Lost a little bit more of my freedom today.

If he did that, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Because the neighbors then would be doing SSS... Coyotes and cougars aren't known to nicely ask you to keep your chickens on your side of the fence, like this neighbor has done.

So if you move in next door to a meth lab and the fumes bother you, you should move away? If you move next door to someone who is BREAKING THE LAW, they're still breaking the law, no matter WHO moves in. It's not their RIGHT to continue breaking the law, because it wasn't their RIGHT to break the law before you moved in, especially when it encroaches on your freedom. So they shouldn't have been doing it IN THE FIRST PLACE, but now that they're stepping on someone else's toes, it's PAST time to quit. This reasoning is absolutely ridiculous.

That's why they make covered and floored dog runs. Just because you can't figure out how to control your own animal doesn't mean the options to aren't out there, and OTHERS haven't figured it out.

As the legal OWNER of the dog, it's your job to train and contain the dog. If you can't do either, you don't need the dog. Just because my neighbors are having a barbeque doesn't mean it's my dog's right to go eat their steak off the grill.

Are you really serious here?? This sense of entitlement is EXACTLY what people in the country are trying to get away from, so the fact that you keep telling people to "move back to the city" is pretty laughable. Their land is THEIRS, not yours! You can't do what you want with other peoples' land, no matter how much you think you should be able to.

Our neighbors used to raise pigs. You could smell them a mile away! 20 years later, when it rains, you can still smell the stench. But pigs are legal in the country, and they kept them on their land, so aside from us going - "Sheesh, can't you free-range those things so they don't smell as bad?" there wasn't a thing we could do about it, and they weren't breaking the law, so all we could do was pinch our noses on windy days. If the pigs had been eating our flowers and garden, on the other hand, the law would have been on our side.

It doesn't matter where you live - city or country. There are rules you have to follow. And even if you don't believe in following the laws of where you live, common sense should tell you that the property on one side of the fence is yours, and the property on the other side is NOT. You only have rights to what is yours. When you step on other people's rights just because you FEEL like you should be able to, that's when others stop caring what you think or how you feel, and you need to be put in your place.

If I was his neighbor, I would be adding those chickens, one by one, to my own layer flock at this point. He was given a nice warning, and has chosen not to take it... If I was the neighbor, I would relieve him of the burden of the animals that he finds it so hard to contain. Whether or not I took the SBS (B = barbeque) route or the "it wants to live here so much, I'll just throw it in my own coop" route would be none of his concern at that point. Either way, the response from me would be, "No, haven't seen them in a while... Think we have coyotes moving in? Sure am glad I keep my own flock home and safe!"

Being a good neighbor isn't a country thing or a city thing. I've had good and bad neighbors in both places. The basic common courtesy is to keep your stuff on your own place unless you have a mutually acceptable agreement otherwise. I don't think that's too hard to fathom and I don't think it has anything to do with country ways or city ways. It's just being thoughtful of your neighbor - whether they are 50 feet away or 5 miles away.

Mama always taught me good manners go a long way and I've found that to be true no matter where I have lived.

Just sayin'

Remind me not to drink the water in Oklahoma!

__________________
"Never stop questioning - curiosity has its own reason for existence." Albert Einstein

"I used to be a terror, now I am a tired man" Jim Croce

"EXACTLY"!!!!! That's what I'm trying to tell people. The new world is closing in on me and I'm loosing all the freedom I once had. The freedom I grew up with. I'm having to learn to deal with uptight, selfish people. Not the old country folks that lived around here years ago who have passed on.

This is a trailer park people! Tennants don't plant flowers! Maybe a marijuanna plant inside, but nothing outside. Chances are, this chicken plant tennant will probably be either unemployed or moved out in a few months anyway. Chicken plants have a very high turnover and so does the trailer park!

Still, by the use of a chicken tractor, I will still have my free range eggs. Come summer time, I will order and raise free range chicks for weed and tick control. They will free range all over my property on thier own right up till the end of summer and then they will go to the auction barn. That'll be about the time they have learned to venture all the way down my long drive way and cross the road.

__________________
r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

Ditto! With the number of chicken farms and cattle operations here in Oklahoma now days, the water isn't fit to drink anymore anyway! Which reminds me of another freedom I have lost. The freedom to kneel down to a creek or spring anywhere or anytime and get a nice cool drink of clean spring water.

Again, a lot of you cityslickers have no ideal of what it's like to be a real country boy!

__________________
r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

..................Why , did you sell the land , when , it meant so much to you ? , fordy

fordy, fordy, fordy! I never owned the land! I did say that part of the land did belong in the family at one time. But it was sold 60 - 65 years ago. Long before I was born. I'm only 53.

And to clear things up more. The land all along the south side of the dirt road (Paved now) for 1/2 mile X 1/2 mile square all belonged to my grandpa and we, our family, or relations, still own all of it. The land north on the north side of the dirt road, same measurements, (where the trailer park is located) all belonged to my grandpa's brother. His family sold all of it and moved on. This was all done before I was even born.

