Posted on 03/03/2018 5:50:14 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Johan Land has a life that stands out even among Silicon Valley’s tech elite: He’s the lead product manager at Waymo (formerly known as Google’s self-driving car project), a job that keeps him glued to computer screens and fixated on the future.
Excelling at his work, Land said, requires an obsessive focus on it. But maintaining that passion — especially with his fourth child on the way — means knowing when to detach. Land’s secret to success: relaxing with a glass of wine in the back yard alongside his wife, kids and the family’s 13 chickens and three sheep.
It’s mindless, he said, but far from banal.
“It’s a fascinating thing to sit and watch the animals because instead of looking at a screen, you’re looking at the life cycle,” Land said. “It’s very different from the abstract work that I do.”
In America’s rural and working-class areas, keeping chickens has long been a thrifty way to provide fresh eggs. In recent years, the practice has emerged as an unlikely badge of urban modishness. But in the Bay Area — where the nation’s preeminent local food movement overlaps with the nation’s tech elite — egg-laying chickens are now a trendy, eco-conscious humblebrag on par with driving a Tesla.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
LOL. My daughter in San Jose has three chickens.
Hey Rooster, looks like the promised land for you. :)
They give them away.
No, I am not kidding. I get a nice supply of soup chickens from people who don't know what to do with their laying hens when they stop laying.
I think they tell the kids I am taking them to a chicken retirement home.
Humans are so odd.
Well, I am a chick magnet.;-)
My chickens used to have a nice coop, a nice run as well, but I also allowed them free ranging of my back yard. I had a few dogs out there with them that protected them from predators. Never lost one to a predator. Got too many eggs to eat, back in the day. But now its trendy? ugh...
We sit on our deck and watch our 5 hens peck and scratch in the fenced area. Its entertaining and a stress reliever. But unless we are out with them they have to stay inside the coop or they would be gone in a week. The eggs are so much better than store bought.
That said, I do love chickens--and roosters particularly.
They are bright and loving and lovable.
I have been thinking of getting some layers and building a predator-safe pen in the back yard.
You are a lucky Georgia Girl.;-)
We got 4 that lay the blue eggs and then my best friend pawned one silky off on us that lays a tan bantam egg. We call her the enforcer as she bullies all the others. :-)
One word of free advice for anybody getting hens. Get them all at the same time. If you try to add new ones later its like WW11 for about a month. We went through it and never again. LOL!
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