The Chicken Drama Continues!

When I left you dear readers, we were in the midst of our chicken coop saga. I regret to inform you we still do not have a resolution, but I will go more in depth later on. Spring has sprung in North Carolina! This is the best season for this state, in my opinion! Everything blooms! Trees, bushes, flowers, shrubs….it is an allergist's worst nightmare! Ha!

The house Nikki and I bought in 2018 came with some amazing landscaping and flowers- there is something blooming year round! But our daffodils this year would make my Granddaddy Perkins proud! He loved his “jonquils” so much and took pride in the many he planted in his later years at his retirement home. Grammy and I go out and admire them each spring and it is like he is still with us.

I picked some jonquils and roses from our own garden and showed them off in some vases my gram gave me and from a local artist here in NC, @riverswirlmosaics. They bring me so much joy to see and smell them. It feels like we have gotten through the dark winter and onto longer days and warmer weather.

I finally got my Gram’s ring back from the jeweler resized because I have fat fingers. It is 75 years old ya’ll!

When we last talked, Nik and I were going away for our anniversary to an unknown location. I would like to say it was magical since it was our first real trip since Covid started but I was pretty upset about the drama with the chickens. I couldn’t let it go- it felt like the universe was taking away my joy. And I had just found out that three grants I applied for my research were denied. There was a lot of disappointment. That is not to say I did not have gratitude. I have found I can hold two opposing feelings (even though people say you can’t). I am so grateful for twelve long years with Nikki and the ability to travel because we were vaccinated and still had our jobs through the pandemic. But a girl gets to cry over chickens every now and again, am I right? 

Me at my friend’s house with her dog, Beast

Carol with Beast- trying to forget our troubles on this gorgeous day!

We came up with a compromise, because if you aren’t following along, Nikki never wanted the chickens to begin with and she certainly doesn’t want any drama to arise from them. Nikki said she was fighting for my honor and knocked on neighbor’s doors to find out who was behind the cowardly, anonymous letter. I couldn’t do it because I was having panic attacks from my PTSD from my lawsuit from several years ago. Ugh, not fun. She was also going talk to other neighbors with chickens to see if they had any backlash or anonymous threats.

Turns out those neighbors got chickens also as a pandemic hobby on their son’s 7th birthday. However, they had no threatening letters (their coop is in their side yard) and also thought the HOA covenant was null and void. They offered to be of assistance if we needed it. Nikki found out a neighbor directly across from us was one of the people who was behind the letter. He claimed he signed the “petition” with the lady next to him because he thought our coop would bring down the property value of his house, that it was unsightly and would bring vermin to the neighborhood, like foxes and snakes. This is coming from the guy who has his Christmas lights up year round and has these giant overgrown rose bushes in his front yard that look like a weedy mess except for one week out of the year when they are blooming in all their majesty.

Nina standing guard as Nikki bravely talks to neighbors.

When Nikki was coming back from the HOA lady’s house she caught the old biddy (ok, that’s not nice and my mom would be very disappointed in me), walking from her house to her car and she confronted us. Thankfully she owned up to the letter- but when Nikki asked why she didn’t just come to us, she came up with some excuse like it wouldn’t have change the outcome. She claims she has already put a complaint into the county (even though her letter clearly states we have 30 days to take it down and then they will go to the county. She said she had chickens as a child on a farm growing up and it wasn’t about the chickens but that we “live in a nice neighborhood”. I think that is code for white rich neighborhood and she said again if we put the coop in the backyard she would be fine.

We decided we would just move the darn thing and be over it. But another neighbor stopped me when I was on a run with Nina and asked how the chicken saga had gone. She said that when they moved into the neighborhood in the 1990’s, they looked into the HOA and it was not binding because no one enforces the rules. She said she would canvas the neighborhood for us. It is so nice knowing so many people are behind us. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that everyone hates the coop, but they don’t . I am working on believing my narrative and not to “let my edges get torn up” (as a wise friend told me)!

Now I am going to get some comfort food and enjoy my last two weeks of heavy travel for work before an entire week off!

I am going to leave you with the next installment of the letters. This was on Tif’s16th birthday- fun fact her birthday and my first and last boyfriend’s birthday are the exact date- February 16th, Aquarius babies. In this letter we are only friends and hanging out ALL the time! So cute we were!