Now for the next 50 of those 65 years of ownership it belonged to a good neighbor who farmed it. In his earlier days he raised corn feed and milo on it. His later days he ranched it. His later days is when I was born and raised up around here and not only did I roam all over my grandpa's land but his and everyones elses around here. Practically everyone around here was either related or simply a good family friend which he was. Often times I would be out hunting or fishing on his property and run into him feeding, fixing fence, or cuttin wood and I would walk to him and talk to him. Not once did he ever get mad cause I was on his land. Thats just how old country folks were back in those days.

Okay, bring you up to date. About 15 or so years ago the old man who owned the property on the north side of the road, who bought it from my grandpa's brother, sold out and moved into a nursing center where he later died.

Yes, I should have bought it when the old neigbor sold out. If I had known someone was going to buy it and put a bunch of darn trailer houses on it, and sell another acre of it for a Indian home to build directly across the road from me, I would have tried buying it all up. But I didn't have the money for that many acres. Still don't! Probably never will!

So there fordy, get it out of your head that I previously owned it! I didn't!

__________________
r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

Then it never was yours and you never lost it, nor did you lose any of your freedom because of it, because it was never yours to begin with. Keep the chickens on your side and all be be well, freedom doesn't mean having critters on someones else's land. period. You never had it to begin with so you never lost it now.

__________________
Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

See My Pictures at
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0903/arabianknight/

Um....I lived in a mobile home park for a good number of years, and I planted flowers and vegetables. There is someone in CF that lived in one and posted pictures of her flowers and vegetables all the time. I see more flowers in "trailer parks" than I do in front of houses.

You seem to have a pretty snobby attitude for all your professing to be nice.

__________________
Recognize the beauty in things, in creation, even when thats difficult to do.
Be loving, show compassion. Create while we're here.
Enjoy this life, be in this life but not be of it.

r.h., I understand what you mean. Some of these folks have no idea what it is to live where generations of family have lived before, can't fault them for that. My folks been within 2 miles of my place since before the War Between the States. Once you couldn't throw a rock without hitting one of my ancestors, now I am all that is left here, and the new folks tend to look a bit off at me most of the time.
Ed

__________________
"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson to George Washington 1787

In the small town nearest to my property there is a mobile home park, where many retired folk live, and it is much as you stated in your post, there are several there who really keep their place up, plant flowers and vegetable gardens, etc.

On the other side of the town is a large trailer park that I thought of when reading Oldcountryboy's post about them. In it are rundown trailers with no flowers or vegetable gardens, and the police seem to maintain a constant presence in the area because they are called there so frequently.

So you're both correct, just depends on where you are as to what you see.

Looks to me, like you said that you sold some land, that you never owned.
ETA... If you ever need a job....I heard John Kerry was planning a run for president again. He may be hiring a new speech writer.

I think he was saying they bought land that is across the road from him - not that they bought the land from him.

Can't lose what he never had.

__________________
Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

See My Pictures at
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0903/arabianknight/

Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Your right to free range your chickens ends where my property begins. It's a simple concept, really.

I repeat, folks, .....It is NOT about the CHICKENS. It is about how Oldcountryboy is having to change how he has been doing things all his life on the same place. It is about people having a fear of litigation. It is about being at home and suddenly finding yourself in a strange place. It is being an outsider in a generational home. It is about frustration caused by changes in a long going lifestyle.

It is NOT about the CHICKENS.

Ed

__________________
"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson to George Washington 1787

Oh, it's not that bad.

As long as you remember to chew before swallowing.

__________________
.

Less barking! More wagging!

"Country Rules" are that if someone has their animals on my land, I have a right to blast it to kingdom come. My land, my rules. Keep his own livestock on his own land and this wouldn't be a problem.

__________________
Homesteading in the Ozarks: Anyone have an extra brush-hog?

Might want to check your laws there in Missouri, Cowboy. I seriously doubt the local law will back you up if you shoot someone's wandering cow or horse.
In my experience it's always the new country people who are out there blasting away like Yosemite Sam when a dog cuts the corner on a field. Not a good way to endear yourself to the locals.

As far as "my land, my laws" try running a grow operation there and see how your philosophy works out for you.

Missouri law states that it is legal to kill a dog that is after your livestock.

RSMO: 273.030. Dogs may be killed, when
If any person shall discover any dog or dogs in the act of killing, wounding or chasing sheep in any portion of this state, or shall discover any dog or dogs under such circumstances as to satisfactorily show that such dog or dogs has or have been recently engaged in killing or chasing sheep or other domestic animal or animals, such person is authorized to immediately pursue and kill such dog or dogs; provided, however, that such dog or dogs shall not be killed in any enclosure belonging to or being in lawful possession of the owner of such dog or dogs.