Want to be Alone

I'm with you, Big Rockpile! My husband and I fight about this all of the time. He is a social butterfly, who always wants company. I am the one who shuts the front door so the neighbors think I'm not home! That's why I like the forum. I can socialize a little, then walk away when I've had enough. No one here overstays their welcome!

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Melissa
Reformed hoyden. Please forgive me if I relapse.

I have 17 acres & my neighbor ( a dear friend for 30yrs) has 23. The land to both sides & behind us(about 5000 acres) is owned by a doctor from OKC. It used to be an exotic game hunting preserve, but is now in cattle & timber. Accross the road(gravel) is 7500 acres that used to belong to a lumber company, but is now owned by a consortium that is trying to develop it as a for-pay hunting preserve. I've heard talk of a lodge & some cabins, but in the 7yrs that they have owned it I haven't seen any signs of development. Our millionaire doctor neighbor(who is a real nice guy & a good neighbor) has assured us that his property is going to remain in 1 piece & be a working ranch for the forseeable future. I guess we're lucky because this part of OK is not going to be developed for a long time. I hope that things will remain like they are for at least the next 25-30yrs.

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Freedom isn't Free

After we bought our 20 acres of swampland, the environmental agency declared it was all wetlands and it took us years of hassle before they finally "allowed" us to use less than an acre for the house, garage, driveway etc. They figured we wouldn't want it if we couldn't utilize the land, but I see those 19 acres as buffer from neighbors (and I can always raise water buffalo!).

People who become nervous when faced with solitude belong in the city in a zero-lot line neighborhood (can you imagine having to face your neighbor everytime you look out your kitchen window...and into theirs?!)

At any rate, I love having the privacy to have no curtains and can wash all my laundry at once and no one knows I'm hanging out clothes in my birthday suit (except for that pesky airplane pilot...I always cover my head, the rest of me looks pretty much like everyone else!) I hang the hose over the step ladder and viola...an outdoor shower. We use it more than the indoor one. Just take an old pair of panty hose, cut off one foot at the knee, put a bar of soap in the foot, tie a knot above the soap & tie the other end to the ladder and it's always available and never gets mushy. If you have to worry about the neighbors witnessing your insanity, buy them out!

There needs to be enough distance or enough trees so that you can't see the neighbors

I like my neighbors, but I like them to be at a distance.

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Freedom isn't Free

we bought 10 acres that's about 1 1/4 miles from the main road. No neighboors so far. By the time we get built out there though there maybe. Sure wish we could have affored the whole 1/4 section

Well I have 20 acres and I could have built more to the middle of it.At present I planted Pine Trees between my place and thiers.

I really don't think they know what the road is like getting back here.Plus I'll bet they didn't take into consideration its on the North side of the hill.

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

Yeah-----about those darn airplanes.............

I HATE it when one flys over and then circles 'round for a closer look.

Just HATE IT!

Nosey people! (and noisey, too)

We have a house in the middle of 2 acres. We have neighbors to the left of us, but they are behind an overgrown cemetery that sits on both of our properties so we can't really see much of them. Across the road was a big thicket with a neighbor on each side of it, but with the brush we could not see them either (could hear them though) A couple years ago, a couple cleared the thicket and put a house there, so we had to get used to people sitting on the front porch watching us all the time. I hated it but have gotten used to it. They are a nice older couple and I felt guilty about my grouchy thoughts when they told me how much they enjoyed watching my son play with his baby goat.

There is 40 acres of pasture behind us that was sold and broken up into large lots and resold. The last 6 acres behind us finally sold, don't know why, it's not pretty. We had thought about buying it, but did not because 1. we did not have the money and 2. we did not think it was worth $5k per acre. Now I am kicking myself. I met the lady that bought it, she's going to keep her TW Horse on it and build later. However, they are planning on building directly behind our house! In our county, you only have to be 30' off the property line. I dread, dread, dread it! I can't stand the thought of going out in the back yard, where we have had privacy and having to look at someone looking back at me! ARGH! I guess we'll just have to learn to live with it.

Since we couldn't afford to buy as much land as I wanted we have put a few hundred Leyland Cypress all along our outer perimeter. In another year or two we won't be able to see anybody.

the problem with planting a line of trees is that it also blocks your view! my house is an old 150 yo home built only about 35 ft from the road back when there probably wasn't a horse a day come down it. I have planted some dwarf shrubs that will be just high enough to block cars without blocking my view but they are taking forever to grow (3 years old and still not two feet tall). I sit on a hill above the road probably 8 ft tall or so and have a beautiful view across a field, creek and hill (as pretty a view as you'll find in flat central indiana).

I have been thinking of putting some trees on the east side between me and my neighbor. My older sister. Her house is a good 800 feet away but it is behind and to the side of me. So I can't see her house for the most part anyway but she has a terrific amount of traffic up and down her drive and with my house on a hill with no trees blocking it it is right out in the open.

Does anyone have any trees or talls shrubs they would recommend? That way is an even prettier view and I want a little privacy but don't want to give up the view.

Is there ANYwhere you can live in america anymore where the land isn't getting ready to be developed in the near future? Seems like from posts here, houses are going up just about everywhere. My countys population is expected to double to 200k+ within my lifetime I've been looking at other counties in indiana that are expected to LOSE population in the next 40 years, seems the only safe way to go. is there anyplace BESIDES outwest heck I'd even consider canada if they had more than two seasons (winter and july). or so i've heard

Mel-

I don't have a view as is,this is my drive looking from the house,all this other property is that brush to the right.

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

Looks like you have a nice lush, green view of nature to me!

vickie,

I don't know if you were joking or not but I was thinking the same thing! that's a very pretty view of a pasture (IMO) and I wouldn't want to block it ! I must be wierd

Mel-

Totally serious here, considering it looks like the view up my road - green, lush and exactly what the city slickers hate - an isolated two laner!

I was just going to say that i like my neighbors fine, and I do but I also have a good sized buffer zone so make of that what you will. Maybe you would feel better with a bit more earth between you and them. That buffer doesn't stop a one of them from just showing up here though.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........