As busy as our week has been, with both kids in camps on opposite sides of town, we managed to find a little time to hang out in the backyard. That always makes for a good evening.
Kodak watching the newest part of his flock
The Princess with one of the Buff Brahma pullets.
Atom ball!
The result of dad climbing into the Atom Ball
The Talker holding a month old Buff Orpington pullet.With both kids going to day camps yesterday, for the first time ever, our day was a little chaotic. The Talker was at an all day sports camp. He swam, played soccer and built forts in the woods with his new buddies. The Princess is going to a half day dance camp across town from The Talker’s camp. She hasn’t really said WHAT they did there, but I know she was worn out since she napped in the car on the ride home.
We all drove out to drop off The Talker. After we ran a few errands and watched a little World Cup, the remaining three of us left for a Doctor’s appointment and Dance Camp. After we fed the girl at Burger King and dropped her at the high school gym with about 1000 other grade-school girls, The Boss Lady and I ran away for a nice lunch out on the lake. Excepting the fact that my food tasted awful and the glare off the water was giving me a headache, we had a grand time!
A few hours after lunch we headed different directions. I had to pick up the boy 20 minutes away and The Boss Lady had to drive the other direction to get the girl , 45 minutes away. Oh the things we will do so that a 6 year old can hang out with her 16 year old cousin!
Today promises more of the same fun (except for the lunch out, since The Boss is at work today). The Boss dropped off the boy a few hours ago and The Princess and I are heading to dance camp in another hour. But today should prove a little less chaotic. I am loading up my study materials and I’ll just hang out at the library near Dance Camp while I study.
A while back The Boss Lady declared that this would be The Summer of Mike. In a month and a half I turn 40, so I guess she is letting me have one last blast of fun before the "old" sets in.
And so far The Summer of Mike has gone without a hitch. The kids and I have been hanging around like bananas and having a lot of fun. The Boss Lady works 4 day weeks during the summer break, so we have actually hung out as a family a little bit, too.
An aside: When I was 17 I first heard the music of the Cowboy Junkies. They had one video in rotation on MTV and I was hooked. I even named my first cat after the lead singer, Margo. Now closing in on a quarter century later and I still grab every disc that the Junkies release, though the last two or three have been digital downloads.
However, after all of these years I have finally given up on ever seeing the Cowboy Junkies live. I knew they would be in town in June, but the venue is small and the tickets are pretty pricey. I did mention it to the wife a few months back, but she didn't seem too interested, so I dropped that conversation pretty quickly and with a minimal amount of whining.
Evidently The Boss Lady did not really share my sense of despair about the Junkies. Turns out, she bought the tickets back then and thanks to a babysitter sort of spilling the beans, I just my Father's Day gift a few days early :)
For the record, the babysitter didn't really do any damage. She told me she would be at the house to watch the kids on Friday night and I had no clue what she was talking about. The Babysitter said that she was scheduled to watch the kids while the wife and I attended some wedding. I still had no clue, but it didn't sound like anything I really needed to worry about, so I promptly forgot the conversation until looking at the family calendar tonight.
The wife and kids are trying to fit in a trip to see The Mother of the Bride. So they will be out of town next weekend, on Father's Day but The Boss Lady has assured me that she will be back in plenty of time to go to the concert with me.
The Boss Lady and kids have rocked the Fathers' Day gifts for years. There was the see-saw for the backyard about 5 years ago. There was the clothesline last year. (And the GPS unit for the California road-trip.) But a night out without kids? Going to see the Cowboy Junkies? Yessiree, we have a winner!
Thank you Easter Bunny. Bwak Bwak! Boss Lady.
We are almost a week into the summer break and life is just as exciting as always around here. the kids are wearing themselves out playing all day and sleeping late in the mornings. So life is great for everyone.
The Princess and I picked up with a forgotten tradition a couple of days ago. When she does not have to be asleep by a certain time, to be ready for school the next morning, we read together. The last story we read was the original Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont. That is truly a short story and it only took us a few nights to knock out.
A few nights ago we started on Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. This is a much longer book and we will probably spend most of the summer nights working through it. I haven't read this since I was a kid, and I may have to read ahead soon, just to decide how we will read through (or skip through) the "bad stuff" that happens later in the story. The biggest downside of reading this story with a 6 year old girl has already happened at least once though. "Daddy, I REAAAAALY want a horse of my own."
It isn't a pony, but The Princess has recently gotten something else great. A new family has moved onto our block and they brought their very own 5 and 12 year old girls with them. The Princess is beside herself to have a new playmate living 4 houses away. There are more than 40 kids on our 2-block street, but there were no other 5-6 year old girls. Now we are fully stocked!
The Talker is loving the end of the school year. After 6 days of summer break he has yet to announce that he is "bored". And that may be the biggest success of our entire summer.
The AtHomeFarm is growing again. The kids have four new baby chicks. Last week we brought home a week old Black Australorp and a Buff Orpington. And a few days later we brought home two, 2 day old Buff Brahma chicks. I have bought all of our birds so far at the last real Farm and Ranch store in Austin. And I still love that store, but it is about a 2 hour round trip to Callahan's. This time we bought our birds at a little family owned feed store right in the middle of the city.
Going into Buck Moore Feed Store is like stepping back into the feed and seed store that we went to when I was a kid. Maybe that explains why we have been there 4 times in less than a month. They stock chicken breeds that I have never even seen, like the Australorp.
The kids took the new birds out for their first yard visit.
5 day old Buff Brahma chicksToday is the 6th Anniversary of the AtHomeDaddy blog. 1750 some odd posts full of all manner of drivel and loads of whining; see, it really is a pretty good reflection of my life.
Blogger seems to be having issues today. I’ll come back later to see if I can embellish this post a little and give it the proper respect it deserves.
