My hubby grew up en "el rancho".....
He rode horses, cultivated the land, farmed. When he moved to the U.S. he lived in big cities. Conneticut, New York, Atlanta.
Fast forward many years later and we are together and in love. We decide to get married and buy a house. Mission accomplished.
The house we bought is in a suburb. Way away from the hustle and bustle of city life. One day while going through our "closing papers" we found a paper that outlined our property lines. We went outside and checked our yard. It was marked off with little flags. We were surprised at how far back our property went.
Armed with this new info, "The Mexican" started making plans.
"Let's plant a garden." ........and he has. Almost every year we have had a garden full of tomatoes, jalepenos, green and red bell peppers, watermelons, cilantro, beans, corn.
"I'm going to clear out more of this land." ............and he has. He has really cleaned it out back there. Chopped down trees that looked weak, gotten rid of a lot of the brush, etc...
"Let's build a huge compost container" ........ and he did. He researched for months about compost and how to build a compost thingy. Now when he needs dirt for the garden, he takes it from the compost bin.
Then one day he said,
"Let's buy a horse!"
Um, excuse me? Let's buy a what? Did you just say a horse?
Yes, mi mexicano wanted to buy a horse. He was ready to build a stable and move a horse in!.
His boss at the time owned horses. Sometimes he would ask my hubby to come to his ranch and break horses he was having a hard time with. (the mexican is extremely talented when it comes to horses) His boss wanted to give him a horse!
I did not like this idea.... AT ALL!
Imagine us coming home from work then having to take our horse for a gallop around the neighborhood.
I argued and argued on why this was not a good decision.
#1- the upkeep
#2- we both work, who would have time to clean up after a horse
#3- although there is no "home owner's association" in our neighborhood, I'm sure our neighbors would have something to say about us keeping a horse in our back yard.
#4- it wouldn't be fair to the horse to not be with other horses or around people for a large part of the day.
#5- surely city hall requires you to have some type of permit to keep a horse on your property.
Finally, mi mexicano started admitting I had made some valid points. Not wanting to completely give in (please refer to previous post Two Aries, Una Cama ) he asked me to call city hall and ask if we could indeed do this.
Me not wanting to look stupid, refused! The Mexican, wanting me to look stupid, insisted! Me wanting this whole little charade to be over, CALLED!
I'm sure I sounded like a complete idiot calling and asking if we were allowed to keep a horse on our property. I remember the lady asking if we were in "city limits," how big our property was, and if we lived in a residential area...
Long story short, the answer was no. Even if it was yes, I would have told my hubby She said "NO!"
Fast forward a year or so....
I go into my healthy eating phase.
After our "raw food" adventure I switched over to un-processed, organic, whole foods. I started buying cage-free eggs. They are kinda pricey!
Recently I asked "The Mexican"....
"so, you think we can own chickens and keep them in our back yard? It would be nice to have our own eggs."
My husband's eyes lit up! "You should call and ask!"
I haven't worked up the nerve yet........