of three things: 1) Eat very well this week, 2) Relocate him to a farm that is a little more welcoming of the vocal type - in other words, get this country boy out of the city, or 3) Come up with some other creative solution. It remains to be seen what his fate will be...

If you lived in the city and were offered a rooster, what would YOU do? 

How does my garden grow? With sweet girls and a whole lot of horse poo dirt.

My sweet baby turned one last week. Right after we received three tons of dirt in our alley.

Here's my pretty one waiting for our garden delivery.

The truck arrived and we laid a tarp in the alley for them to dump the soil onto.

See the steam? This garden mix is fertile stuff. 

And the shoveling begins.

This horse poo will make my garden grow.

I made the garden beds the week before, and loosened all the soil underneath so the plant roots can grow down deeper. Here's the rest of the "crew" filling the beds.

My favorite little worker helping move the soil into the beds. 

My sister smoothing the soil.

Filling up her bucket. She helped us the entire 45 minutes it took us to move the soil.

The baby did a great job watching and smirking at us as we worked. I think she's a baby genius.

More shoveling. The pile is quickly dwindling!

Lexi enjoyed a fun wheelbarrow ride after we were done! And what is with that cheesy grin with the eyes closed?!?

And let's not forget about the chickens. They are in their ugly adolescence. And boy do they have LONG necks! They have been chirping incessantly. Yesterday I walked in and Gloria flew up out of her tub and smacked me in the chest. After a few days of hunting for missing chickens behind Eric's camera equipment, Eric finally finished the coop enough for the chicken to inhabit it (he had to put it off for a few days because our sink was clogged).

They are out of the house now, thankfully. Although I do kind of miss their chirpy music all day long. So I traded in the chickens for a dog, which I love. I mean, you can't really cuddle with a chicken, unless you like getting pecked at and scratched. But this dog? Love her. And this girl. I mean, is she for real? 

Too much cuteness.

Baby chickens and other typical Mom stuff

Today is gloriously sunny and a balmy 47 degrees F!!! Everyone in the city have left their coats at home and are walking around in light sweaters and some in t-shirts. After a long, grey winter, today is the perfect promise and reality of spring. Last year, on the Thursday before Easter, I noticed the first signs of Lyla's soon-to-be-labor and delivery. This year, there is no baby with my DNA that we are welcoming into the world, but our family DID just grow!

Last night, Eric came home with our new "girls."

We have ten chicks, four different varieties. All for egg laying purposes (obviously). They are currently living in a tub under a heat lamp in the house (and away from the cats). Eric will build the chicken coop in the next few weeks, just in time for them to be old enough to move outside. 

Lexi got to stay up super late last night to get acquainted. She is holding Lulu.

We also have a Gloria, Marigold, and Bellatrix (which is extremely appropriate because she likes to peck at all the other chicks eyes and is constantly picking a fight). More names to come.

I am finding it rather funny (I laugh at my own jokes a lot, actually) that I am turning into this natural loving person who makes almost all our food from scratch, sews my own curtains, uses vinegar and baking soda for cleaning supplies, washes my hair with baking soda, drinks green smoothies, brews kombucha in the pantry, raises my own chickens, and am about to plant my garden for our fresh produce this summer. I do all this, while my kids eat cheerios from a box for breakfast, and munch on cheesy goldfish crackers from a box for snacks. I also love snickers bars and Netflix and store-bought clothing. And my smart phone is pretty much an extra appendage which I use 24/7. It's like pioneers in the big city with smart phones and minus the jumpers and prairie boots. 

Enough about how weird I am. 

You are probably thinking, "Hey, cool, they have chicks," while at the same time wondering what on earth happened to our pending placement of human children, D and baby DJ. The thing is, during the weekend that that were here with us, something changed at their current home, and the placement has been stopped, or at least put on hold for a while. This may or may not be in the best interest of the boys, but it is completely out of our hands. As far as I know, people at the agency have a lot of meetings to hold before we will know anything, but it is looking like the boys will not be joining our family. We are bummed, but at the same time happy for their sakes that they may not have to make yet another transition. So we are still awaiting the call telling us that we are licensed (should be any time now) and then we will hopefully be hearing about a placement soon. I am not worried. I know that when God called us into this, it was going to be done His way and all in His time. For now I am enjoying parenting my two girls and now ten chicks (haha) and am looking forward to my family's arrival from Mexico in a few weeks! They will be here in the Chicago area for the next six months, so my summer is looking extra sunny!!!! :-) The hardest time of my life was moving away from my family when I had a three year old sister at home (and now my own daughter is almost three!!). I am so looking forward to re-connecting with them in the coming months!

I mentioned a dog joining our family in a recent post. Yes, it is finally set in stone. Sami, short for Samantha, is my family's dog and will be living with us for the duration of the time my family is in the area. Unfortunately  the mission home they always stay in has a no-pets rule. So since I love to take in all the homeless members of my family, we offered to house Sami. Lexi is especially excited. I am more excited about the fact that she is already trained (there is a bit of family history with that comment...in regards to the fact that I took a dog through training school once many many years ago...and she left our family nine-months after she arrived due to having a screw loose in her brain...never the less, I was kind of scarred for life). 

But today, for the moment, the house is silent-ish while the girls sleep, the chicks peep, and I sit here in the sun with the fresh air wafting through the windows and yummy smells coming from my crock pot in the kitchen. I kind of sound like I have it all together, but don't be fooled! My floors are covered with crumbs and sticky blobs of who-knows-what, my jeans are ripped, my shirt has baby snot smeared on it and there are toys all over the floor. There is rubble in the yard, mold all over my shower curtain (I hate that) and sewing items completely covering the table. Lexi's time in time-outs today have probably totaled an hour and a half already and it's barely two o'clock (that's what we get for letting her stay up late for the chicks welcome home party), and I have changed enough poopy diapers from my eleven-month-old this morning to last me the week. Oh, and I caught one of my children (I won't say who) peeing in my lawn today for no apparent reason other than her explanation of "I wanted to go potty in the grass." I mean, ok. I guess that's fair. Maybe it's time for a privacy fence?

Just your regular mom stuff. We just like to keep it real around here. And with the lovely sun and relatively warm weather, it is going to be a great afternoon outside!