Zoning

One afternoon during lunch time with my kids, I heard a multiple rap knock at the door. A knock with authority! Must be the UPS man. My friends don't knock like that. My husband gets car parts shipped to our house and I've noticed the UPS man knocks loud, the USPS postman knocks gently.

Nope. A cop.

Have you ever had a cop show up at your front door? A little alarming. My thoughts turned immediately to the half constructed bridge on my walk leading to my front door. Is it illegal to have bridges on your sidewalk? I know they are supposed to be over water, but, c'mon, not illegal ... I'm a real criminal, can you tell? The only thing illegal I could think of was wood projects, and as far as I know, that's not illegal (unless its on the public sidewalk. I've heard of people being cited if their car hangs over the sidewalk too far. #firstworldprovoproblems right?)

I haven't even ever been stopped by a cop. The closest car-cop interaction I have had is when a copped turned its lights on when I passed to flip a Uie, I mean a U-y, um, a U turn, whatever.

"Do you have a chicken permit?"

"Not yet," I said. I mean I haven't even gotten my kid license, I mean birth certificate, for my last kid, and she's almost two! When I feel overwhelmed with things I need to do and want to do, going to government offices is hard for me to remember to do, especially when I need to go there AND pay them money. But really, how bored is this officer if he is driving along looking for coops to check for permits.

"And you have a rooster."

Ah. There it is. Here is why this noble policeman is on my doorstep, even though I'm sure he wants to be somewhere else.

Yes, yes, we have a rooster. And he is annoying. And, I've wanted him dead for quite awhile now. As has my husband. But wanting him dead at 5:30 AM doesn't always translate into action once fully awake. I told our rooster, Gygi is his name (Gigi if you ask my husband), that he was going to be lunch meat after he pecked me quite hard once, and I meant it. But chicken society being what it is, we couldn't just kill him as soon as he crowed. You should never introduce a solo chicken into a flock. Since we had bought Gygi with one other chicken, we had to wait for the other chicken to be slowly introduced to the older members of the flock to prevent her from being mercilessly bullied.

And yes, we knew the rooster was against residential coding, but we live in a weird little area. Three out of four sides of our block are agricultural. I hear other roosters throughout the day and hear cows lowing throughout the night. And smell cows. C'mon, we're only quasi residential. But yeah, against the rules and I TOTALLY GET THAT.

BUT. During the apocalypse, or whatever happens that y'all are saving food storage for, y'all (see, I live in an agricultural area) are going to rue the day that you ratted out my roo (sorry, couldn't help myself). The roo is essential to self sufficiency. My hens will lay eggs for awhile, but they will get tired and old, and stop laying. If I had a rooster, I could raise new hens and have eggs in perpetuity. But I can't do that; my neighbors prize their sleep too much to allow that.

Our urban society has distanced itself from our food production and zoning rules prohibit food from encroaching back in. For those of us who would like to bring food production a little closer to home, it can be frustrating to think the only way to do that is to buy a large lot. In my city, you can't keep livestock on a residential city lot. I can't get the goat I kind of want so I can be partially sufficient in milk. You can only have six hens for egg laying. I've also learned recently that many cities have rules about how much grass you must have. One lady I knew in a neighboring city was told she couldn't convert her front yard to a vegetable garden because of zoning. You also can't put up a front privacy fence, you know, in case your neighbors think what you are doing is ugly. Our aesthetic is decided by the city.  I love gardening and I admire a well tended plot, but what if our coding motivated self-sufficiency and water-wise principles instead lifeless backyards and a wide swath of non-native, water and chemical hungry lawn? Smart gardens are beautiful gardens. What if zoning encouraged us to make habitats for bees, birds, and other wildlife? Maybe if we can change our outdoor values, the city codes would eventually follow suit. Rejoice in that rooster; rejoice in those weeds. They both have value.

P.S. My response to the police officer was "we're going to kill him." I'm glad I didn't get arrested on the spot since when I did go to get my chicken permit, I learned you are only supposed to have hens for egg laying, which I presume means not harvesting them for meat. I don't know what they think is going to happen to all the roosters that didn't win the genetic lottery.

Working Women

When you read "working women," what do you think about? Really, first gut response. Please comment below.

I see a woman in a tailored pants suit, hair swept into a bun, and strangely, the woman in my mind is biracial. I don't know, I'll just go with it.