I have blogged before about my love of Hot Wheels Mystery Cars. Over the years I have bought all of them I have ever found, but that total is still less than a dozen. Tonight I hit a double. TWO mystery cars were on the rack at Target AND the How Wheels were on sale for $.79 each!
I could have been a conscientious shopper and left one surprise car for some kid to discover. But I didn't. C'mon, you knew that wasn't going to happen.
Today is the first day of summer for kids. Our (now) First and Third graders have big plans for the summer. And a few days ago we established a few "Summer Rules".
First (and most importantly to me), the TV stay off until the afternoon. I am not a total moron, I know it is hot in Texas during the summer, so we will reserve the TV and video games for times that our faces might melt off if we were to venture outside.
Second, and finally, we are going to do STUFF. None of this sitting around complaining about being bored (for the first two weeks at least). At 8 1/2 and 6 years old, I expect the kids to be able to entertain themselves for a good chunk of time. If they can't keep boredom away, then I bet the chicken coop needs cleaning. Hint, hint.
That is pretty much our summer plan. The Talker is going to a sports day camp for a week and we will probably hit up the Vacation Bible School at our church. Otherwise, the next 2 and a half months are are free and easy.
The way I really like my summers.
To start off we are heading out to meet up with another Stay-at-Homer and his crew at the Blanton MoA. Yep, I could have spelled out Museum of Art, but MoA seems to give Father of Five a shudder. so I used the abbreviated form, MoA.
See that? He did it again.
So anyways, we are off and running in the Summer of 2010. I just hope I remember how to do this full-time dad thing.
I robbed the garden of all the good stuff, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeño peppers, onion and I even dug up my first ever garlic. Set to work and created a masterpiece of salsa goodness.
Finished it up, and then i realized we are out of tortilla chips. Dang. And this stuff smells gooooooooooooooood, too.
Locking the kids in the chicken coop and making a run to the grocery store. Back in 20.
Last summer, the kids and I spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out the Sun. We were planned all sorts of ways to make the Sun our minion. We built the solar oven, we used the clothesline. We spent time out in the garden, making sure our plants were getting the most of the available sunlight. As the summer went on we were going to convert a radio to run on solar power, but we ran out of $ and it got hot out there.
Later in the year we learned a lot about Skin Cancer, but I digress.
The Summer of the Sun was a lot of fun. Today I think The Talker and I found this summer's theme. Bikes!
There is a lot of stuff nearby that the kids and I can get to on our bikes. Even so, it is usually easier to hop in the car and knock out a bunch of errands at once. This summer we are going to remember the two-wheelers that are sitting out in the garage, especially when it is early in the day and under a million degrees out there.
Today for lunch The Talker and I hopped on our bikes and rode through the neighborhood to lunch. Then we hit the trail home and stopped to check our geocache hides. All was good there, so we finished the 3 mile loop with a race home. Now leave us alone, Daddy needs a nap. And Oxygen.
The Talker has missed a full week of school. He had a fever that started last Wed night and FINALLY broke up for good (we all hope) last night. He is home today and feeling fine, but we are trying to be nice and follow the "24 Hour Fever-Free" rule. Besides, there are only 4 days of school left. What could he possibly be missing?
The Princess stayed home yesterday, but I think she was mainly sick of seeing her Big Brother get to stay home from school. I drove her to school yesterday, but by the time we got there I was not sure if she wasn't getting sick, so we called an audible and came home.
The girl made a miraculous recovery as we were pulling out of the school parking lot, but, there were only 5 days of school left. What could she possibly have missed?
The Boss Lady took pity on me and took the day off of work yesterday. She hauled the boy to the pediatrician to get new antibiotics and The Princess and I worked in the garden and went grocery shopping. After a family run to Costco we made good use of the rest of the afternoon. Naps and video games all around.
For a sick day we stayed pretty busy!
The garden has really hit it's stride in the last few weeks. We have already harvested potatoes, a few jalapeno peppers, several pounds of lettuce and spinach, a quart of snow peas, dill, cilantro, sage, rosemary and oregano. Also, birds have beaten us to the two or three strawberries that we have grown.
A few years ago we had our first experience growing dill and the kids were amazed by the caterpillars that munched down our few plants. Once we found out that the caterpillars would grow into Black Swallowtail butterflies, we left them to eat the dill down to a nub. Since then we have grown lots of dill, just for the caterpillars. This year I made 3 plantings of dill, about a month between. And the caterpillars have found the goods! Thanks to The Boss Lady for all of the pictures.
This morning I spotted another visitor to our garden, a Checkered Garter snake. I know they are harmless and we have seen these guys around our yard for the entire time we have lived here, but I still squeal and run away like a little girl anytime one pops out of the garden. This snake was resting underneath the potato vines.
For the record, since I know there are lots of bugs attacking the potatoes right now, I made peace with the snake and left it to get it's fill. Now that I know he is there, he can eat all the bugs as long as I get the 'taters.
The rest of the garden is going crazy right now. The Princess helped me plant everything this year, so for the first time ever I gave up some space for flowers. We have Zinnias and Marigolds in bloom along with tomatoes on the vine. The eggplant is starting to fruit out and yesterday I spotted the first green bean on the vine.
Soon we will be dining on grilled green beans and pan fried eggplant while we watch our butterfly crop flit about the garden. Good times!
The Talker is a lucky kid. His iPod survived being left in a rainstorm. Thanks to the Father of Five for some great advice. The water caused the battery to discharge, so I assumed the whole thing was DOA. After drying for 24 hours in rice and getting a fresh charge, the tunes are playing fine.
There is joy in The Talker's habitat once again.
"Well son, now we now both things that happen when you leave your iPod out in the rain. It ruins the iPod and makes you really sad."
Yeah, not a fun thing to learn when you are 8.
The results of my Elementary School Generalist (Early Childhood - 6th Grade) exam are in. I passed. Even had a bunch of points to spare!
Next stop on the Teacher's Express train to my own classroom, finishing up all of my online classes and a few more Saturday sessions. In June I take a test to prove that I am capable of teaching High School English/Language Arts.
