Chipper low end chipper on smaller tractor

[Harv]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

<font color=blue>Has anyone near a city had to resort to having someone bring one of those trailer mounted stump grinders out</font color=blue>

Well, as a matter of fact ...

A couple of years after moving into our house here in the 'burbs of the San Francisco East Bay, we started having problems with this large tree (can't remember what it was called -- had big leaves) that was smack dab in the middle of our backyard lawn. The roots (maybe 2 to 4 inches in diameter) were surfacing, making it impossible to mow the lawn (no tractors in this area), plus it was ruining our fence and threatening our house foundation.

The solution seemed straightforward enough to me, so I whacked that puppy off at near ground level and proceeded to dig up the roots and chop them off. Within 3 days we received a nasty-gram from the city telling us we were in violation of some ordinance which prohibited the removal of any tree from our property without their express permission. To this day I'm not entirely sure how they even knew what we had done -- our backyard is well fenced and not visible from any street.

We were then told that we had something like 30 days to plant a new tree of a certain minimum size and to file some form or other to let them know we had complied. I quickly ignored them with all my might. /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

I had the roots pretty well removed, but I had to hire a 2-man crew with a stump-grinder to deal with the 14-inch stump that remained. My wife called me at work when they arrived, but by the time I got there about a half-hour later, they were done and gone. Sorry I missed that.

We smoothed out the area and planted the fastest-growing grass seed we could find, and practiced our "what tree?" lines over and over (hoping they weren't using aerial photos). It's been over 10 years now and nobody has shown up with drawn guns so far. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Now, Del, you've got me concerned about my slash pile up at the property. Neighbors up there have told me that there are designated burn days, depending on weather conditions and whether your address is odd or even, or some kind of rotation scheme. You're making me think that the rules can change without warning, so I'd better find out where to get current information.

RobertN -- who do you call to find out in your area?

 

[ddl]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

Here in the KCMO area, there are burn rules, you can not burn legally. If I lived next to ag land, I could burn legally with a permit, but since a neigbor lives between me and the ag land, I can not get a permit. So we all do our buring on holidays early in the morning. The fine if you get turned in for burning, $20,000 and the fire station assigned to your area is as fined.

We moved into the country to get away from rules, guess what the pols never found a law they didn't like.

Dan L

 

[Thomas]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

del,
I hear you loud and clear!!
Whistle blowers are just trying to do whats right than become black balled or worse..seen it first hand at the Ivy school where I work...dam shame!!
I hope you never have to face noise pollution laws. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif
Year ago our city pass such an act and I been visited twice,talk about a head scratcher. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif



Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Thomas]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

Harv,
Sounds like you might have a neighbor keeping an eye on you.


Lot of tax payers ask the city to put out a rules and regulation hand book and the respond was,cost to much...rules and regulations change to often...gee whiz how can anyone keep up w/ the laws./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Yep play that game before..what do you mean..show me..are you sure etc..and the best of all ask who made the complaint so you may confront them.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[caddison]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

ddl,

Up here just north of the KC area, call it the sticks, we even have burn rules. Though rarely enforced, depending on who you are of course. I think it all boils down to the common sense of the people on the city council, we lack a whole lot of that here! It seems as if all it takes is one complaint from some whiny little _______ "use your favorite descriptive here" /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif to mess things up for everyone! I am going off on a whole new tangent here. Just makes you want to shake someone! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[Bird]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

In our area, most of the time you can burn anything you want anytime, but almost every summer, when we have a long dry spell, the county commissioners (on the advice of the fire marshall) institute a county wide "burn ban". Then if you set a fire, the fire department responds to put it out, and a deputy sheriff responds to issue a warning about violating the burn ban. If you do it again, you get a citation and have a fine to pay. So, in effect, everyone has one free violation./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

Hi Del, I'm glad you cut a little slack for the firefighters who have to respond to your "burn problem". Until just over a year ago, I was one of them.

Take it from me. we didn't become firefighters to harass people. "Policing"(ugh!) stupid (or even not-stupid) laws is something that even the fire marshalls/inspectors don't like to do.

A part of the "idiocy" in our city (Salem, Or.), is that what used to be "lawful"(burning with a permit, under certain conditions, at certain times), became "unlawful" as soon as anyone complained.... efectively putting the ability to change-the-law-at-any-second into the hands of anybody and everybody.

I think the reason you don't hear the term "lunatic-asylum" much anymore, is that they gave the inmates the option of becoming bureaucrats, and they all took it!

