Neighbors, City vs Country

[BobBoyce]

Silly citified neighbor was talking yesterday about wanting to push to get this area rezoned residential. Like me and the others farms around me are gonna let that happen. :haha:

He's cut down and burned all the trees on his tiny little lot, which is barely big enough for his doublewide. Really, it looks like some place in the "burbs" complete with manicured lawn and flower beds. It sure looks outta place amongst the rural homesteads and farms of our area. :no:

His favorite gripe is about how he hates junk cars and trucks littering the farms and homesteads around the county. He's always complaining to the county to try to get them to enact some sort of rule or ordinance. I find it amusing, so out of the 13 vehicles I have, I try to keep at least 2 or 3 of the worst looking ones parked in my grass field down by the road where he has to see them every day. I rotate them around from time to time to give him some variety, wouldn't want him to get too bored. I just tell him they are "classics" and "antiques" waiting to be restored some day. Before he used to gripe so much, I kept them all parked out back with the rest of the farm vehicles, out of sight. :haha:

His next favorite gripe is about how cold it is and how he should move back to Florida. If he thinks this is cold, just wait until we have some REAL winter weather here.

I guess it just doesn't make sense to me, why does someone like this move to the country, then try so hard to turn the countryside around them to city?

Bob

[Jenn]

The stupid thing is to move somewhere you don't like the rules of. I know if he's a double wide on a small lot guy he may be a bit financially challenged but he could've bought elsewhere with the rules he wants now already in place. My last farmette we carefully ensured we could keep every sort of livestock we wanted or might want later and put it in the deed. Unluckier friends of ours- who keep noisy dogs, plenty of horses, and have as much acreage as we did- had to buy eggs from us because their neighborhood forbids CHICKENS!

Just watch out if he does try to change things- this govt forcible takeover of land always works best for the people who are cozy with the politicians- look at the prez' prior confiscation of Houston land to make a profitable baseball stadium or whatever. Our friends moved from the small place they sold us and then a few years later the road straightening initiative was announced to be slated to divide their 30 acres in two parts. Wouldn't happen if they had made regular campaighn contributions.

[Quint]

If there is one thing that annoys the ever living excrement out of me it is the d*mned city people who move into the country and then try to tell those around them what's what. The fled their urban blight and they do their damnedest to turn their new surroundings into the ones they just left. GRRRRRRRR.

Oh and they hate everything about their new place. The farmers spray chemicals and drive their equipment on the roads. The roads aren't paved. The sound of gunfire scares them. The livestock smell. The roosters crow in the mornings. Their neighbors are all ignorant rednecks. The farmers run their equipment 24/7 at harvest time. Cows moo too loud and early. The list of complaints go on and on from these miserable nitwits.

Another type I can't stand are the ones who get kicked out of town for loud parties, domestic fighting, wild kids, too many junk cars up on blocks or whatever. They almost always drag a rotting trailer onto a half acre lot they managed to weasel out of a relative or real estate agent. They then proceed to run the sewer into the ditch and begin collecting every sort of trash possible on their front lawn. They always have some godawful bunch of rott mixes that they let run loose. The sticky fingered wretches wander up to your place looking for sweet "fido" as you are unloading yet another bag of lime. You just smile and reply that you haven't seen him. Stuff starts coming up missing around your place and any attempt at securing your property is met with vandalism. Somewhere along the line there will be a big domestic disturbance at the home and the cops are there 2 or 3 times a week. One of them moves out and the remaining one begins dragging partner after partner home until they find one who can support them and appropriately satisfy their well used and multi-diseased nether regions. About this time you start smelling ether on the wind and all of the surrounding farmers are getting anhydrous stolen. A few more months of escalating mayhem at the dump culminates with a combined drug task force and DHS raid on the place. Offenders are dragged out of the trailer one by one. At least one of the males will be sure to be shirtless. One of the females is bound to be missing teeth, dressed in dirty sweats and covered in "meth sores". Filthy toddlers in dirty diapers suck on pacifiers and wander dazed around the scene until carted off by DHS.