Then, hopefully sometime in the next couple of months, a school will be in need of a Special Education teacher who is good looking, too. But maybe they will hire me anyways.
I took the second of three state exams today. If I passed this one, then I will be a Provisionally Certified, Highly Qualified Elementary Special Education Teacher. To finish the process I'll have to successfully teach a year and then my teaching certificate will no longer reflect a "Provisional Status".
In late June I take one last exam that will certify me to teach High School English/Language Arts. I don't intend to teach anything but Special Education, but thanks to the federal No Child Left Behind program, I have to pass this test to complete my high school teacher's certification.
I have a little time to ease up now, so I'll be making a full court press on the house. During the last couple of weeks of studying, I have slacked off with keeping the house tidy. Before studying for this most recent exam, babysitting The Little Dude was my excuse for not cleaning. And before that I was studying for an earlier test. But what about the 7 1/2 years prior to all of this testing? I had good excuses then, too. I swear!
In a couple of weeks we are hosting an end-of-season party for The Princess' kickball team. So I have about 10 days to whip the house and yard into submission. Got a start tonight, with a deep cleaning of the kitchen. Even the inside of the microwave got a cleaning.
Tomorrow I am hoping to plow through the living room and dining room. It has been a while since the Swiffer got any exercise in either of those rooms. At this rate I should just about get everything cleaned in time for the guests to show up.
May the good lord help anyone who messes up that kitchen before the party!
Blame it on Rick. He posted some pictures of his garden, so I had to follow up with pics from mine.
A few varieties of lettuce mixed together.
The lettuce looked better before I harvested a bunch of it this morning.
Eggplant, dill and ‘taters in the background.
Garlic, spinach and lettuce in the background.
Mint from my momma’s house AND proof that The Hat is worn in the garden.
After all, it is 96 degrees out there today!
Jalapeno peppers
The chickens chowing down on lettuce and spinach.
We also have rosemary, oregano, cilantro, green beans, snow peas, strawberries. After a really wet winter and with the help of the hen’s, there is about a ton of chicken poop in the garden soil this year, this has been our best gardening season ever.
During this teacher's training program, I have pretty much left everything else undone.
Somehow the kids are getting fed and they have clean(ish) clothes to wear to school. But everything else is pretty much in a holding pattern. Including this blog.
This weekend, after lots of business here in town, the family headed to Dallas and stayed up there until Monday afternoon. Yeah, the kids skipped school. So what? There are like 20 days left of the school year. If they haven't learned it yet, I bet it isn't happening before June...
I digress.
While everyone was out of town I tried to get a ton of studying done. I also broke down and decided to buy a study guide. I found it online for less than $30. Through the website I was able to see that the book was in stock at our local big box book store. At the store they couldn't find the book, even though they showed 3 copies in stock. Next best thing, they had a copy held for me at the nearest of their other locations.
I drove the 10 miles to the second store and they did indeed have the book waiting for me. But the $30 online price (FROM THEIR OWN WEBSITE!) was not valid 'in-store' so the book cost me $45.
I came home and immediately ordered the $30 identical study guide from the website. (They even had free shipping!) Today the second copy showed up. So I hauled it up to the store and got my $45 back.
In the end, I got the book I needed, WHEN I needed it and I got it for the $30 that I was originally planning to pay. But I also had to hassle with it. So all of this has given me one more reason for me to love the Kindle2 that I have stolen borrowed on a long term loan from The Boss Lady. No hassling with deliveries, returns OR jerk bookstore managers!
For the record, I returned the book to the closer bookstore and the manager who handled the return was nice, polite quick and cute, too. Not at all like the guy at the other store who earned the "jerk" title.
The Boss Lady and I have loads of friends in common. I guess that is pretty normal since we have been around each other almost constantly since 1993. But we also share a few friends from back even before then. One of them we will call M.
M played a part in The Boss Lady and I getting together, when she encouraged me to call The Future Mrs AtHomeDaddy on a day off from summer camp responsibilities in 1992. After that call I decided to change my college plans and transfered to The University of Where The Future Mrs AtHomeDaddy Went (U 0f WWTFMAHDW) - they never did have very cool shirts for sale...
Unfortunately, we lost track of M a few years after we married and moved to Austin. I have tried to find her over the year. But even though I knew I could get an address from the old summer camp (if I would only think about this stuff during normal business hours), I would occasionally wonder where M had ended up.
Tonight I stalked her down looked her up on the internet. Turns out she is doing well (no surprise there) and doing great things to help people out (again, no surprise). I still wasn't 100% sure that it was M on the other end of the web page, so I sent a quick email just to see if I would get a response.
An hour or so later, I did get a response. My stalking skillz are still top notch! Of course, I fired off a longer (some might say "too long") email letting M know what we have all been up to for the past decade and a half. And hopefully we will be catching up more with M very soon.
Besides, if this Special Education teacher thing doesn't work out I can go into the Private Eye business.
AtHomeDaddy, P.I.
Anybody want to loan me some sunglasses, a mustache and a red Ferrari?
A joke from The Talker:
What is the difference between a booger and broccoli?
Kids won’t eat broccoli.
"So what do you think about the wine I chose?" I asked The Boss Lady.
She quipped "Well, it is cheap and stinky... kinda like you".
In the last week and a half I haven't felt the need to blog much. Here is a re-cap of the things you missed:
Life is busy, with the kids in school, The Princess playing kickball, The Boss getting older and trying to wind down another school year. The chicken eggs were a hit at Easter, but we evidently forgot to take any photos after the dyeing. We also forgot to hide them, so the fancy, dyed eggs are probably still in Bro's fridge.
Today I finish up watching The Little Dude at least on an "Everyday" basis. And Monday will seem just as busy anyways. Hopefully next week I'll be making a full-court press to line up some job interviews for the fall. My classes start meeting for reals in a week or so. Think I need some back-to-school clothes?
