Deer in Tooele

You may have seen the deer that hang out in the Elton Park area. They are beautiful and seem to grown in number every year.

They are becoming more aggressive in my garden. It used to be that they showed up occasionally, but if you want to see deer in the early morning hours of each day, I know the spot.

They'll be leaping over my back fence to nibble on my fruit trees and nip off the tops of my struggling tomato plants. Later in the year they will take a bite out of a tomato and then move on to the next juicy red fruit, leaving each remaining tomato inedible by the time I get to it. They've stripped the bottom half of my fruit trees this year.

I finally called the city. They won't do anything. Basically, if I don't want the deer in my yard I have to put up a ten foot fence (around half an acre) or find other means to keep them from eating up my food. Can you picture a ten foot fence across the front part of my yard?

Now here's the interesting thing.

How big is a goat compared to a deer? How much nuisance is a caged goat compared to a deer who can jump my fence? Whose job should it be to take care of these animals that now call our city their home? Why won't the city take responsibility for removing the deer when they required that I remove the goat?

I can't have milk. It's illegal. I can't have eggs. The dogs and raccoons slaughtered my chickens. I can't even have a garden. It belongs to the deer.

In other words, the deer have more rights than I do.

What can we do as citizens to claim our rights?

Changes to the Blog

Yes! It is still the same old me. But the blog looks different. My whole life has been undergoing changes, and its time that effected my online presence. SkinTastic Creations is no more. I really shut down that operation over two years ago and then thought I would use the blog to share information about soapmaking. But the little bit I've added to the blog has been about the goats. So I made it official and changed the title to the Tooele Goat Justice League.

The title of the league was chosen based on the efforts of another woman in Washington who granted permission about a year ago for us to use this variation of her name. See her story and more at http://www.goatjusticeleague.org/Home_Page.html. If Seattle can do it, surely Tooele can. But there are as many stories of denial in changing these ordinances as there are successes.

What will it take to get the attention of the City Council?

First we need people who are willing to work. I am only one person, and a very busy one at that (aren't we all). I get caught up with life and convince myself that its silly to be trying to legalize goats in Tooele. But then somebody asks about it. So I know you are interested. So many Tooele citizens are. Some because they want goats. Others because they own goats legally and understand that it is an issue that should be challenged. Yet other people just see the logistics of it even though they would never own a goat.

What are the comments I get?

Such a variation. But it is interesting how often goats are compared to dogs. I've done some interesting research about that. Maybe I will have to post it here.

I've made a goal to start posting every day. I'm not sure how else to create the energy needed to pull this off.

If you are interested in legalizing goats in Tooele, get involved in commenting. Let's figure out how to organized a group of people willing to make this happen. Post this to facebook, tell your friends about it, and help get the word out. I look forward to helping make this happen.

What are the concerns?

I survived the City Council's Open Forum. They were very nice to me and hopefully I really said what I think I said.

Now it is time to put together a new proposal. With that I am trying to dig up all the possible concerns anybody might have about goats being legal as pets. Basically I've been told that it would be hard to say that only properties larger than a certain amount can have goats. In both Seattle, Washington and Charlottesville, Virginia where they have made these kind of changes, they have clarified that the goats allowed were miniature goats. Pets, really.

So comment here and tell me what your concern would be whether you live in Tooele or somewhere else.

Goat Legislation

There have been so many changes in my soapmaking venture. I made a very wise decision to shut down the business a year and a half ago. I will always make soap because I love the process and the product. And perhaps I should be sharing bits of soap wisdom in this blog.

My hopes to change the laws concerning goats and bring Ms. Billy home were dashed to pieces about a year ago when I received a letter from the city saying they were not willing to consider changing the ordinance concerning goats. I was very discouraged by this. I shoved the letter into a binder and have ignored it for about a year. Except in those moments when I cry because I had to get rid of an animal I'd become very attached to. Except in those moments when I see dogs running the neighborhood and remember how the city believes that goats are more trouble than dogs. And especially...except in those moments when I worry about our economy and how people are going to continue to feed their families. And I wonder about a city dictating what citizens can do with their personal property because they don't want to have to deal with those who are not responsible in caring for their animals. I worry about this last one the most. If families are trying to work hard to become as self-reliant as possible, why stand in their way.

I'm taking it before the City Council tonight. I've had friends encourage me to do this. I've talked to people in other cities who are fighting similar battles. I'm tired of this eating at me. I need to express my thoughts to these public officials again. I'm looking for support. If you are close enough to show up at the meeting and want to come support this cause, the meeting is tonight, May 4 at 7:30 in the Tooele City Hall.

New Adventure Turned Sour: Part Two

What an adventure! New baby goats. We all fell in love with them immediately and named the babies Billy the Kid and Annie Oakley. They jumped right up into our laps when we went out and sat on the tire playground the children made. We spent hours playing with them. I never new when I got a goat that I could become so attached.
I was also thrilled to know I would have more milk than I knew what to do with. Unfortunately, the day after the babies were born a Courtesy Notice was delivered to our door, informing us that we were not zoned for goats. There had been some misunderstandings between the different departments of the city and as I looked into the ordinance, I found that in fact we were not zoned for goats, even with our half acre.
We were all devastated to lose the goats. But after many tears, we found a new home for Ms. Billy and began our new adventure. Goat legislation. I am in the process of putting together a proposal to change the Tooele City Ordinance concerning goats being kept in residential areas on properties with appropriate space. I've read ordinances from many other cities to learn how they have dealt with such issues. I've learned that cities like Seattle, Washington and Pasadena, California have made room for goats, adding restrictions appropriate to those areas. I'm thinking that if they made room, surely surely there is room on my half acre in Tooele. I've had some positive conversations with City Councilmen and the Mayor and hope to finish putting my proposal together and gather up the signatures for my petition soon.
We all miss Ms. Billy, but I did put some milk away in the freezer so we could start on the project of making goatmilk soap. I'll add another entry about that project soon. I've learned some interesting things about goatmilk, and am anxious to test out some product.

New Adventure Turned Sour: Part One

Meet Ms. Billy, my hope for goat milk soap. We adopted her about six months ago. She had been found running loose and was picked up by animal control. They couldn't keep her at the pound and was fostered by one of the officers that owns owns a property behind ours. I have wanted to make goat milk soap for years. I love the smooth creamy texture of soap made with goat milk. When I realized she was seeking a home for Ms. Billy I jumped on the chance.
The next challenge was getting milk, since Ms. Billy was all dried up. After spending about four months reading and learning and caring for Ms. Billy, she began producing milk one day. Being no goat expert I took her to the vet and started asking more questions in general, only to discover that Ms. Billy was prengant. Well, at least that's what I was pretty sure of. It wasn't until I walked out early one morning to find two babies that I was absolutely sure. That is when the adventure began. I was going to make goat milk soap.

Another Batch of Soap

We made "Cucumber" soap today. I love the shade of green this one turned out. It's always fun to see how it forms in the molds. Sometimes it pushes out the center a bit as it processes and other times it just bulges up in the middle.
Sandalwood Vanilla is the other soap we just made. It is curing in the cabinet. Can't wait to use it. I'll have to get some lotion made to go with it. The fragrance is to die for. I wish I could have taken a picture of my uncle's face when I let him smell it. He about went cross-eyed. That's when I knew we needed to introduce that fragrance for sure. Another few weeks and we'll have it available on our site.
Yeah!