Tag Archives: Willistown Township

have you checked out white horse farm in berwyn yet?

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White Horse Farm Photo

Real farms. Real farmers. Locally sourced. Heritage breeds.

A lot of us look for these things, and Chester county used to have lots of options. Today development is growing in farms are shrinking.

It’s tough going for farmers in a county once known for farms and agriculture. It’s very sad.

Then there are the people that want to make you believe their Emperor’s New Clothes and a couple years later they’re still empty every time you drive by, but I won’t mention them any further. This is a post about real farmers doing their thing, beautifully.

We recently discovered White Horse Farm quite by accident. Someone I know had shared on social media that she had gone to one of their open farm days for their farm stand. I remember when this farm was in a magazine article a few years ago. (See Philadelphia Magazine, 2018.)

So these are the new stewards of the land of this farm and it’s gorgeous. And they have cows, ask my friend who has a cow named Norman, and you will know I love cows. Actually, my husband will tell you I like farm animals in general. I will also admit that I talk to the chickens on a neighbors property. They are so happy and their laying songs are peaceful to me.

But you have so many things that go by on social media where you can supposedly buy great food raised well, sustainable practices, regenerative farming, and so on. White Horse Farm in Berwyn is actually doing this, and I think they deserve a lot of new customers and Chester County love.

Once again, I will stay for the record. I am not a compensated blogger, and I am writing this post after picking up my first order that we paid for from White Horse Farm. Now obviously we haven’t tried everything, but I can tell you I had their yogurt for breakfast this morning. Their yogurt is a thinner kind almost like Seven Stars and I think it makes a great drinking yogurt. We also have a gorgeous chicken, a small pork roast, ground pork, Italian and breakfast sausage.

White Horse Farm photo

So I thought I would write a little post about them, because it’s an all of our best interest that small farms like this survive and thrive. They not only have their own dairy stuff that they are doing, but they raise chickens and Berkshire pigs. they are a medium size pig, and I believe they were originally bred in England. They are a true heritage breed, and their meat is highly sought after for cooking if you’re a foodie. The meat from these pigs I have learned is known as the “Wagyu of pork.”

White Horse Farm Photo

All of these animals on this farm are humanely raised. Actually, I’d like to live on this farm. It’s so pretty. The pigs are able to forage in woods on the farm like nature intended, so they’re not just kept in a pen and fed pig kibble. (I’m not saying pigs get kibble, but you know what I mean.)

The chickens are pasture raised, which essentially is free range. I like their chickens because they’re not huge. The one I bought is about 3 pounds. Honestly, there are a few things as good as small batch raised chicken.

And if you join their club, you can order as you go, and you have access above the farm stand days.

Here is my actual receipt for my first order:

My receipt and notice I also signed up for a membership because this is kind of a membership farm. Yes they will be having farm stand days, but the benefits of a membership is you can order more to your individual needs.



It was simple enough to pay via Venmo, and you can also pay them with cash. I also like what they raise seems to be heritage breeds. It’s kind of like in my garden, I like planting heirloom things.

I know people like raw milk and they do sell that. I also noticed they have some goats. I don’t know what they’re doing with goats, but I remember my cousin Suzy was allergic to cow’s milk when she was little and they substituted goat milk.

Now another reason why I’m writing this post today other than I’m a very happy new customer is they are having a farm stand day from 9 AM to 12 noon this coming Saturday, July 19th. The address is 8 Barr Road Berwyn. This farm is located in Willistown Township.

I hope people patronize them this weekend and going forward. If you go to their farm this weekend, please respect that this is a working farm. That means leave your dogs at home, and make sure your children understand it’s a working farm not a petting zoo. I am not trying to be offensive to people, but I have friends who are farmers, and I have seen what I mentioned with my own eyes. It’s like when I cringe when I see people pull over the side of the road to randomly pet and feed other people’s horses.

Anyway, sign me very happy that I discovered another local farm thanks to someone. I know discovering this farm on a farm stand day.

Stay cool and thanks for stopping by.

that moment when the chair of the willistown planning commission is a salty “b” to easttown residents in an article about pickleball

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After fed-up neighbors file suit, Upper Main Line YMCA pauses pickleball, ‘explores options’

JUNE 5, 2025 / BY CAROLINE O’HALLORAN

The outdoor courts are padlocked but the racket over pickleball at the Upper Main Line Y (UMLY) is far from over.

After two years of back-and-forth with UMLY and Easttown officials that cut the hours of play but failed to quell the din to their satisfaction, neighbors decided to play hardball – they sued.

Standing firmly in their corner: local land-use attorney Phil Rosenzweig, who’s made a career out of crusades for the little guy.

Among his local skirmishes, Rosenzweig championed neighbors’ fights over stadium lights at Lower Merion High School, bulldozers at historic Oakwell in Villanova, and the development of Willistown’s Rockhill Farm. When he was a Lower Merion Commissioner, he wrote the resolution that banished the threat of eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore.

These days, he’s a field general in the pickleball wars. The UMLY lawsuit is his 12thpickleball action.

“I’m really charged up about this because it’s just not right,” Rosenzweig tells SAVVY. “Just because pickle is a hot sport, it doesn’t mean that should take precedence over the quality of life for residential neighbors. Businesses and governments are rushing to find spots to put this stuff. This is literally about whether people have the ability to live peacefully in their homes. Why should any taxpaying citizen be subject to conditions that make it impossible to live there? It’s just offensive.”….

On May 16, three weeks after papers were served, the Y closed its outdoor courts until further notice, sending players scrambling just as the season was heating up.

Among other charges, the suit alleges the Y’s 2022 conversion of clay tennis courts to 12 hard-surfaced pickleball courts was not “simply trading one racquet sport for another” but was a “substantive, massive change” that violated township zoning code and noise ordinances.

The suit claims homeowners’ have suffered “irreparable harm” – with their physical and mental health threatened, their daily lives disrupted, and their right to enjoy peace and quiet in their own homes and yards denied.

Also alleged: the township turned a blind eye to ongoing infractions and conspired with the Y to protect pickleball, “synching narratives” and encouraging the Y to have pickleball players speak at supervisors meetings.

…. “We had a wonderful caring community of pickleball players at the Y that the neighbors blew up with their mean-spirited lawsuit,” player Cathy Rubenstone tells SAVVY. “We are devastated that the Y closed the courts forcing us all to different venues to play.”

Goodness gracious. One would think the chair of another municipality’s planning commission would not be such a salty bitch to residents in a neighboring municipality. She certainly puts the pickle in pickle-puss. Isn’t she the one that used to say there would be no roosters in residential neighborhoods in Willistown?

Anyway read the whole article. It’s fabulous. Caroline O’Halloran did a great job and the pickle of it all is still very much happening in Easttown, complete with a full complement of pickle-pusses.

a life well lived in willistown : r.i.p. fred de long.

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I don’t know the family, I didn’t know this gentleman but these are the people who we should celebrate MORE in Chester County.

We need to celebrate our real farmers who just get out there and do their thing to make all of our lives better without glam shots on tractors they don’t own and expensive publicists.

People whom I know described Fred de Long as an amazing man who contributed so much.

Requiescat in pace Mr. de Long.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/paoli-pa/conrad-delong-12211535

OBITUARIES

Fred de Long, longtime director of the community farm program for the Willistown Conservation Trust, has died at 55

They lovingly called him Farmer Fred, and he turned Rushton Farm in Newtown Square into a national model of community supported agriculture.

by Gary Miles
Published Feb. 21, 2025, 3:34 p.m. ET

land next to a school is not a dumping ground

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This was directed my way yesterday with a message:

Dumped at some point today, on School Lane across from Sugartown Elementary playground fields.

Obviously some really crappy person or persons dumped their construction, and/or flipping house and/or clean out project, here on School Lane.

We’ve left a message with the Township and the Police Department.

I don’t know what’s wrong with people, but this isn’t something that would have fallen off a truck. It had weight to it, and it was placed according to the witness.

This is where people‘s kids go to school and even if it wasn’t, it’s not where it belongs, which is in a dumpster somewhere. That means somebody doing something was feeling cheap and just dumped the trash.

If you know who did this, or if for some reason, you know of a security camera that may have picked this up, or you saw it happening, please call Willistown police at (610) 647-5300.

This is completely shameful and unacceptable.

farmer bob goes to washington!

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#ChescoProud.

Almost fell off my chair.

Farmer Bob goes to Washington.

It was pretty cool to see Republican Chair of the Willistown Supervisors Bob Lange and his wife right there in Washington, DC. At the elipse.

I can’t imagine how that felt and wow to speak in front of all those people on a national, well truthfully global stage.

Damn Bob, you sure aren’t doing anything by halves.

Bravo.

Around the 12 minute mark

Farmer Bob goes to Washington.

And hey Republican Committee of Chester County you keep your village idiot collective. The real Republicans are sticking to Country over Party and y’all keep goose stepping, hear?

Last question, who will play the Langes on Saturday Night Live?

Ok people let’s git r’ done! So many people have put themselves on the line for this.

#VOTE

Around the 35 minute mark

let’s talk about bob…and move on, shall we?

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Last week people erupted into ridiculousness because Chair of the Willistown Supervisors and lifelong Republican Bob Lange, along with his wife, appeared in a commercial saying why they had made the personal choice and decision to vote for Kamala Harris.

The horrible things people have said are astounding in their ignorance. Some of the most amazingly ignorant comments have come from Willistown which isn’t a shocker.

It’s really simple: Bob Lange (and his wife) made a choice that he felt strongly about as an American. No one coerced him. Like everyone else I didn’t know about it until somebody slipped me the ad, and then I actually thought good for him for standing up for what he believes in —- if people cannot deal with a man who is an adult standing up for the courage of his convictions then they need to sit down and shut up basically.

And in Willistown they should be more concerned about what jerks some of them seem to be to the rational world. Yes I am talking about that article in Philadelphia Magazine.

Yes it’s time for a segue. You know I live for those.

And no, I didn’t know that article was coming out either, until it did. I will admit I was delighted and found it amusing that they referenced my blog and they’re welcome. However, they did get one thing wrong. I am actually the one who figured out where that nasty postcard for Wildflower Farm came from. As in where it was printed based on the postal permit on it- not who paid for it.

truly, you can’t make this stuff up: the truth is always stranger than fiction with the NOFIMBY neighbors of castlebar lane. nothing like a little pre-easter crucifixion between neighbors, right?

the wildflower farm tale continues: giving it the good old NOFIMBY college try in willistown

I wrote about Wildflower Farm back then because I felt like someone had to and the Heenans are the loveliest family.

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2024/09/27/wildflower-farm-willistown/

I was also amused at the magazine’s choice of tour guide, but hey she needs to be big woman on campus with a rooster, right? Of course, that whole rooster issue and Willistown is just ridiculous and eventually they’re going to have to deal with it. The bottom line there is roosters don’t belong in regular old residential non farm neighborhoods. There’s not enough space. But maybe they should start with getting a better zoning officer? They always seem to pick the wrong ones.

Willistown gets messy. I used to think West Vincent was messy, but Willistown gets world champion domination messy. Which, bringing this back around again to what is happening to Bob Lange now, is not a surprise. And they do like to crucify him on occasion in Willistown, like they did over the whole sewer sale of it all. I bet some anti-sewer sale folks from back then are busy sucking up now, right?

Ok so yes, he’s going to vote for a Democrat, because the Republican Party is so polluted that even life-long actual Republicans, as in the party of Lincoln, can’t just say “We’ll just vote for Trump.”

What is at stake here is huge and Trump has not actually really done anything for anyone. The only one Trump is interested in is himself because he has a malignant narcissist and he has shown people since he emerged on the scene in the 70s that this is who and what he was. Nothing has ever changed about Donald Trump.

The Republican party is currently cochaired by his twat waffle daughter-in-law, so does that give you an idea of how far the party has fallen?

New Harris ad campaign will feature radio and digital spots aimed at Pa. rural and GOP voters

Do you think it was easy for Bob Lange or his wife to make this decision let alone make it public? But make the decision they did based on what was best for them.

Even Barry Dee who is Republican agreed with me on Friday on WCHE that no matter for whom people choose it is their right as an American and that is the beginning and end of the conversation except for one last word: Bob is from the socioeconomic playground that you would think wanted Donald Trump, but more and more of them do not. What goes on in Willistown of course is a completely different story because nobody knows how to behave most of the time anymore anyway.