So there you have it. The life of a baby-sitting, chicken farming, soon-to-be un-retired/former Stay at Homer. All in about 10 sentences.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I am out of Dr Pepper, so stay away from me until I can get to the grocery store. It would be best for everyone.
The Princess turned 6 today. And guessing by the way she fell asleep in about 39 seconds, I think she had a great birthday.
This weekend we were all over Texas, from Austin to Dallas and back again. But somewhere in the the crazy fun of hanging out with my brother and his family, my sister and her family and Mom and Dad a couple of times, we seemed to forget a couple of important things. Like buying birthday presents. Oooops.
We got home about 6pm on Sunday evening and The Boss and I had come up with a great plan to get the last of the birthday gear bought. It was a good plan and it would have worked. Except that when I came in from the 4 hours of driving, I sat on the couch for a few minutes and forgot about the plan.
About 10pm, when I was ready for bed, I headed to Wal-Mart to buy the presents. True, I could have shopped today, while the kids were in school, but I already felt bad enough about putting it off for that long, so I shopped in the dark.
The Princess loved her gifts and she could not have cared less if they had been purchased a week, or an hour, ago. But the highlight of the day may have been the cupcakes for breakfast. Since I was feeling guilty already, we had birthday cupcakes twice today. Once at breakfast, and again at dinner. I figured I could redeem myself with pink cupcakes.
And you know what? I was right! The Princess said she "had a great birfday." Which is all that really mattered today.
Over the years I have kept this blog and the other one. Over here I usually focus on the good times, the silly, the mundane, whatever I thought it was OK for grandma to read. Over there, it has been a little more free flowing, whinier and bitchier even.
Real life has happened somewhere in between the two blogs. Life is never as organized and chaos free as you might think if you only read this blog. Also, it is not as gloomy or frustrating as one might think after cruising through the dark side.
That is a long ways to go to say that I still have a lot to learn about all of this dad-as-caretaker stuff. I think I just hit on one of those lessons this morning. And the boy isn't even my kid.
The Little Dude finished a full bottle about 30 minutes ago. But he was unsettled and grumpy. He wouldn't nap and he was acting like he was hungry. I started to let him cry it out, but I have failed at that effort before.
Now, back when ours were little, The Schedule ruled the house. Keeping the kids on a nap and eating schedule simplified life. And that was important since I was trying to figure all of this stuff out as I went along. So once a bottle was finished, the next one would not come out until The Schedule said so.
Today is different. The Little Dude was hungry. So I fed him again.
It was a simple solution and now, he is sleeping with a happy, full belly. The windows are open and the birds are singing. It is a great day!
Even though this was an obvious choice, I bet if it had occurred the same way with one of our kids, The Schedule would have won out. Which would have led to an unhappy baby and worn out daddy until I finally gave up and called The Boss Lady to beg her to come home early.
Back then I used The Schedule to keep us from going crazy but I never was very good about realizing when The Schedule was the very thing causing chaos.
Ydeerday I thought of something awesome to post. It was going to make for a great, earth-shattering, life-changing event. It was pure greatness.
Too bad I forgot what it was.
I passed my first certification test to become a certified Special Education teacher! The Boss Lady decided that we would go out to celebrate - without the kids.
A little back story -We don't really use babysitters. When the kids were little, we just didn't do it. Besides, all of our friends had little kids too, so we would occasionally swap childcare with one of them, but we have only had a paid, teen babysitter one or two times.
Anyways, The Boss made a deal with the parents of The Little Dude. When they came over to pick him up, they would stay with our crew and hang out while we went to dinner and maybe did a little shopping for The Princess' birthday. Since we were swapping babysitting, the teens were not getting paid, but we did arrange to have pizza delivered for the whole herd. The teens and children were all happy and settled in when The Boss Lady and I left for dinner.
A few minutes later the babysitter called and said that there was a hissy-fit in progress. Not one of our kids, though, Pizza Guy was pissed because he didn't want to take the check we left for him. He talked to The Boss for a few seconds while she was trying to figure out a solution, then he slammed our phone at the sitter and he stormed off mid-sentence.
Unluckily for Pizza Guy, we were right beside the delivery store when this was happening. So we pulled in and chatted with the manager. The manager assured us that the pizza would be free and the check would not be cashed. Just then Pizza Guy pulled up and went into the office for a butt-chewing from the manager.
I asked to get our check back as Pizza Guy left the restaurant, with our check in his hand! The manager was sending him back to our house to apologize. The Boss and I assured the store manager that the returned check and free food was apology enough, but we really did not Pizza Guy heading back to our house. We took the check after handshakes all around, and we headed to a nice dinner.
After all of that excitement we could not find anywhere "fancy" that sounded good. So we headed to Torchy's Tacos and ate outside for less than the cost of two pizzas. Of course there is a HUGE upside to going there. They serve Dublin Dr Pepper on tap!
Free pizza and Dublin Dr Pepper. A pretty good way to celebrate!
I have a little less than 24 hours until I take my first state exam to become a certified Special Education teacher. The major study is done. Anything that I haven’t learned, or at least reviewed, probably won’t catch my eye before 1pm Tuesday.
The Boss Lady has been doing this stuff since she started teaching, so I have had a pretty good tutor (unlike the time she tried to teach me College Algebra).
I was really nervous about the test when I went to bed last night but after studying with The Boss again this morning, I am feeling pretty good. It turns out that I do not need to score 260 points to pass the exam. A 240 score is passing. Thanks to The Boss Lady for finding that little loophole and boosting my confidence this morning.
After this test I will take some all-day Saturday classes and I will be visiting classrooms to watch the real teachers work their magic. But most important of all, once I pass the exam, I can start sending out the resumes and trying to hustle up a job for the 2010-2011 school year. Luckily, The Boss Lady has been hiring teachers for about a decade, so she might have some knowledge about that, too!