I recently had a lovely facebook conversation with a friend and a friend of this friend about "working women." It was started by an article on Slate called "If America is Hell for Working Women, France Might Be Heaven." (http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/02/24/america_makes_life_impossible_for_working_women_so_how_come_they_re_so_much.html?wpsrc=sh_all_mob_tw_bot)

Just the title made me hot and bothered because having lived in both America and France, I'm done with Americans making France out to be some sort of social paradise (health care, women rights, etc.) based on what they read about it without having actually experienced it themselves. Yes, France has universal health care, but go visit a hospital and tell me you want to go there. Anyway, I digress. The article also featured another of my pet peeves: making assumptions based solely on statistics. If I ever need to make an argument why qualitative research is necessary, I'm going to use this article.

Statistics do not give a full picture. This article claims that French women are having more babies than Americans--if you follow the link in the article, it reveals a smidgen of a difference on a bar graph. I researched the actual birth rates, since I could barely tell a difference on the bar graphs: America has fallen to 1.86, and France is 2.01. To me in the real world, where babies come whole not in fractions, these two numbers sound pretty much the same but I'm not a demographer. The French government site,(www.diplomatie.gouv.fr), claims that they have such a great birth rate because of their great family friendly policies. But, Wikipedia backs up my impression of France from when I lived there during my LDS mission--the immigrants, specifically those from a Muslim background, are increasing the birth rate. Perhaps those family friendly policies are convincing some French women to have children, but it is not the sole factor.

(I'd like to note that the below chart is using 15 year old data and does not represent the current 2.01 birth rate in France. If anyone can find more current data, thank you in advance. 

	Average number of children in France (1991–1998)	Average number of children in country of origin (1990–1999)
All women living in metropolitan France	1.74
Women born in Metropolitan France	1.70
Immigrant women	2.16
Women born in overseas France	1.86
Immigrant women (country of birth)
Spain	1.52	1.23
Italy	1.60	1.24
Portugal	1.96	1.49
Other EU	1.66	1.44
Turkey	3.21	2.16
Other Europe	1.68	1.41
Algeria	2.57	1.78
Morocco	2.97	3.28
Tunisia	2.90	2.73
Other Africa	2.86	5.89
Asia (Mostly China)	1.77	2.85
The Americas and Oceania	2.00	2.54

I'd guess (no evidence to this) that the women who are helping to make France's birth rate look good are also the ones who are not working. Immigrants probably are not working, or working less, in traditional jobs because of either their immigration status or their conservative religious beliefs.

Also with statistics, you have to take into account definitions that were used when compiling statistics. According to one French friend, her mother had been on maternity leave for years--was this type of women counted as "working" in their 85% of women working even though she was no longer actively engaged in any type of economic production? Oh, and she was still receiving pay.

So "working"? What is the definition? Its always tricky to ask women (and I am one) if they work. Yes we work, whether it be at home or somewhere else, but we all know what they mean when they ask "Do you work."

Do you answer "yes and no."?

Do you say, "No, I'm a stay at home mom."

"Yes, I'm a stay at home mom.

"Yes I'm a home-based mom."

"Yes I'm doing the most important work a person can do."

"Yes and I'm exhausted."

So what if France counts SAHM in their stats? What if America started counting moms who don't work outside the home are counted in "employed" statistics? The employment statistics are used to represent how well the economy is doing. After my Facebook conversation, I realized that moms do play a part in economic production. What if moms who don't work outside the home are counted in "employed" statistics? For one, Utah would stop getting slammed in the press (just one example of many: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/06/upshot/where-working-women-are-most-common.html?abt=0002&abg=0 ). But more importantly, women would understand their work is important on an economic level. We all remind ourselves that what we are doing is important morally and spiritually, but I say yes, economically as well. I believe that mothers who make the choice to stay home are not letting America down as the Slate article made me feel; nor, are we a throwback to the male dominated 1950's as the NY Times article suggested; nor should the feminists feel disappointed in us. We are powerful women who see our best opportunity at home. By raising resilient, creative, and loved children (and of course, we're all hoping for geniuses), we are affecting the ability of America to govern, produce, and serve better.

I hope that America/press/world will one day recognize the virtue behind the statistical anomalies of women not working and stop shouting about repression and dominance. If nothing else, I hope that women know that stats and their interpretations are not always truth.


**I'd like to add a post script for the women who do work: you go, girl! Some women do have "best opportunities" elsewhere. I was raised by a working mother and she is a great mother and I wouldn't have chosen any other nor any other way to be raised (except the bit about working on Christmas and holidays). This is not meant to make you feel guilty that you are working, but rather an economic argument for those of us that aren't represented in "employment" statistics.