BREAKING: hear that chester county republican committee? that’s gop hell freezing over

If Bob Lange is not voting for Trump, maybe people around here might want to think about that. I was a lifelong Republican myself until 2016 when Trump became the nominee. And when he became the nominee, I realized as a woman with a brain, I could no longer be a Republican.

chester county farmer being targeted on social media by political extremists

Actually, when I was on WCHE with Barry Dee on Friday and I ended my segment with a simple thought: I believe it is incumbent upon the leaders of the Democrats in Chester County and the Republicans to step forward and tell people to put an end to this nonsense of harassing and bullying people over who they are choosing to vote for. We all know they won’t have the balls to do that though.

People have a right to vote for whomever they are comfortable with. It’s personal choice, not lock step like a dictator told you to.

‘Farmer Bob’ Lange, Willistown Republican Supervisor and Sugartown Strawberries owner, agreed to appear in pro-Harris commercials. He’s been paying for it ever since.

I will also note that Barry Dee on Friday told the story of a Republican business owner in West Vincent who put a Trump sign up at his business, and he started getting harassed and threatened by Democrats. So freaks exist on both sides and everyone needs to STOP letting the freaks speak for ANY of us.

Also for the record, I’m not and never will be in Bob Lange’s inner circle. But I have a brain, so this isn’t so hard to figure out. Move on, people.

Part of our inalienable rights is not only the first amendment right to our opinion like this blog post. For example, we are also entitled to vote for whom we feel most comfortable voting for.

If we are currently living in a world, where people can’t safely express for whom they choose to cast their vote for, then how can we say this is the United States of America in the first place? Chew on that for a while.

Just vote like Ruth sent you and it will be good. Kidding, but it is the truth.

live from willistown, it’s the rumor mill!

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Faster than the Pony Express! Faster than a speeding car down Warren Avenue, it’s time for the Sunday morning rumor mill in Willistown.

At 5:30 AM this morning, yes on a Sunday no less, the neighbors of Laurel Circle were awakened from their weekend slumber by a noisy rooster and kind of like nails on a chalkboard with deep ridges at this point, right?

So the rumor around Willistown this morning is the subsequent and lovely generosity of the two cool farming and agricultural supervisors.

The rumor is that they will adopt the notorious and extremely loud rooster to give a residential neighborhood a break and isn’t that fabulous? After all they have the acreage right? And farms where farm animals belong?

Aren’t they just awesome for their generosity of spirit? Maybe they will adopt not just the rooster but the bakers dozen or whatever of goats including unneutered billy goats, a manure pile, big ass rats, etc?

But alas… that is just a rumor and if you believed this deliberately sarcastic post, consider yourself punked. Sadly they seem to be rooster blind in Willistown or don’t want to deal with rooster mommy do they? It’s like they can’t see it is a residential neighborhood WITH NO ACTUAL FARMS IN THEM, right?

But Willistown PD did come out and the rooster mommy was given a new warning, wasn’t she? That much is not a rumor is it? (The rooster truth shall set you free or something like that and all, right?)

Sign me keeping it real with roosters for two years. And that street? Always has the messed up crazy stuff doesn’t it?

Willistown could fix this, but they choose not to.

No it’s not a garage sale.

All the white noise machines in the world won’t fix this problem but zoning corrections would, but hey Willistown always gets hoisted by their own petard by their zoning hiccups, right?

Happy Sunday and cock a doodle do.

spelling is key…on township signs

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I figured everybody could use a giggle. I’m sorry if it’s at Willistown‘s expense but it is pretty funny.

You will note with this sign that, although people in Willistown know how to spell the word rooster at the township, they don’t know how to spell recycling.

It’s not RECYCLEING!

That gets a FFS dear old Willistown. But hey, it’s a busy time.

But there are things that Willistown needs to do in order to come up with the times.

Like take for example, whatever the work is being done in the boardroom and right now meetings are being held elsewhere off site, and no meetings are being recorded. That is not sunshine friendly. They could have someone recording the meetings and uploading them free to a YouTube channel but instead, Willistown wants to revert to form and make people think they have something to hide.