Even though I recently cleaned out about 75% of my clothes and donated them to Goodwill, I could not resist this $10 T-shirt from Target. The picture seemed like a natural fit too.
I have been looking through some of the oldest posts on this blog. If you wade deep enough into 5 years of crap, there is some good stuff buried here. Or you can just follow some of these links. I dug up some of the best stuff for you.
In no specific order I give you Volume 1 of of The Best of AtHomeDaddy (2004-2006).
Next Time, I'll Take a Spatula
Can You Tell Me Why...
I admit it. I am a catfish eating cheater.
Is this really it?
It's gonna be a good Thanksgiving
I seldom blog anything noteworthy from the real world. OK, I seldom blog anything noteworthy PERIOD. But here is an article from the hometown rag, about chickens and roosters in neighborhood backyards. It is a pretty long article, but I wanted to share it, since our family has really enjoyed having our backyard flock of hens.
Full disclosure, I don't really see enough benefit to keeping a rooster in a small flock of 2 - 6 hens to annoy the neighbors so much. But if I lived on 5 acres, you bet I would have some big, studly roos running the show.
Here is the direct link to the article, but I think you have to register, so I am including the full text below. http://www.statesman.com/news/local/as-backyard-coops-abound-neighbors-seek-remedy-for-348284.html?srcTrk=RTR_95609
As backyard coops abound, neighbors seek remedy for rooster noise
Rooster advocates say the fowl are integral to local food movement
By Marty TooheyAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
On Gillis Street, a two-lane South Austin road that meanders from Ben White Boulevard into an otherwise quiet neighborhood, the roosters begin their crowing a little before sunrise. It's a scene repeated throughout fowl-friendly Austin but one that Helen Rockenbaugh says has been allowed to go too far."It's not just early in the morning; the roosters are so loud that sometimes when you stand in the backyard, you can't hear yourselves talk," said Rockenbaugh, whose Gillis Street house sits next to a neighbor who keeps up to 20 roosters at a time. "The city needs to make a change."
City officials are considering a change. But banning roosters, as Rockenbaugh is urging City Hall, would run counter to Austin's long-held pride in its unconventional thinking. Long before a national backyard-chicken movement began spreading its wings, coops were a fixture in Austin neighborhoods both modest and chic. Austin even has the Funky Chicken Coop Tour, an April event at which homeowners show off artsy or unusual pens.
But the movement has ruffled the feathers of folks such as Rockenbaugh. Now anti-rooster residents are telling City Hall that the birds are an unnecessary nuisance, while rooster supporters contend that the males are as important to their flocks as the hens and can, in fact, be kept quiet by responsible owners.
"Dogs can also make a lot of noise," said Dagmar Grieder , a Bouldin Creek neighborhood resident who owns a dozen chickens and a red-and-gold Brabanter rooster named Hansel. "In fairness, if we allow dogs, we should allow roosters."
City officials say the dispute touches on bigger questions that cities must confront as more people live in closer proximity. What behavior should a neighbor be expected to tolerate? How should the city define a nuisance? And what role should the city play in resolving relatively minor disagreements that nonetheless matter a great deal to some residents?
Austin is considered at the forefront of a national movement to produce food — particularly vegetables and dairy products — in backyards. (The city government includes a Sustainable Food Policy Board.) As roosters and chickens have popped up in suburban backyards in Austin and elsewhere, with the promise of fresh eggs and meat, their cause is being championed by personalities such as Andy Schneider ("The Chicken Whisperer"), who hosts a popular radio show in Atlanta. Advocates say chickens should be raised locally, as opposed to in industrial poultry operations criticized by animal rights activists.
But the movement is being opposed by groups such as Farm Sanctuaries, a consortium of animal shelters that says roosters are unsuited for an urban environment.
The fowl question has been answered differently across the country. Dallas has few rules that speak to chickens, but Plano has banned them. Portland, Ore., and Madison, Wis., recently decided to allow chickens but not roosters. Los Angeles and Miami allow one rooster per household; San Antonio allows two. Waco allows roosters, but only if they are kept 100 feet from the property line, effectively banning ownership in most cases.
Austin allows an unlimited number of roosters and chickens per household.
"In general, the trend nationwide seems to be to allow chickens in the backyard," said Robert Heil, a senior planner with the City of Austin. "But different cities have different policies."
Austin has historically considered roosters, hens and other fowl to be pets. They've been fairly common in more rural pockets. But the organic food movement has led more people across the city to raise chickens on modest-size city lots surrounded by homes.
Michelle Hernandez is among the chicken owners. Last year she and a few others formed the Austin Backyard Poultry Meetup, which now has 485 members. Dallas and Atlanta also have chapters.
"There's huge interest in Austin," Hernandez said. "People are getting really interested in where they get their food."
Grieder, the Bouldin Creek resident, said that in the spring she brings eggs, rather than wine, over to friends' houses.
"I know what went into the eggs," she said, "because I know what goes into my chickens."
Grieder said her rooster, Hansel, is vital to the flock's health because he herds them and protects the hens from animals such as hawks and dogs. Someone who owns a rooster can ensure that the genes of a rare breed aren't diluted, Hernandez said.
"You need to know where your stock comes from," she said, "so it's not as simple as renting out a stud."
Rooster critics dismiss those arguments.
"You take in the male, he does the deed at breeding time, and you take him away," Rockenbaugh said, seconds before one of the dozen or so neighboring birds pierced the late afternoon quiet of Gillis Street. "The rooster doesn't exactly need much time to finish the business, and he definitely doesn't need to live there."
Others have complained about the noise.
"They have woken me up as early as 2:30 in the morning," South Austinite Vicki Salazar wrote to the city recently. "The point is that it is highly rude and irresponsible to have a pet, and as a city allow a pet, that is known for its loud noises during the calm of night and early morning."
