Cat Moving Forward w/ Emu & ADU Plans

Last month, Cat called an emu ranch near Olympia, Washington to ask to volunteer one day a month to get more hands-on experience. It was the same place she and I toured before that convinced me emu ranching may be a viable notion. They were very cool, and looked easier to handle and cheaper to feed and house and care for than either cattle or pigs.

Her day last month working with the emu ranch family went very well, and they’re paying Cat for her time in barter with some free meat and maybe some eggs or chicks (depending upon how long she does this thing, and she’s wanting to keep it up through the summer at least.) It definitely helped Cat to feel more capable of doing such work in the future.

The next things on the prep agenda are getting a partial survey of our land (the top half that’s more easily reachable) so we can make plans for both the mobile home extraction and installation and figuring out the line for the emu runs on the southwest area of the property.

Two years later than I wanted, I finally got Cat to go over the land use laws for our county regarding both ADUs (or Auxiliary Dwelling Unit) and SCMHs (Special Care Manufactured Home). The second is what we need to comply with for my sister’s needs. The only real hitch is that rural areas require that a special land permit be renewed every year (but this can be done online fairly easily.)

Other requirements include that the housing unit be no more than 900 square feet, within 150 feet of the main dwelling, with it’s own well and septic, and electrical hook up, and be painted to match the main dwelling on the property. Other than that, it’s pretty standard stuff and much of it is covered by where we have the old foundation and hook ups for the derelict mobile home that’s on the location now. It’s very doable.

I feel relieved that Cat is finally taking things seriously and moving past her incredible inertia. She seems to see what I see, but until I said there was urgency, she had not really pushed herself to move. I’m grateful to be listened to now more than ever.