Please note, I am not specifically saying they are hiding anything, but I am saying they are taking full advantage of not having to record meetings.

Now we’re going to go back to ordinances that haven’t happened and zoning where the cuffs don’t ever match the collar so to speak.

One of the biggest flaws that Willistown has other than the sewer rats, who are incredibly rude at meetings, is the fact that they leave themselves as a township wide open to so many things, because there are problems with their zoning. If zoning doesn’t align with the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania it can and will get overturned if challenged.

Or take for example, if there is no ordinance for something like noisy roosters in 100% residential neighborhoods. Even if a judge said in the past that someone shouldn’t get another rooster, it doesn’t really matter a hill of stinky goat manure, because the zoning and ordinances, in Willistown say nothing.

If you go to one Willistown neighborhood, there are a lot of unhappy neighbors who avoid one neighbor in particular. And that neighbor has who knows how many goats at this point, two donkeys that should NOT be grandfathered to anything, countless chickens, and a rooster as loud and obnoxious as their owner. And an absolutely beauteous manure pile. It’s Fred Sanford designing for the Clampetts. Basically it’s like farm animal hoarding. And yes, that is an opinion, and it is allowed under the first amendment.

Willistown is a beautiful township, but there are neighborhoods that are definitely agricultural-centric and others more residential-centric. Please note flower farms and great agricultural uses like actually growing beautiful crops are so amazing to see. And I love those belted cows, AKA Belted Galloways, and the horses. And I really like goats, but not when they are jammed up in a small space in a residential neighborhood. They aren’t living their best lives and that is grossly unfair.

But all of these things actually occur on farms NOT on residential streets that are all residential houses under 3 acres, in most cases 2 acres. And a conglomeration of shoddy sheds does not a barn make.

Willistown’s zoning guy knows all this. Yet…problems persist. And not just with the eternal circle jerk of roosters. As a matter of fact, one of Willistown‘s greatest flaws is they never quite have really good zoning people. You have seen this historically over the years.

There are two supervisors, whom I think are very nice gentleman. I actually really liked both of them, but I do think (and I say this with respect), that they do need to deal with things like the rooster of it all. And ensuring that meetings are recorded, even when offsite from the township building.

And then there is this whole growing thing about sidewalks again. Willistown has a lot of roads that are not made for sidewalks, and I know there are people who are going to disagree with me and I don’t really give a damn. For example, sidewalks on Sugartown Road and some of the windy and hilly roads like Providence Road are pretty much the dumbest places in the world for sidewalks. And to put sidewalks in front of active farms presents a unique set of liabilities that these farms have to deal with, and I don’t think that’s fair.

And as we have all seen in East Goshen, sidewalk conversations can and have led to eminent domain attempts. Eminent domain does not breed a sense of community. It only breeds a sense of divisiveness.

The other thing about sidewalks that proponents of sidewalks don’t get in Willistown is that once the sidewalks are put in place, the property owner, who has the sidewalk on their property becomes responsible. There is nothing that will change that it’s the basic law of the land. You might be able to dig up grants to put sidewalks in, but once they are in, maintenance on other people and it’s not the municipality unless the sidewalks are in front of the municipal building or police station or fire house.

However, in the meantime, we’ll start with correct spelling on the township sign 🤣

it’s face palm season in willistown (again)

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Honestly….you just can’t make this stuff up if you tried. The latest tempest in a misplaced sense of entitlement teapot in Willistown Township, Chester County is because the township is essentially calling for resident decorum at township meetings. Basic Roberts Rules of Order, truthfully.

So it’s in the upcoming agenda:

https://www.willistown.pa.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01222024-280

Here is the resolution:

Shock and horrors, the overly entitled meeting savages are being told that people have to act like grown-ups. You would think someone was being put in a pillory wearing a scarlet letter. It’s hysterical.

“We are not most places.” That, dear readers, sums it all up. Utter misplaced sense of entitlement and we are all peasants by comparison.

So now we know the natives are restless once again in Willistown Township.

I had to laugh when I started to read this commentary above because this is kind of the way a lot of municipalities operate. And the reason this is happening in Willistown is because sometimes the residents are so incredibly rude when they are speaking.

