How many of you live relativity close to "trashy people"?

**clovis** · #**161** 04/25/11, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick

The raw sewage running loose is terrible, but would ALL of the neighbors be okay with me using sawdust, 100 percent composting toilets? How about a nice big 5 foot by 5 foot compost bin? Something tells me my dandelions and compost bins would be hated.

I didn't bust your chops about the trash issue. I stated I don't want to be forced to contract with a trash hauling company, and that the family you cite should maintain a rodent free bin, and take it to a landfill at regular intervals.

Mosquitoes don't breed in solid trash - water in a puddle is enough for a healthy batch.

I would never again want to live in an enclave where 3 barns are within 6 hundred feet with 12 houses close by. All of this is why we move from an area where such conditions would be normal.

Actually, Rick, they would all be fine with the compost toilets and the bin.

Two people burn their trash, at least three people have compost piles, all but one or two have big gardens, one person raises sheep, one has a kennel with 100dogs, someone has turned their place into a shooting range...I could go on...but no one has ever complained about any of that.

Maybe I should email some pics sometime. Those pics are quite shocking, especially in comparison to the good people that live around this dump.

Rick · #**162** 04/25/11, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

They are fairly close together. Most of the houses are on 1 and 2 acre lots. The house I was refering to is just 100 feet from the next, utterly spotless home.

I promise you that the new folks who used creative financing to buy their dream home in the country are no longer welcome there in that little area. I'd hate to be them in a time of need.

As for the trash...there is no need to bust my chops over that one. They just opt not to pay for the services they used, which is theft where I come from. I just want to know why on earth it is considered healthy to stack your trash bags outside in pile that resembles a mountain, when they already know that they have rats living in the barn?

They already admitted to everyone that they have rats living there, but have done nothing to stop the problem...not even one rat trap. Their barn is just a hundred feet from a neighbor's barn, and 500 feet from another barn, BTW.

Oh, and instead of fixing the failed septic system, they are now allowing it to run out on the ground. Yes, raw septic waste running out the back lawn. Who pays the price when the heavy spring rains come, and that raw sewage contaminates the neighbor's well, or even their own? All those houses share the same aquifer.

Is it still no one's business, Rick, when rats come to live in everyone's houses and barns, and they contaminate the aquifer with raw sewage????? What about the mosquito problem? The mosquitos have always been heavy there, but got much worse when the tires got stored outside, as well as all the other trash sitting around. Still no one's business???????????

How healthy is all of that????

I'd feel a ton different if they did this to a house that was isolated in the middle of a woods, or a cornfield....but right smack dab in the middle of a tiny community where the pride of ownership is first rate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

Actually, Rick, they would all be fine with the compost toilets and the bin.

Two people burn their trash, at least three people have compost piles, all but one or two have big gardens, one person raises sheep, one has a kennel with 100dogs, someone has turned their place into a shooting range...I could go on...but no one has ever complained about any of that.

Maybe I should email some pics sometime. Those pics are quite shocking, especially in comparison to the good people that live around this dump.

I kind of wondered what the satellite picture would look like. Email pics sometime if you like...

The loose running sewage was pointing to these just being nasty people! And the various uses you cite in the community indicate they are pretty flexible.

Regards...

nancylee · #**163** 04/25/11, 12:21 PM

Ok, maybe I misunderstood. If so, my apologies. But I don't understand why people don't want to spend money and value on education. Education is so that we have an informed citizenry to make intelligent judgements on our leaders. We are lacking a lot of that today.

I, too, don't like all of the McMansions, and the greed and insecurity that drive our consumption society. That is why I am changing the way I live. But I don't think that homesteading has to be trashy, it think it is a forward-looking way to live.
Peace,
Nancy

Haven · #**164** 04/25/11, 12:55 PM

Authorities can make these slobs clean things up, even in the country.

I had serious issues when I lived on a secluded and well hidden property. People from the property behind decided to create a dumping ground and haul old trailers and cars back, tear them apart, bulldoze them -literally- right up to my property line, and light huge piles of debris on fire. The trash would smolder for weeks. Garbage was always blowing onto my property.

I couldn't even open my windows all summer cause my property would fill up with toxic blue smoke and I had motor oil bubbling up on my ground in the spring, polluting my property and my pond.

