We are Moving!!

It started with my husband getting sick... very sick.  We weren't sure to what degree he would recover.  I started seeking God for what was next and how I might help augment our income enough that he could take a break from working.  We are a team.  It has been many years since I have worked independently of our home life and business.  I couldn't imagine trying to do something similar for someone else.  I spent many days crying out to God for vision, hope and a sense of future.  I felt led to try my hand at what I enjoy the most... growing things.

So for the last three years we have worked to build a small urban farm in the North.   We started with the idea that we could produce enough to share and slowly build a clientele while at the same time producing clean, healthy food for our family.  It has been a challenge.  We purchased a small foreclosed house that was on almost an acre of land.  

The laws in our city allow for farm animals as long as they are housed at least 100 feet from any dwelling including our own.  This piece of property made that possible.  So we added two sweet little miniature goats. It was also legal for us to grow all the vegetables we wanted both in the front and back yards of our property. But, too late we learned, we are not allowed  to put up a hoop house anywhere nor is it legal to sell one carrot from our gardens.  That’s right, I can grow bushels of carrots.  I can give them away, but selling them is illegal. I don’t understand

I could grow vegetables inside my house and sell those.  Heck, I could grow pot if I wanted to and sell that!  But selling vegetables grown outside my house is… evil?  I don’t understand 

Don’t get me started on raising bees which are only allowed if you have like 100 feet on all sides of your hives.  Bees are endangered and vital. We should be asking everyone to keep bees.  We should teach our children how to raise them in schools, not limiting who can have the privilege of keeping them.  I don’t understand.

After we purchased our property a specific law for chickens was passed.  You can have urban chickens provided you get permission from your neighbors, and you are willing to pay 43 dollars a year for a permit.  Really?  You want to give that kind of power to neighbors?  I can have up to 7 dogs on my property and no one can object.  How are chickens more of a nuisance?  And, how many eggs can you buy for 43 dollars?  At what point have we lost break even?  I don’t understand.

People are fickle aren’t they?  In the years during World War Two it was considered our civic duty to grow a garden and raise our own chickens.  Every household was asked to raise their own so that we could feed our county without the need for a foreign supply.  How did we get here from there?

All that said, I have tried to seek help with advocacy groups and the laws may be changing… slowly.  But in the mean time so much has changed this last year.  Our city was deeply effected by the riots this summer.  Many on both sides of the debate are angry.  There was a murder, outside on the street a few blocks from my house not long ago. Just this week our neighborhood was flooded with armed police and tactical teams carrying assault rifles who, in the middle of the night, combed our backyard guns drawn looking for someone or something. We don’t know what.  They said hello to my goats on their way out, but left us wondering what dangers lurked in the night outside our home.

We are moving to the country.  We bought a few acres outside of town.  The laws there are so much more friendly.  I can have whatever animals I want and sell whatever I grow right from my own little vegetable stand.  I like the concept of an urban farm, I think we need to start utilizing what we have to feed our own families. But today, I am plumb out of fight.  We are trading our dream in for a new one.