Late last year, Rockenbaugh's complaints found their way to Austin's Planning Commission, which advises the City Council on many policy matters. Planning Commission Chairman Dave Sullivan said he volunteered to mediate the dispute because he spent time living next to a farm while growing up.
"The birds are remarkably loud," Sullivan said. But, he said, the city already prohibits pets that disturb neighbors. He said owners can minimize roosters' noise by keeping them in opaque enclosures, which block the ultraviolet light that comes at dawn and triggers a rooster's crowing.
Sullivan's recommendation: Instruct the Police Department to more vigorously enforce the noise rules. The matter will probably go to the City Council this spring.
But Sullivan acknowledges that the recommendation would take time away from other policing duties.
"The police always have a quandary in a city where serious crime and even murders take place," he said. "They have to be judicious about how much attention is paid to things like quality-of-life issues."
Police rarely issue citations to the owners of roosters or other pets that bother neighbors. The Police Department does not track rooster-related complaints.
Grieder said she does not think a household needs more than one or two roosters but said the city's existing rules are sufficient to ensure that they don't become a nuisance.
"I can't hear Hansel in the morning unless I really listen," she said. "He's in his coop; I'm in mine."
Rockenbaugh called the police out to her new Gillis Street property twice late last year. Both times, the officer said there was nothing to be done except have the Municipal Court sort out the dispute. Attempts to seek comment from the owner of the roosters next door were unsuccessful.
Cpl. Scott Perry, a police spokesman, said the department's district representatives sometimes try to mediate disputes such as pet noise, but patrol officers must focus on higher-priority calls.
"It's not unusual on a Saturday night for a low-priority call not to be responded to for a couple hours," Perry said. "Obviously crimes against people, where somebody is being attacked, are going to be a high priority. Rooster complaints are going to be pretty low on the priority list."
mtoohey@statesman.com; 445-3673
My 24 year old niece is hanging out with us for the evening. She is cool, interesting and hip. Everything I am not.
Besides that, I spent several hours working in the front yard flower bed this afternoon. So my body is hurting from stooping over and digging out the weeds. Add to that, I spent a brutal 90 minutes in a kickball meeting, so my brain hurts, too.
Getting whiny(er), old and uncool(er) sure does suck.
Here are some recent pictures having NOTHING to do with education proficiency exams.
Well, I was working on a picture post, mainly to do something NOT involving reading about education. Turns out my brain is fried, because I just formatted the disc that the pictures were on. BEFORE I moved them to the computer’s hard drive. Smooth move, AtHomeDaddy!
There were some awesome shots in there, too. I was especially fond of some The Boss Lady took at our Kickball skills clinic last weekend. She wanted to title one of them “Our Daughter was the One in Pink”. Which would have been REALLY hilarious if you could see the sea of pink in that picture of 100 kindergarten aged girls practicing for the Kickball season.
Now I am thinking I should take a proficiency exam in how to use my new computer.
Next week is Spring Break and I was planning to take the boy backpacking for a few days, but he has decided that he does not want to go. Normally I would force the issue and we would just go camping, but this year I am a little preoccupied with this test.
I have 16 days to prepare for my Special Education teacher's proficiency exam. Between loads of review books, lots of info that the wife dug up for me and some help from a neighbor who just took this test last year, I am starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with the information. Then I'll be trying to learn everything that The Boss Lady can teach me about public education for the 9 days she is supposed to be getting a break from teaching and public education.
After I get past this test I can start preparing to look for a job. Then, there is at least one more exam, a bunch of hours visiting a public school classroom and a and a lot of online and in class coursework to get through this Spring.
After all that, it is simple. I just sit back and collect paychecks. Or something like that. I haven't really gotten that far into my ready yet.
the one where all the neighborhood kids naturally always seemed to congregate? My Mom and Dad's house was like that. There was always an endless stream of kids coming and going. And yeah. I always hoped The Boss Lady and I would have that house. And it turns out, we do.
This afternoon I was hanging out with The Little Dude while The Princess and Talker were playing with the neighbors. The Boss Lady pulled up right then and she brought a couple more kids along, so that their mom could run some errands. All together we had our two, plus 3 extras. Combine that with another neighbor who had her two, plus one extra and we had quiet a crowd!
Today the weather was perfect, so all the herd played outside. In fact, I was one step ahead of everybody and the crowd ended up playing at the neighbor's! Which means no mess to clean up here. Well, except for the fact that I started assuming the herd would migrate to our house for dinner, so I cooked a ton. The kids all got sorted back out to their own homes before the dinner bell rang, so now I have a mess of leftovers to clean up. Good thing I like chicken nuggets.
AtHomeDaddy is about to re-enter the workforce!
I have thought about getting my teacher’s certification for years. It is one of the many things that I SHOULD have done in college. As opposed to that even longer list of things that I should NOT have done. But some of those were really, really fun, mom!
Before I started college I planned to be a high school Special Education teacher. Partially because I knew it would be a good fit for me and partially because I had a huge crush on the woman who taught the Special Education classes at my high school. I found the Therapeutic Recreation program in college and realized that I could do a lot the same things, working with the same kids AND I could do it while wearing shorts at a recreation center. So I went that way.
The reality now is that I could still jump back into the recreation center gig. But the hours are not great if I want to see the family and the pay is about 75% of what I can make as a Special Education Teacher with hours that are much closer to the kid’s hours at school. If I am heading back into the working world then The Boss Lady and I realize that it is going to be important to minimize the effect on the kids. Therefore, classroom teaching wins out.
This morning I electronically submitted a check to the Texas Teacher’s Alternative Certification program.And as quick as the payment could be processed, in something like 6 seconds, I found myself staring at a computer screen that lined out exactly what classes I need to finish before I can start looking for a teaching job. And it turns out that there is not a ton of stuff to be done. Of course, my perspective on that may change as I get deeper into the program.