They were reported and forced to clean up the mess. Then the vandalizm started on my property. We sold the place and moved.

Seems like the more secluded you are, the more people want to come onto your property. People just can't leave others alone. We assumed that being surrounded by probably 100 empty acres of woods would be peaceful. We were wrong.

mekasmom · #**165** 04/25/11, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

they already know that they have rats living in the barn?

You do realize that anyone who has feed/livestock has rats around at one time or another?

oregon woodsmok · #**166** 04/25/11, 01:19 PM

[[[......You do realize that anyone who has feed/livestock has rats around at one time or another?....]]

No, they don't. I've had livestock for 40 years and hay and grain all that time and no mice or rats. You only have rats if you refuse to do something about them. If you keep the grain in mouse proof bins and keep the traps out so that the first ratty explorers don't have time to move in and nest, you will not have rats.

If there are neighbors with garbage laying uncovered that provide good breeding grounds for rats, then you will simply have to work a lot more diligently to keep the rats off your place.
__________________

**highlands** · #**167** 04/25/11, 01:27 PM

If you don't like it then make them a fantastic offer for their land and buy it if they will sell. If they refuse your offer then back off and look the other way. I don't like the looks of my neighbor's house but it's his house and I look the other way. Maybe he doesn't like mine. *shrug*

mekasmom · #**168** 04/25/11, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oregon woodsmok

[[[......You do realize that anyone who has feed/livestock has rats around at one time or another?....]]

No, they don't. I've had livestock for 40 years and hay and grain all that time and no mice or rats. You only have rats if you refuse to do something about them. If you keep the grain in mouse proof bins and keep the traps out so that the first ratty explorers don't have time to move in and nest, you will not have rats.

If they are caught in a trap or killed with poison then obviously they have been on your property long enough to die. They don't just magically appear dead in a trap. They have been there to get caught. Anyone with livestock has vermin at one time or another.

tailwagging · #**169** 04/25/11, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by City Bound

The poet Robert Frost said it best:
" Good fences make good neighbhors."

I rather live an enjoyable casual life in a run down house in a run down area then live in an uptight, over priced area filled with snobs who want you to conform to their lame version of life.

Good post!
and if you are like me and like things neat then your place can easily look the best, and still not have to be a slave to the lawn.

sunshinytraci · #**170** 04/25/11, 04:36 PM

There probably isn't much of an excuse for having actual garbage flowing from your kitchen and bathrooms out into your yard, blowing into your neighbors lives. That's pretty bad. I have two neighbors that pretty much just throw their trash out the front door and let nature take its course. Not too cool. Rotting refuse should be disposed of in some sanitary manner.

However, I have other neighbors that just have un-landscaped yards and I don't really care about that. Some people have neither the time nor the inclination to mow or plant shrubs and flowers. Big deal.

I keep up with the front of my property as time allows. Sometimes it looks great. Other times the weeds are bigger than my plants and the grass is waist high. With kids, cooking, gardening, housekeeping, livestock, starting a business, and a part time job, who on earth has time to weed and mow? I certainly don't have cash to pay someone to do it for me. That's why I don't live in a strictly governed neighborhood. I don't want to be out weeding and mowing until 2am because I obligated myself to give my yard a manicured appearance to appease my neighbors aesthetic sense.

Oh and I do my best to keep my junk out of sight of the road. Not really for the neighbors, but for my own pride of ownership.

**clovis** · #**171** 04/25/11, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick

IThe loose running sewage was pointing to these just being nasty people! And the various uses you cite in the community indicate they are pretty flexible.

Regards...

Rick, actually, these are some of the best people you would want as neighbors.

This is not a strict subdivision, and there is no mentality like that. The people who live there are reasonable people who have to look and live with some nasty city people who had enough credit to buy a place out in the country.

radiofish · #**172** 04/25/11, 07:44 PM

Well after posting yesterday that the city folks are bringing their trash up the hill and dumping it along the road or on folks property - it seems that on our local newspaper's front page is a story about such actions..

So up here it is not the locals, yet outsiders that are creating mounds of imported trash all over the place. Don't go blaming folks, for not wanting to keep up their properties!!

Here is the online version of the story. The actual newspaper has a much more ugly picture of trash along a road the next ridge over..