The firefighters understand and sympathize with the brush-pile burner, but end up angry at him anyway...here's what happens:

You spend the day/night answering "legitimate" emergency calls, and then about midnite-3:am some "do-gooder" (everybody has a cell-phone these days) sees "a fire" in a field (it's dark, so the flikering flames/glowing embers are easy to spot)., and reports it.

The alarm goes off "Oh no, not again! we were just finally getting back to sleep!", and the unit responds. Instructions? PUT IT OUT! Have you tried to put out a large brush pile? It's a heck of a lot harder than the "one-match" light -up. So sometimes hours later, cold(or hot), tired, filthy firefighters with filthy equipment and a mud-covered truck to wash (BEFORE they can try to get some sleep) are cussing both the "idiot-government" AND the d--- landowner, who KNOWS what he is doing is illegal, does it anyway (understandably frustrated), claims "someone else" started it,.... and all for the 3rd time this month.

This kind of "everybody-else-minding-your-business" culture, that we never had years ago, is a result of only one thing, and understanding it doesn't require a degree in rocket-science.... TOO MANY EVERYBODYS!!

And nobody has the guts to address "population-control"!
"Taboo", donchaknow!

Might step on somebody's toes, religion-wise, or otherwise.
Well, when enough somebodys are standing on OUR toes, maybe we'll look at it differently. Or maybe, by then, it'll just be too-late.

I'm retired now, living on 20+ acres in the country. The policy of most of my neighbors towards the "planning/land-use dept." is everyday becoming more " don't ask - don't tell!"

I don't blame them a bit!

/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif Larry

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

Yes, that is one aspect of this I hate, that they put the fire department in the middle of it.

And although I see the problems with 50 woodstoves per block in the suburban areas, an the need to ban burning on the days we have inversions (no air movement), these are done here and there for WIDE areas, and what happens is some of less bright ones don't see a difference between those bans and the REAL ones, in the summer due to dry conditions.

I would humbly suggest to everyone that when they happen to see a fire fighter/paramedic or a police officer at the store or something, go up to them and say thanks. They are taken for granted and once you have yourself or know someone who has needed them you see them in a different light. Police especially in that they deal with the lower 5% of the population generally and would probably like to hear from the other 95% now and then. Most of the time I look like I just came out of the jungle, I went up to a couple of police officers not too long ago and they both looked at me like they were expecting an attack! When I gave them a friendly handshake and thanks I think they were sincerely shocked.

That isn't how it's supposed to be.

del

 

[Alan L.]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

When I lived in town (a very small) town I burned stuff on an acre. I knew there was a law against it but nobody ever showed up. Now that I am on my 24 acres out of town I burn at will, but use common sense in starting fires when its dry and windy. Our county had burn bans this past summer too, and I was afraid to start a fire anyway so I didn't complain.

Here is my complaint. When I bought my property 2 years ago there was already some trash dump in some draws - washers, dryers, hot water heaters, and refrigerators. I am now told by the trash services that the cannot haul off the frigerator unless I have it certified as to where the freon went /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. Nobody I have talked knows where you get such a certification. Anyway, I decided to bust up the frig and bury the compressor. They wouldn't take any part of the frig at all. I guess I'm stuck with it/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.

Its no wonder people are dumping these things on the side of the road and on other peoples land. They can't get rid of them otherwise.

Before filling up my 16 foot trailer I called the landfill and they told me it would cost $125 a load to dump it. Plus, they wouldn't take it at all unless it was covered by a tarp!!!

While I'm on a roll here, how about this. A car glances off the guard rail and knocks the top rail off for about 6 feet. Two days later an entire crew shows up. They stop traffic and make a big production out of putting up a beautiful sign that says "Guard rail damage ahead". First of all why do I need to know there's guard rail damage? Does that mean "Don't lose control of your car right here!!!" Well I didn't plan to anyway. Second of all, in the time they spent putting up the sign they could have FIXED the guard rail.....

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: idiot government (long rant)

Alan, I'm all for supporting the no burn ban when it is due to fuel dryness, its the smog people that tell me how harmful smoke emissions are and how I have a viable alternative to burning (hauling to the dump) but 8 blocks away there is no such ban. Is the smoke from their stumps not harmful?

If they want to zone my property so I can cut it up into postage stamp sized lots to build huts on fine, but forcing me to keep 10 acres of forest as it is with an accumulating fire hazard (or haul it to the dump) is ridiculous.

A friend's wife gave me a button 20 years ago which sums up my attitude.

"DON'T GET MAD, GET EVEN!"

Of course if I find an endangered plant I'm trying to cultivate, that's an exception. If I can get my property set aside as an Indian reservation I can burn. (Hmmm, I am last surviving member of the Kubota Indian Tribe/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif}