Do You Have Any "Citiots" For Neighbors?

I also am a city boy and moved to a house in the country four years ago. Unfortunately due to my work schedule, long days and driving an hour to and from work every day I haven't met as many people as I would like but the ones who I have met have been great.

I have horses and cows up the road and on a clear night I can hear them and I love it. It's also been my dream to have a farm but unfortunately due to some poor decisions I've made over the years it's going to be tough to make that happen now. Starting with rabbits now, hoping to move into chickens soon and work my way up. One thing at a time...

The neighbors that I've met have been given my phone number and told to call anytime 24 hrs a day if there's an emergency. My porch light is on all night in case of travelers breaking down (there have been two so far). My parents have always been city people but have raised all of us kids (8 of us) to be tolorant of others and help out when we can. Painting all city people with the same brush just because of a few "citiots" is not really fair.

well lets see I guess I have a different definition of a redneck.
I kind of consider myself one . I work for a living, raise a little live stock have some dogs, the muffler on my tractors not so good and my jeep has a wooden door . I figure the onlyones who find anything racist about the confederate flag are racists who have no clue about history.
The fences along our property line are a good 150 years old and in the exact same place Joe Redfeather placed them when he laid claim to this section.
If your dog crosses that fence so be it but dont come crying to me if he tries to chase the horse or chickens and my dogs or the horse kills him.
we moved here when I was 3 we had a grand total of three neighbors within a mile , they are still there and are like family. we now have about 20 neighbors some are good some are bad . the only time Ive ever gone on their property without permission was when clearing all the drives of 8"of snow strangely no one complained .
I shoot fireworks twice a year the last week end in july and again around nov. not your normal stand fireworks but displays major cities only wish they could put on the the 4th.no ten minute flash boom but upto 4 hours of painting the sky that can be seen and heard for miles.
got my first complaints last year , not from any of the close neighbors they were here watching.
only had a problem with one new neighbor right after they moved in they yelled about target practice. No biggy we worked it out . their kids are welcome to roam our timber as long as we know they are there.
Most of the neighbors know our houdini mini horse who could escape from a locked bank vault.He seems to have to visit the neighbors once a month.
they all have our cell numbers. there are a few neighbors that we dont always see eye to eye with but in general we are lucky now .
a few years ago we had some idiots I really dont know if they were citiots or not . they were jerks trying ti imtimidate the others shooting automatics at all hours of the night drunk or druggie parties. the sheriff didnt have much chance catching them because the kept a scanner on all the time.
they chose to sell out and move after a couple incidents.
after shooting holes in the back of one neighbors house they claim the oldman pushed all their cars into a pile with his tractor. (no one saw a thing they probly were drunk and playing demolition derby I think the mustang lost)
The main difference I see today from when I was a kid is folks dont stop on the road and chat. we still have a couple neighbors who will go out of their way to help anyone. You wont find a car in the ditch here at least not for more than an hour some one will see it and pull it out . If someone has a flat they are offered help. Its a nice place and hopefully it will stay that way.
At the same time if you go flying by the family riding horses you'll end up replacing your windshield , if you gin your engine to scare the little kids crossing the road your likely to run over a cinder block. Stop to cuss out that oldman walking down the road for telling you to slow down , and hell knock your teeth loose with his cane. His grand kids ride bikes and horses on that rode, his limp came from shrapnel in the pacific, we all call him Earnie you can call him Sir.
Now if you drive two miles north its a hole new ball game . No one knows their neighbor . kids are penned up tighter than dogs in a kennel.
Their are good poeple everywhere there are also bad folks everywhere .
what Ive found is for the most part is if you act like a jerk you'll be treated like one . show some kindness and respect and you'll get the same in return.
If you dont want people to tell you what you can do on your place dont tell them what they can on theirs .
If my dog chases your stock shoot it ,make it a clean kill and tell me dont wound it and tell my kids . I'll show you the same respect.

I'd like to meet the arrogant jerk that put that thing together! If I buy the land I can fence it, light it, pave it, put in sidewalks and a lawn or whatever I please within the law. Better find a new trail for your nature walks If you don’t have a legal easement, you are trespassing, period. The grazing land for the animals that you don't want to control is on your property, not mine. If you think that just because you were here first that you have the right to dictate how I use my property you are the problem, not the solution. If you want to have a "Country Homeowners Association" to lay down rules regarding how your neighbor uses his property then move into the suburbs and quit complaining about ol' Joe on down the road who uses as much water from his well as he pleases and likes his pink and purple house just the way it is. Whatever you do, get over yourself! You aren't any more important on my land than I am on yours. Hand me a document like that with the welcome basket of fruit bread and homemade preserves, then live up to your end of the bargain and leave me alone.

I"ve found there's only a couple things neighbors can do that annoy me. I'm talking about the one's that stay on their side of the fence, not the lawbreakers and criminal types. One are those security lights left on all night. That is easily remedied, some just take more time to get it. The other is loud vehicles and parties at all hours of the night. When the cops can't help or it's obvious who may have called the cops, I then give then something else to focus on. I'm a really bad neighbor when it comes to light and noise. These are two things that escape your property and can bother another person. It's something to keep in mind.

I wish *you* were my neighbor!

Within the law, well there you have it.

You can fence your land but you better get it surveyed first. We caught an uninvited surveyor on our land. When we stopped him, well within our rights he had an attitude. I suggest you hire a polite surveyor and let your neigbhors know first.

If you light it you better look up ordinances. Some municiplaites have light pollution codes and prevent certain types or quantities of lighting. It would be polite if you didn't have them aimed toward a neigbhors house. Doing the research first saves a long term resident the aggravation of having to point out a possible mistake AFTER much cash is spent by you. no one wants to have a fued end up in court, no one wants to be the bad guy, especially when someone THOUGHT they could do ANYTHING they wanted on their property.

If you want to pave it or put in sidewalks enjoy maintaining that yourself. You better ask the road district first though if it falls on the public easment.

A well manicured lawn is your business. Don't plant that lush Johnson grass. It is highly illegal in many rural communities. It will also get a lynch mob of what could have been friends waiting for you to move on like the last person..........


Yup, within the law, we have those here too. They are set up to protect OUR way of life. Not sure if siting legality will have the welcome wagon bringing you muffins or get your kids welcomed into the "group" at the bust stop though.........

I would personally have the good sense not to have a rooster on my patio if I lived in a townhouse in the city. That's called manners!!

edited to add: The biggest misconception is that because it is YOUR land you can do as you please. That is not true, there are limits. That misconception leads to a lot of squabbles.

Ronundup kills Johnson grass.

Mrs. Josh here.
I just want to clarify that when I stated that while accessing my trails by riding along the neighbor's (the guy behind us) gravel road easement that I was *not* on his property. I was 12' into mine and he was complaining about the pile of manure!
When we perimeter fenced this land last fall just to be on the polite and safe side we set the posts back an additional 16' from "his" road. And yes I have a current legal survery. It didnt do much good since while we were working on it here he comes, wanting to know if we measured the distance (he had previously fenced the other side of the easement before we moved here and did not measure the distance, he told us this). There is no possible way he could see us working since as I said earlier, he lives at the back of his 40 and its all wooded; which means he was on our land watching us, *again*. When DH said no, did you when you took part of the other's guys land and made it your own? The man had nothing to say. What is with people and their double standards? He can tell me exactly what time I and what trails I've been working on and that un nerves me big time.
We have *never* trespassed on his land, nor would we. I've never seen anyone so obsessed with a property line. Sorry but it really creeps me out knowing I've got someone constantly watching me through the woods to make sure I dont touch his property line. This is a *daily* event with this guy. The previous owners of this place said he was like that with them too. I have my own property and have no need to go onto his, he on the other hand comes onto ours constantly, he has brought me my morels! He already said they dont grow on his land. I'm not going to confront him about it cause honestly as long as he leaves stuff alone, I dont care but when he opened our back pasture gate (which he had to come 200' onto our land to do) yeah we got pretty mad. The horses ran from him and came up to the barn rather than run off into the woods. I really think he was trying to get them to go onto his land so he could start something with us. Its a 1/4 mile back and I cant see from up here at the house and he knows it. I've since added a chain and padlock to the gate way out back; which is ridiculous. This guy scares me and I'm here alone most of the time...which is why I carry a gun.

Mine is a family of very private people. The social-butterfly types baffle us.

For us, the butterflies are not a problem, we can accept them as they are.
If they needed us in a crisis, we'd be there... but we don't feel "left out" of their BBQ's or get together's. Our feelings are not hurt if they don't wave when they drive by - (sheesh, most times I can't see the occupants past the glare on the car windows, anyway)...

They, however, cannot accept us as WE are. The fact that we prefer minding our own business seems to drive them to distraction - and they hate us for it.

That's a shame. We're nice folks in our own reserved kind of way. We are courteous and we respect boundaries. Sure, we might not notice on the day you could use a hand with your groceries - chalk that up to the fact that it's because we not gawking at everything you do...

Our farm is surrounded by "farmettes" of 3 to 5 acres. I put the word in quotes because they a more like overgrown city lots than mini-farms. These folks have lawns, not veggie gardens. They have cats and dogs, not livestock. They don't make hay in summer, they make hot dogs on the grill.
Their political signs on the lawn are never the candidate we would choose...
Our delight in life is our land, theirs is apparently their atvs, rvs, and other toys.

What I'm getting at here is that we have nothing in common with these people. Even if we were the type to go hang out, they are not the ones we would spend time with!

So besides just respecting property lines, it would be nice if folks would realize that folks can be good neighbors even if they do not want to be your "friends."

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Certainly does, but

Got any idea what it would cost a farmer who finds it in their planted several hundred acres of grain crops, competeing with the crops before it gets tall enough to see?

Got any idea how much it will cost that farmer if it is not a round up ready product that was planted?

Nope, of course not or you wouldn't have said that...............

Actually, I think he was saying the roundup could be used to kill the neighbors grass so it would not spread.

Funny I hate Johnson grass but the horses prefer it over planted bermuda, go figure!

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My bad...........

So much of this thread has been about NOT over stepping boundaries that I assumed incorrectly perhaps.

Actually I would just call the local Ag. office. Then whoever planted that evil stuff would not just have to eradicate it but also pay a fine. Now that is FUNNY!!!

Saves me an arm and a leg for trying to write "hey dirtbag" with a sprayer on the grass in the roundup. kinda like pee pee in the snow but so much more amusing.

Well now hintonlady..... there was actually a lawn care contractor here a couple of years back who had a customer who didn't want to pay him.... after 6 months of trying to get the bill paid, he went out one night with a backpack sprayer full of Roundup and sprayed big dollar signs all over the guys lawn. Bill still didn't get paid but he got a lot of satisfaction out of it.

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The internet - fueling paranoia and misinformation since 1873.

I live in a city and bought a very nice piece of property for my family to enjoy.Unfortunately country folk steal everything that isn't chained down and even some of the things that are.We have had our copper plumbing,Electric wiring stolen.This weekend we found several thousand dollars of lumber for our barn stolen.We are feeling like idiots because we thought having a place in the country we wouldn't have such problems.Other than a few bicycles that were not locked we have never had a problem with thieves in the city.

Sbin, how do you know their country folk? Sounds like some hard up thieves, stealing copper and all. Sounds like druggies, they're everywhere unfortunately.Oh, and I'd like to remind everyone to not plant Red Cedar near apple trees as it harbors a rust that effects the fruit. SPIKE by the way, kills cedar. I imagine this post will get me banned.

I have had neighbors from the city who wanted to ban all the country smells, and sounds soon aftr they move in next door.

I also met a young counple who moved here from Boston who bought 40 acres, and want to homestead, homebirth, and homeschool.

I am trying to learn to not generalise about people.

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That's for sure! 4.5 acres of thick, lovely bermuda for the horses to graze on, and my silly QH has bent over the top of our no-climb fence trying to reach over and grab mouthfuls of Johnsongrass. (Would've kept it mowed down better this summer but I was rather far along in my pregnancy and unable to use the riding lawnmower... but we have it mowed down now, by golly! And Roundup sprayed along the fence itself...)

There is a guy in the next county over who sells Johnsongrass seed by the pound. It's such a nuisance "weed" that I have a hard time imagining someone wanting to plant it!

I agree with you. I am part Native American. No living person is responsible. Hintonlady you hit it on the head. These people don't even have a grievance about how the slaves or native americans were treated. They just want to stir the pot for arguments sake.

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Simple Things are Better!

Using the term "Citiots" for people who want to move away from town and enjoy the same rural life we do, for whatever reason, is really offensive.

I've known just as many farmers and rural folks - who've spent their entire lives on the farm, who've had stupid moments, stupid ideas, silly perceptions...

We all make mistakes - but to tag people "citiots" makes this an "us" vs "them" thread and that's just wrong.

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