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_17922668

County starts illegal dumping fund to help costs of cleanup; fund created with violator fees as county struggles to keep chronic sites clean

Donna Tam/The Times-Standard
Posted: 04/25/2011 02:40:28 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

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Humboldt County will have a new fund -- created from illegal dumping violation fees -- to further ease the financial burden of cleanup.

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted to start the fund last week. It will allow the county's environmental health division to share fee payments with the Public Works Department, which extends thousands of dollars of assistance for hazardous and solid waste cleanup.

Environmental Health Division Director Melissa Martel said illegal dumping is a constant problem countywide, which is indicative of rural communities in general.

yikes · #**173** 04/26/11, 08:22 PM

I read this thread. WOW. This is the homestead forum, right? Is Martha Stewart going to tell us that we may only have a JD tractor if we paint it pink? Must I buy a tupperware container for my 16 pennies or can I still use my coffee can?
I just get sooooo confused. I forget who I am supposed to ask for permission to do stuff around here.

DamnearaFarm · #**174** 04/26/11, 09:41 PM

Yikes, did you even READ the thread? If you did, you'd know it had to do with household TRASH. Not junk.

Heritagefarm · #**175** 04/27/11, 09:20 AM

Aren't there any EPA regulations that speak against trash flying around like that? Of course, it is also littering.

bourbonred · #**176** 04/27/11, 01:23 PM

Yeah, Heritagefarm, that's what we need. Let's get the EPA involved! Lord knows people need government and more rules and laws. When we lose PERSONAL PROPERTY RIGHTS, the show is over....there are no more freedoms.

JuliaAnn · #**177** 04/27/11, 01:30 PM

Quote "you'd know it had to do with household TRASH. Not junk"

LOL! I'm sorry, but that's just funny all by itself! And even funnier that most of us here are able to distinguish between the two! I have a few family members whom I love with all my heart but don't know good junk from garbage. I can't count how much seriously nice stuff they have gotten rid of by putting it in their trash cans, which are emptied into a big garbage truck with the forklift thing that lifts the can and dumps it into the top of the truck---no one even had a chance to rescue that stuff. To them, if something is no longer pristine or of immediate use to them---they put it in the garbage.

I, however, know good junk when I see it.

rabbitpatch · #**178** 04/27/11, 02:48 PM

JuliaAnn my boss is like your family. If SHE doesn't see an immediate use for something, then it is trash. Her philosophy is, if I can't use it today, I'll throw it away. And then if I need it next week, I'll just buy a new one. Every time she says anything like that I just roll my eyes and think "sure you can think that way...on your salary with only yourself to worry about - but with my pidly hourly wage and a disabled husband who can't work, I can't just run out and buy brand new stuff every week." Don't get me wrong...I love my boss. And if she was responsible for determining my pay (rather than the administrator), I would make much better money than I do. She just thinks I'm crazy and I know she is! LOL

I on the other hand, have an appreciation for anyone who can find free or cheap materials and create something nice from it. Even if you have to "collect" those materials little by little until you get all of what you need, if you actually do put it to good use rather than letting it rot and decay, then more power to you.

DamnearaFarm · #**179** 04/27/11, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuliaAnn

Quote "you'd know it had to do with household TRASH. Not junk"

LOL! I'm sorry, but that's just funny all by itself! And even funnier that most of us here are able to distinguish between the two! I have a few family members whom I love with all my heart but don't know good junk from garbage. I can't count how much seriously nice stuff they have gotten rid of by putting it in their trash cans, which are emptied into a big garbage truck with the forklift thing that lifts the can and dumps it into the top of the truck---no one even had a chance to rescue that stuff. To them, if something is no longer pristine or of immediate use to them---they put it in the garbage.

I, however, know good junk when I see it.

I *IS* a connoisseur of a good junk pile.

That's why I don't get to go on dump runs too often

rabbitpatch · #**180** 04/27/11, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RamblinRoseRanc

I *IS* a connoisseur of a good junk pile.

That's why I don't get to go on dump runs too often

Do you "rubber neck" at junk piles on the curb when you drive by? I won't dig through people's trash but if I have been known to pick up an item or two that was plainly visible and not sitting IN the trash.