I have about 15 classes to take, between a half-dozen all-day Saturday and weeknight sessions and about that many online classes. I knocked out the first of the online classes, Introduction to Special Education, this morning. I had a great surprise when I logged into the system to begin the class. One of my old friends from pre-AtHomeDaddy days, who is an amazing Special Education teacher and administrator (and all around nice guy) leads the online curriculum. When I heard his voice I knew immediately who it was even though I haven’t seen him in several years.
I went to vote today with The Little Dude in tow. One of the other voters dropped the "Manny" title on me when she realized that the 4 month old was not my kid. For the record, professional nannies make some pretty good bank around here. So I am already doing something wrong.
Also today I used Facebook's privacy features to block a relative! Cool! Take that, cuz! Time to let the boy own his own dramas. Without Facebook I would have never been involved in any of it, and now, thanks to FB, I am out of the loop once again.
I am sitting here in an absolutely quiet house. The Dude is asleep. No clue who The Dude is? Check this post from last weekend. There are bottles that need washing and the trash and litter box need to be emptied. But all of those things require making noise, so they can wait.
The only sounds around are the hum of the 'fridge and the clacking of the keyboard, with a little extra noise coming from the often used backspace key. Otherwise, nothing. I even stopped the loudest of the clocks.
When our own kids were little they did not need a silent house to sleep and I am not sure The Dude does either, but he has been sick all week and I want to give him a fighting chance to get a good snooze going. The Talker could bust out a nap anywhere on schedule. The Princess never slept. So quiet was not a big deal around here.
At this same age I knew everything about my kids. I understood the meaning of every whimper, whine and cry. Bottle time? Nap time? Play time? Check, check and check. But the time I have spent with The Dude has been a little different. I feel like I am playing catch-up. I don't know him nearly as well. So the first few days of our time together has been spent in an extended meet and greet.
But for now I must go. M&M the chicken is squawking her "just laid a big, fat egg song" and she seems to be putting a little extra volume to it today so I am off to Shhhhh! the chicken. It is nap time, after all.
The worst part? It is already melting and the kids are not home from school. Hoping it sticks around a couple of hours more.
The new laptop is here and finally ready to run after I installed all of our preferred programs. Of course the new machine came whit a lot of bells and whistles that I now NEED to play with.
Windows Live Writer is built into the Windows 7 operating system and it will let you push content to Blogger or other hosting services. I’ll play with it a little more to see how it handles pictures and video, but for now I don’t really see the benefit.
On Monday I am going start hanging out with someone new. Really new. About 4 months new, actually.
A friend from church is between childcare providers and I told her that I would help out while she arranges for new care for her little guy. I offered a few weeks ago but Grandparents was able to cover the first part of the gap. Grandma is taking off this weekend, so I am back on duty on Monday morning.
Today I have been hitting up the neighbors to find a jogging stroller to borrow. The Dude sleeps a lot, like a good 4 month old should. (Yes, I am looking at you, Princess.) And I figure he can nap while I walk some of the hours away. Shouldn't be a big thing, right? Of course, it's been a long time since I did all of the usual stuff like grocery shopping and house cleaning.
Wait! Scratch that. I meant to say that it's been a long time since I did all of the usual stuff like grocery shopping and house cleaning with a baby to entertain, too. Hopefully this is like riding a bike.
In fact now that I think about it, like riding a bike, maybe I should just wear a helmet all the time. 'Cause obviously my brain is already on the fritz. Probably don't need any other big hits to my melon if this is the type of thing I willingly volunteer for.
Looking Northeast
Looking SouthwestThe Princess has been excited to get the garden underway this year. On Monday she and I made a trip to the farm store for seed potatoes and sweet potatoes. The store did not have sweet potatoes in stock, so we will miss out on those this year. Growing both types in our garden was going to take up a lot of space, so we were not too disappointed.
This afternoon we planted our Red La Soda potatoes. But like great potato chips, we couldn't stop after planting just one thing. We planted a second round of Melting Sugar Snow Peas We will make one more planting of these in another week, to spread out the harvest a little bit. , some Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, some Bouquet Dill and an entire row of lettuce, using a mixed pack that included a mix of Black Seeded Simpson, Grand Rapids and Prize Head leaf lettuces and Bibb head lettuce. The head lettuce varieties never make well for us but the others do well and make for an instant salad.
Since I re-shaped my garden this year (and have gotten rid of most of my nice, wide walkways) I should have some extra space for plants. We still have to get eggplant, green beans, jalapeno peppers and Roma tomatoes. After that I'll see how much space we have left. Maybe we will be able to add some more herbs to the mint, sage, oregano, rosemary and chives that we keep out there year round.
This afternoon I hit the Tri-fecta! The Princess is gone with The Boss Lady, The Talker is out running around with a friend and it is a beautiful day out in the backyard.
Gardening this time of year is mainly about the hard work of getting everything ready. The easy part comes later, when the veggies and fruit are ready to be picked and enjoyed. But I think this is still my favorite time of the gardening cycle. The hard work hasn't killed me yet and the bare patch of soil seems to hold tons of potential right now. And then of course, there is the garden center. All of those seed packets with the nice, pretty, monster-sized veggies pictured on the packets really makes me want to increase my garden space. Please remind me of this post later in the summer, when everything has dried up and we haven't seen rain in a few months.
This past fall I dumped my garden tiller. I was tired of tending to it before every garden season and only using it for a few hours a year. It went away quickly on the local Free-cycle list. Without the tiller I faced a chore that I have not attempted in about 10 years, turning the soil with a garden fork.
After an hour of work I am almost done with that bit of fun. And I am sure I will feel it tomorrow! But this year I had some unexpected help once the earthworms started popping up in the newly turned garden soil, the chickens.
It took one wiggling worm to draw all three birds into the garden. I was tired 30 minutes ago, but the chickens don't seem to show any sign of slowing down. With all of the chicken scratching and digging in the garden, some of the biggest dirt clods should be broken down soon, saving me some time with the hoe and garden rake.