I completely understand being passionate about something, but you have these people in Willistown that literally monopolize the meetings and have misplaced sense of entitlement.

And in the same vein, they are horribly rude to the manager and other staff at the meeting as well as the supervisors.

Now, I totally get being terse addressing elected officials as some of them can just make you crazy, but they take it to a whole new level.

And some of the former main sewer rats, whom you thought would sort of calm down after the sewer sale was yanked, still monopolize every meeting and they don’t just speak once or twice they go on and on, and on a lot of the time. They interrupt, they interject, they act like they run that township, and they do not. Whatever points they’re trying to make get lost in translation every meeting and if you’re watching the meeting you just sit there thinking it would be more fun sticking needles in your eye.

At some point towards the end of 2023 they were incredibly vile to the new township manager. I forget which meeting it was, but it was on a recording and it was just terrible so this is a Roberts Rules of Order they reap what they sow.

I will tell you what bothers me honestly is the fact that Willistown is in temporary meeting spaces for I don’t know what reason – I guess they’re having work done on the township building – and they’re not going to be recording meetings or offering Zoom. I find that in particular a problem and truly anti-sunshine, because there is so much technology out there today that they could indeed at least record the meeting and put it up on YouTube or something. Especially because they are in schools and most schools have recording equipment right?

Let them eat cake….in Willistown. Ta-ra for now.

rooster crowing issue continues in willistown

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RoosterGate discussion is back. On June 8th, I wrote about the irascible, irritable rooster, waking everyone up in a neighborhood any time from 4 AM forward, usually around 5 AM in Willistown. I will note I am not making this my raison d être, but I am following up.

Well shockingly, it’s now 11 days later and after all the grief I took and the crap I took via comments and private messages, etc. about I was being mean and bullying the person who owned the rooster, which, of course is completely ludicrous as I’m expressing my opinion, but hey whatever have another cocktail. (And yes, holy run on sentence Batman!) And anyway, anyway, would you believe that the owner of said rooster has not done anything to remedy the issue?

Call me crazy but instead of sending people to chastise and harangue me for writing about said rooster, wouldn’t you try to do something so it wasn’t waking your neighbors up every day?

conundrum anyone?

Yup. Rooster still free crowing and waking up neighbors. I guess this person with the rooster really needs attention or something right?

So now we get to see if Willistown is going to be an ostrich again over this issue and for how long. I say bring the popcorn.

Now amusingly enough in 2017, a woman for Michigan on Facebook offered to give away her rooster because it was that loud and obnoxious. See screenshots below ⬇️

And by the way, just so rooster owner fans are clear, I have an opinion on this. And that’s why I wrote about it. And I think it’s being a crappy neighbor to do this to people. I don’t have a thing against chickens, goats, or donkeys, other than I will say, billy goats and donkeys smell.

I will say I don’t particularly like roosters. And I’ve seen people do things like dump a bunch of roosters in front of my friend’s barn door years ago and make it their problem to rehome them. They were absolutely gorgeous birds, but they didn’t belong at my friend’s farm.

I have another friend who adopted a rooster with a broken beak, found wandering the streets of a not so nice section of Philadelphia, whom I suspect was either a bait bird or somebody trying to make it a fighting bird. I think that showed great compassion, but sad friend knows how to keep a rooster and has enough land to keep a rooster. And this bird was pretty traumatized, so I don’t even know if it knows how to crow.

And I just think in Willistown it goes back to it’s really rude and inconsiderate to not try to deal with this especially when you now know that your neighbors are upset. The rooster owner isn’t getting woken up just the neighbors. I think if the rooster owner was getting woken up, there wouldn’t be a rooster there. But is there actually zoning to be a rooster there in the first place and of course that’s also a moving target because it’s Willistown.

One inconsiderate rooster owner can cause issues for every single person who want to keep chickens in a municipality. And I think that is wrong. I was thinking about that this morning as I was working in part of my garden where I could hear the laying songs of the hens that my neighbors through the woods keep. Whenever I hear the hens singing their laying songs it’s a very comforting sound because they’re so happy.

Here’s hoping said rooster owner figures it out. Cock-a-doodle-do y’all.