If the gods smile on you one of the more audacious members of the community kindly arranges for a fire of unknown origin to burn the trailer to the ground. Volunteer FD just doesn't make it in time to save it since none of the neighbors around bother to call the FD. When the FD arrives the structure is fully involved and it burns to the frame. If you are lucky it just stays as a burned out eyesore and the owners go to jail or move back to town. If you are unlucky one of them gets out of jail and manages to drag another rotting trailer onto the property and the whole adventure begins again.


Just one of the hazards of living in the sticks. Also a very good case for a buffer zone around your home. Can't have too much land between you and any potential neighbors.

[nwilder]

Had to put my two cents in. We live in a double wide and it is not at all like the ones you are talking about. Our house is nice inside and out. Just because someone lives in a trailer, does not make them trash. Not all of them anyway! We too have city neighbors. We have one acre as do they. Right next to ours. I personally do not like these people, but they have provided hours of entertainment. Like when he planted all his grass seed at 10:30p.m. and then wondered why his grass was sporadic. When asked why he planted it so late- his response---I didn't want the birds to see me planting it. DUH. No matter what a person lives in, it can be taken care of. There are plenty of trailer trash, as well as farm trash around here. One more neighbor story, he pulled all of the vapor barrier out from under his house cause he didn't like the plastic under there. Now he wonders why his house is damp and smells moldy! Or the time he borrowed our drill to hang gutters. He was out there a cussin and carryin on, my 11 year old son went over, he told my son the drill was junk, it wouldn't screw in the screws. My son told him to take it out of reverse and put it in forward. HAHA! His wife can't stand the smell of wood smoke. We put in an outdoor wood furnace this summer. Guess where the smoke blows?!!!!!

[comfortablynumb]

dont laugh to hard....
they got an ordinance passed here, no unplated cars on your property...or a fine comes in the mail.

I put for sale signs on any part piles I drive in... it technicly isnt a "junk"...
doncha love loopholes?

[mtman]

if the car wont run i would rather brig them to the junk yard and put a few dollors in my pocket

[big rockpile]

We had a Family move in,bought this farm going to raise Horses,they bought a local Store,built a New House.Well the Horses have taken care of the grass and fence.They Logged it all,now he is selling Real Estate.Their just finding it hard to make a living.

They did have a road closed down,seems they sued the Goverment over it and won.Bad thing is now I have to drive long ways around to get over where I like going.

Got some people from the city that have a Cabin back here,cooking Meth,running their ATV's in the spring.

But the worst I seen was a bunch of Guys that moved in on public property,some reason they couldn't be moved off there.But anyway they was poaching,stealing.They would leave Deer hanging all Winter,by Spring they looked pretty gross.I got on to one of them I was told by another neighbor that I was crazy,them Guys would kill me and rape my wife that they were just trouble.One of them got sent to Prison for Arson,then the rest moved out.

big rockpile

[Jan Doling]

BobBoyce:

Please make him welcome.....we don't want him back in Florida!

[ravenstark]

Originally Posted by BobBoyce

Silly citified neighbor was talking yesterday about wanting to push to get this area rezoned residential. Like me and the others farms around me are gonna let that happen. :haha:

I once had a neighbor like that. It was funny because the guy was afraid of everything, carried two revolvers to fend off the opossums and raccoons. He cut the tops off of all his 200+ year old oaks so his yard seemed to be full of 10 foot tall celery stalks. He built his house on stilts like they do at beaches and put a balcony all the way around it from which he'd watch our every move. He'd also bark orders at us from his perch which was doubly annoying because he didn't know what he was talking about. To top it off, he was really obnoxious and usually drunk but always wanted to talk over the fence when not yelling from his balcony.

Another neighbor and friend of the guy above, built his fence across our driveway. The driveway had been there for at least 40 years and showed up on all our property surveys as our land. However, when my father told the cops he was going to remove the fence, the cops told him they'd have to arrest my father if he did. The guy knew all the local politicians so when all this went to court, the guy was able to use his "do it yourself" land surveys as evidence to trump our 3 or 4 independant surveys. The court ordered us to buy a swath of land from the 1st jerk, friend of the 2nd jerk. The same man also almost shot me when I was a kid trying to catch my dog, which had run on to his property. I was only 10 at the time and at least 3 shots hit within two feet of my feet.

So far, this new place has been great because no one gives a flying duck what we do here or how the place looks. We return that attitude. I think if everyone in the world did that, there would finally be peace on earth.

Unfortunately, the city is sprawling toward us. We've left a wide border of trees and brush around us, and planted bushes and trees in the gaps. Still, it is only a matter of time before the nitwits get here and complain about the pigs, cows, and chickens.

Originally Posted by BobBoyce

His next favorite gripe is about how cold it is and how he should move back to Florida. If he thinks this is cold, just wait until we have some REAL winter weather here.

I guess it just doesn't make sense to me, why does someone like this move to the country, then try so hard to turn the countryside around them to city?

Please don't send him back to Florida, we have enough of his sort as it is.

City people move to the country because they sense they'll be more free. However, since they've never really lived free, they don't realize that it goes both ways, nor that freedom requires a good deal of personal responsibility.

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by Jenn

The stupid thing is to move somewhere you don't like the rules of. I know if he's a double wide on a small lot guy he may be a bit financially challenged but he could've bought elsewhere with the rules he wants now already in place.

One thing I had a chuckle over was he was so proud of the repo doublewide he bought for pennies on the dollar down in Florida and had hauled up here. It was built for a south Florida climate and has the wrong type of vapor barrior and insulation for this climate. He's not as much financially challenged as he is ignorant. He tries doing everything on the cheap and it invariably ends up backfiring on him. He bought a used gas insert for his fireplace after he burned all of his trees, now he can't get it hooked up because the gas company told him they won't accept the liability to connect a used gas appliance. :haha:

Originally Posted by Quint

Another type I can't stand are the ones who get kicked out of town for loud parties, domestic fighting, wild kids, too many junk cars up on blocks or whatever. They almost always drag a rotting trailer onto a half acre lot they managed to weasel out of a relative or real estate agent. They then proceed to run the sewer into the ditch and begin collecting every sort of trash possible on their front lawn. They always have some godawful bunch of rott mixes that they let run loose. The sticky fingered wretches wander up to your place looking for sweet "fido" as you are unloading yet another bag of lime. You just smile and reply that you haven't seen him. Stuff starts coming up missing around your place and any attempt at securing your property is met with vandalism. Somewhere along the line there will be a big domestic disturbance at the home and the cops are there 2 or 3 times a week. One of them moves out and the remaining one begins dragging partner after partner home until they find one who can support them and appropriately satisfy their well used and multi-diseased nether regions. Filthy toddlers in dirty diapers suck on pacifiers and wander dazed around the scene until carted off by DHS.

We had one of those not far from here until the law finally ran them out of state. :worship:

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

dont laugh to hard....
they got an ordinance passed here, no unplated cars on your property...or a fine comes in the mail.

I put for sale signs on any part piles I drive in... it technicly isnt a "junk"...
doncha love loopholes?

They have a similar rule in the city, but not in the county. Pretty much anything goes out here in AG zoning. The only rule here is for state taxes. Any vehicle not tagged must be reported for tax purposes. Out of state titled/tagged vehicles are exempt. Locally titled/tagged vehicles are already taxed, so they are exempt. If a vehicle is junk however, it has no bluebook value, so there is nothing to tax. :no:

He reported my old RV as a violation, but it's converted into a henhouse and up on blocks, so it's no longer a vehicle, it's an agricultural structure, therefore exempt. He however had one parked on his property that was untagged that he used for family to stay in when they visited, and he was fined. They also nailed him for a shed and a deck that were oversized and built without permits. If he had built these things for agricultural purposes, he would have been exempt.

Originally Posted by mtman

if the car wont run i would rather brig them to the junk yard and put a few dollors in my pocket

I tend to agree, however, these vehicles run and drive except for one, a school bus without engine or transmission that I had towed in to use for dry storage. It's parked out back out of sight. Anything that I don't use much, I like to keep parked out back, but with all of his whining I just couldn't resist. I stuck for sale signs under the wipers last year just to make it look like I was selling them. It worked, sold one, a nice 1992 saturn SL2 a few weeks ago.

Originally Posted by Jan Doling

Please make him welcome.....we don't want him back in Florida!

We don't want him here either. He still has a house down there just a little northeast of where you are. He started living up here full time less than a year ago. Maybe this winter will change his mind about staying.

Originally Posted by ravenstark

I once had a neighbor like that. It was funny because the guy was afraid of everything, carried two revolvers to fend off the opossums and raccoons.

Sounds like this guy, carries a pistol in his pocket all the time because he's so afraid the locals are gonna do something to him because of all the trouble he's stirring.

Originally Posted by ravenstark

Still, it is only a matter of time before the nitwits get here and complain about the pigs, cows, and chickens.

I know exactly what you mean, this is the 3rd farm I've started because of that very reason, and I'm not going to move again.

Originally Posted by ravenstark

Please don't send him back to Florida, we have enough of his sort as it is.

I know, I moved from there myself to escape his kind. As you may have guessed, he's not a native Floridian. He's originally from MA and is used to strict residential rules and zoning restrictions.

Originally Posted by ravenstark

City people move to the country because they sense they'll be more free. However, since they've never really lived free, they don't realize that it goes both ways, nor that freedom requires a good deal of personal responsibility.

Very well put!

Bob

[Countrymama]

Neighbors like this are exactly the reason we moved to the country. Our neighbors are close enough if we need them in an emergency situation but respect our privacy as we respect theirs. Hopefully, given time maybe he will adapt and get to love his new home, it takes all types. :haha:

[Cosmic]

Get used to it.

The first things to go are the blacksmith shop and home foundry.

Then the woodpiles.

Then the smoke from anything.

Then your spare tires.

Then your spare metal parts bins.

Then your sand piles.

Then your stone piles.

Then your construction used lumber piles for the next shed.

Then your spare fridge behind the shed.

Then your recycle metals pile being saved for retirement cash.

Then your piles of anything. Especially compost, grass or brush piles.

Then your anything with tarps thrown over it.

Then your right to jack up the car / truck.

Then your right to even put up the hood on the car / truck.

Then your right to park behind your house.

Letting the dog off the leash in the back yard.

Then anything outside the house not part of the house.

The last thing to go is you.

[Laura]

I've been running most my life from people like that until landing where I am at. Our neighborhood is zoned industrial/agricultural/residential and is protected from being further subdivided and there is nothing smaller than 5 acres. I can do anything I want as long as it doesn't contaminate the well. My neighbors can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't contaminate the well. We have everything from park-like estates to small mills to orginal homesteads to mobile squatter shacks.

The nearest WalMart is 75 miles away in one direction and 120 miles away in the other. We have awesome natural barriers that keep this blight from reaching our region. We have a climate and economy that runs all but the toughest birds back to the cities. Neighborly interdependence is a must for survival. We're all friendly country folk, but an idiot who gets himself ostracized by wanting it to be like in the city always moves back to where he fits.

I have faith that we have a good 25 years before anything changes much.

[jassytoo]

Glad you are in a place where you can still laugh about it. It started that way here, now those people have taken over. We've been rezoned at least twice so now instead of forest land around us, its two and a half acre lots. Big homes and big bucks. All the old timers have either left or are busy chopping up their land to cash in. More and more rules and regulations all the time. We loved this place, we brought up our kids here, but now we can't wait until we can retire and move.

[AnnaS]

There's a few counties in OH, MI and MN that hand out brochures to city folks looking at moving to a rural area. These explain things like,"tractors are loud and slow" and "harvest is not a 9-5 activity".
And they all include a scratch and sniff sticker with the scent of cowflop. :haha:

[Quint]

Originally Posted by nwilder

Had to put my two cents in. We live in a double wide and it is not at all like the ones you are talking about. Our house is nice inside and out. Just because someone lives in a trailer, does not make them trash. Not all of them anyway!

I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention. I have no problem with trailers in general. The unkempt rotting ones that trash seem to love to crawl into are the ones I despise. Not a thing wrong with a nice well maintained trailer.

I know all sorts of folks that live in trailers and quite frankly I'd rather associate with them than the occupants of the McMansions a few miles down the road from them.

Originally Posted by nwilder

His wife can't stand the smell of wood smoke. We put in an outdoor wood furnace this summer. Guess where the smoke blows?!!!!!

Oh yeah. Gotta love the ones who whine and complain about smoke from your fireplace or god forbid burning leaves.

Funny story. Sorta reminds me of a woman I knew who would go apoplectic if she detected the faintest scent of cigarette smoke. It was truly comical to watch her exaggerated over the top dramatics that she would go into. She always had a trendy disease or allergy. Went around the office with an honest to god respirator on for a few months. This was supposedly due to the toxins coming from something in the office. The copier or some such nonsense. Also would wear it during fall because folks in town burned their leaves. Had to be one of THE most annoying people I have ever worked with. The district manager, an ex-Marine Gunnery Sargent, walked in on this drama one day and threw an absolute fit. Ever seen the DI in Full Metal Jacket? He made that guy seem tame that day. Berated the poor woman so bad she ran sobbing to the bathroom and refused to come back out. I was in tears by the end it was so funny. Government work. Ahhh good times.

There is a really sad part to the story. I really felt bad for her poor son. I honestly did. She had him imagining about as many ailments as she had. Also she HATED males and anything connected to maleness. She more or less was raising this little boy as a girl. Pretty tragic. I managed to take him on a fishing and camping trip once with a dad from the office and his kids. You could see the little boy actually turning back into a little boy by the end of the trip. Went from being an effeminate Nancy-boy afraid of his own shadow to a actual rambunctious boy who loved gutting fish, shooting guns and rolling around in the filth with the rest of his peers. Mom didn't like the changes and forbid any more outings with us guys.

[travlnusa]

In our area, we had a man from the "city" come out and buy 10 acres and build a beautiful home, huge garage, and horse barn. When harvest started that fall he started complaining about all the noise and "traffic". After harvest started and manure was being spread from the holding tanks he tried to get the local courts to end it due to the smell. He lost

How did he get his money for land and home to move out and yell about the smell? He owns the garbage truck company in the city he moved out of.

[Jena]

If your area is suffereing from growth, best to be proactive about it. You can't totally stop it from happening, but there are ways to lessen the impact. Form a committee, hound the county board, etc.

The area where I used to live in the desert of CA now looks just like LA. Granted I thought it was really rural when I moved there, but in actuality it was a suburb in the making. Acre lots are too small to really be rural, but if you fight, sometimes you can at least keep it that size instead of smaller.

A single trouble maker here caused one very small town to have to pass all kinds of ordinances for things like burning trash. Apparently some of these things are legislated by federal law, even though they are ignored here. One letter to the EPA put an end to trash burning. The town council didn't like it, but they had no choice.

I have a subsidvision next door to my farm. I try very hard to be a good neighbor, but those folks, one in particular is very afraid that I will fence my back field and put cows on it. I plan too, just havne't gotten around to it yet. I don't know how bad he'll scream about it, but I'll probably try to work with him to find something that he can live with. Better to work with him than to get him all in an uproar and start calling the EPA and stuff.

Jena

[wildwanderer]

I moved in on a place called 6 month hill. All the land is divided up and sold for term so it usually takes about six months for someone to fall behind in their payment and loose their place. The land is cheap and no credit check so I can understand. Well our neighbors are amazing at taking what the can without stealing. They had a hose run from our well because hauling the water less then 1/4 mile was to much. Then they bought a washing machine. The pump ran for six hours when dad finally went out you could hear the machine going. We had to unhook them and tell them if they wanted water they could come up and haul it. They joined a good church, the congregation started to build them a house bought all the raw materials. But it still stands as it was the last day the church people were out. A two story frame. They were very helpful letting us know where all the free food closets were and what organizations you can hit up for money for utilities.

These people make me ill. I work two jobs and work up on the homestead when I get home. So it goes two ways sometimes you get the neighbors from hell until the handouts run out.

[bgak47]

I bought land(17ac) in the country 18yrs ago, but I've been forced to live most of the time in the city because of my & my wife's employment. We bought the place for a weekend retreat/retirement place & we've used it as such for all of those years. Our neighbors were somewhat scepticial about us at first, but when they saw us bringing our kids & grandkids there, they became convinced that we had the same Ideas about country living that they do. We have a nice fire pit, & when we're there we enjoy hosting Bar-b-Qs & such. We don't have any animals yet, because we don't live there full-time yet, but our GOOD NEIGHBORS help us out by watching out for the place & mowing & weed-eating when we can't be there every weekend in the summer.I've never seen friendlier people in my life! I Very Much look forward to being able to retire with these folks!