The kids and I were going to make a movie this afternoon. Our plan fell to pieces pretty quickly, so this is what we ended up with.
The specs: We shot this completely with The Talker's 5th Gen iPod Nano and put it all together with Windows Movie Maker.
The Talker is making his first ever visit to the dreaded Principal's office today. Seems he and a few other boys can't quit screwing around and being silly on the school bus ride home after school. And I have to admit, seeing the boy squirm and be nervous about this has given me a sick, cheap laugh.
By the time I was in the second grade I was on a first name basis with my elementary school Principal and most of the office staff. I probably spent more time in the office than I did in math class. (Then again, I probably preferred the office to math class.)
The Talker was nervous and twisting in the wind a little bit this morning. And you know, I think that is OK. I walked with him into the school today and we found out that the Principal would be calling them in to discuss the problem. He and his buddies will hopefully learn quickly that there are better times to goof around than on the bus ride home.
The Boss Lady and I discussed this last night. We decided that we will stand with the Principal when he doles out the consequences. Then, we had to revise that a little bit, since our kids do live in the era of ridiculous zero-tolerance policies. (None of which I expect the school to invoke in this instance.) So long as the punishment fits the crime, which might even include a day (or two) off of the school bus, we are OK with it.
Even though I never got in trouble on the school bus, only because we lived a couple of blocks from the school, please believe me, I remember what it was like to be a boy. Seems like only yesterday I was running around the house in my underwear, with a laundry basket on my head, scaring the dog and cats.
OK, so that WAS yesterday. But I wasn't doing all of that crazy crap on the school bus!
A picture I took before the opening of gardening season.
Another shot before the opening of gardening season.(Or somewhere thereabouts. Percentages scare me.)
I admit I am not a math genius. It has been that way since, well, I would count the years, but I would probably count wrong anyways. Numbers are > than my brain.
Anyways, The Talker is showing himself to be much more like his momma in the math department. This afternoon I quizzed him.
"So we have 11 eggs in the carton. M&M laid one less than the other birds. Roadrunner and Gold Diamond each laid the same number of eggs. How may eggs did your hen lay?
That's easy, Dad. M&M laid 1 one and the others each laid five. Oh wait, you said she laid one LESS than the others, so M&M laid 3 and Roadrunner and Gold Diamond each laid 4."
So at 8 years old, the boy has basic computational skills that I still so don't possess. Now, all of this just leaves me wondering one thing. How how long until he can take me in arm wrestling, too?
So the Father of Five wondered where I blog. And I have to admit, with all of the chaos surrounding my recent computer misadventures, the last thing I really wanted to do was clean off the computer armoire (which is really just a big cabinet that contains the computer and whatever other clutter I don't want to see in the living room. Gotta love having doors on there!) enough to snap a picture of the workspace.
But now, the new netbook has freed me from the shackles of blogging at a designated workspace.
See? Here I am blogging on the reclining couch.
And here I am, sitting on the OTHER reclining couch. (OK technically this one is a love seat...)
Also in this picture you can see the primary computer workspace for the house. And you can also see why I like having doors on the computer amoire. Bonus prize, you can catch a glimpse of the Gateway desktop that has been the source of all of these years of AtHomeDaddy ramblings.
As of 2 am this morning that machine is officially retired (and reloaded with a blank slate of Windows XP for the kiddos). A new laptop will be landing in it's spot pretty quickly.
Sorry if you have been suffering through AHD withdrawal. Life has been crazy. The kids have been doing well in school, The Boss still loves her new job and for a guy without a job, I seem to stay pretty dang busy.
I went with The Princess' class on a field trip to the Austin Nature and Science Center. The kids had a lot of fun digging in the dino pit and then we ate lunch at Zilker Park. Zilker is the crown jewel of Austin's park system and one of the greatest city parks in the state. It always amazes me when I am there with a new bunch of local kids that many of them have never been to play in Zilker Park.
The Talker won for his grade division in the school science fair, with a project investigating probability. The probability that dad helped with that project? Not very likely, since I couldn't figure out the math involved. For his strong effort, the boy gets to display his project at the city-wide Science Fair in March
The Princess won a second place ribbon. Kindergartners are not allowed to compete in the city-wide event, but she had tons of fun exploring how to make different colors by mixing watered down food coloring samples.
The Princess is preparing to make her athletic debut in a few weeks. She will be playing in a girls only Kickball league. Northwest Austin Kickball has a great history in the area and I am glad the we are getting in on the game this year. Of course, my attitude may change a little later in the season - I was just begged coerced bribed recruited asked to be the team's head coach. So long as they don't give a team full of Kickball veterans I should be OK. I have coached enough kid's soccer and Special Olympics bocce to know a little about what I am getting into.
Spring is almost here. And I have been getting geared up for some full on veggie gardening. The chicken coop has been sitting in the middle of my garden plot since October. I moved the coop today it's Spring location. And the extra "fertilizer" the chickens have added to the ground and all of the rain we have had lately means that my dirt is good to go. And good dirt is the biggest part of a good garden. Happy soil=happy veggies!
Our computer has been dying for several months. It is four years old, and we use the heck out it so I am not surprised. Still, we are so dependent on having a computer now that I have been trying to keep it limping along. A few days ago I finally picked up the first part of the replacement for our desktop machine. I bought a Gateway netbook (I saved almost $50 since I was willing to take buy the red one instead of the identical machine in a black case!) and have been moving all of our important documents (and music) over to an external backup drive. In a few days we will be reformatting the old tower and if we can get it to run smoothly enough, then it will become the kid's computer. (Isn't that like Purgatory for a computer?) After we get all of that set up then we will be buying another new machine to be our main family computer. For the first time ever I am seriously considering using a laptop as our #1 machine.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, gets you up to speed with all of the goings-on around here. Aren't you glad you made the effort to stop by?
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