You know your neighbor's visitors are from the city when...

[DrRod]

For me the litmus test is: do they close the gate. If a country person opens a gate, he/she will close it behind them. If a city person opens a gate, he/she walks through without looking back.

Same applies to the cabin door at times -- amazing how urban people don't know that you need to close the door to keep the heat in.

I used to invite people to my place and want them to appreciate the joys of country living but I've stopped that now. They tend to be bored and fearful. Many times I've had to keep the spotlights on in the yard at night because they were afraid of sleeping in the dark. Who knows what might be lurking out there.

And one time we saw a rattle snake in the woods -- safe distance away. When we got back to the cabin they stayed on the porch and never stepped off until it was time to travel.

 

[PJSprog]

Interesting.

There are lots of feed operations in Greeley CO and the hipsters in Ft Collins always complain about the smell.

I guess I never thought of farming/ranching as a nuisance but I can see how that would be a problem where farming meets development.

That smell has never bothered me, even growing up a "city-boy-who-spent-time-in-the-country" type ... except once. I was working for a pipe organ company a few years ago and flew out to Chino CA to install an instrument at one of the then-new mega churches there. It was right across the highway from what seemed like miles upon miles of endless cattle operations. I've never seen so many cows crammed into one area in my life, and the strength of the smell was indicative of just how many there were. When the wind was blowing in from the east, it was almost unbearable. We have some pretty large livestock farms around us, but nothing on the magnitude of what I saw and smelled out there.

 

[ultrarunner]

The big assault on traditional farming here is the newcomers who rip out the traditional, 100 year old apple orchards to plant premium vineyards. The real estate folks who sell these properties to the newcomers tell them owning a vineyard for a weekend getaway place will make a 'Statement' to their friends back in the city. Most of these small holdings aren't economically rational, that isn't the point at all.

I finally this year had to fence my orchard. As all the neighboring land got converted and fenced I had become the neighborhood zoo, deer everywhere. The replacement trees I plant each year weren't surviving. We put cages around the new trees but this year the deer learned to climb on and crush the cages. So when the new neighbor fenced his parcel, we gave up and did ours at the same time. This really is the end of an era, these orchards were unfenced and in many cases farmed jointly, for over 100 years.

The real estate lady managing my new neighbor's place told me 'fences make good neighbors'. My argument that we've all been good neighbors forever made no impression on her. She's from New York. The prior RE agent who sold that parcel to the prior owner 10 years ago was from New Orleans. He told me I had to participate with him on paving the quarter mile easement out to the highway because that parcel was unsellable facing a dirt road. I refused. I don't intend to sell this place in my lifetime, I don't care what its market value might be.

Summary - city people buy these 'one-horse' old, small family farms then completely destroy the ambiance they had found attractive. To create a place they might only visit several times a year. Then move on, in under 10 years, to destroy something else.

Sad but true more often than not.

Heck... I'm in a city and will have the police show up to ask what I'm doing... even when Mom was working down the backside of her property with a wheelbarrow... the complaint was someone was suspiciously digging... most likely thought a body was being disposed of... kid you not.

The Dozer was always fun... would blade the mandated fire trials each year and every year it would generate complaints... just from people seeing the dozer... had so many visits at one time from the city... got to the point I said please tell me I don't have to maintain the firetrials so I can have the day off... just a lot of explaining to do and we were there long before the subdivisions folks moved in...

I was renting my city house which is zoned for horses... had a nice family come to look... he was a pastor at the local church... all was going well and then a two turkeys came walking across the back... that did it... wife said it was much too dangerous for her 9 and 10 year old daughters with wild animals roaming free... wanted to know why I had not reported it... can't make this stuff up.

 

[roadhunter]

Wow ^^^!

 

[dickfoster]

Sad but true more often than not.

Heck... I'm in a city and will have the police show up to ask what I'm doing... even when Mom was working down the backside of her property with a wheelbarrow... the complaint was someone was suspiciously digging... most likely thought a body was being disposed of... kid you not.

The Dozer was always fun... would blade the mandated fire trials each year and every year it would generate complaints... just from people seeing the dozer... had so many visits at one time from the city... got to the point I said please tell me I don't have to maintain the firetrials so I can have the day off... just a lot of explaining to do and we were there long before the subdivisions folks moved in...

I was renting my city house which is zoned for horses... had a nice family come to look... he was a pastor at the local church... all was going well and then a two turkeys came walking across the back... that did it... wife said it was much too dangerous for her 9 and 10 year old daughters with wild animals roaming free... wanted to know why I had not reported it... can't make this stuff up.

I think you need to sell, move out of that place and never look back. LOL Or maybe I need to move out of the danger I'm in. A flock of wild turkeys are walking around here all the time.

 

[ultrarunner]

It seems the real divide is not along racial or economic lines but rural and urban.

Rural is more apt to take care of things that come up and city more apt to want it taken care of.

That said I have had good immediate neighbors everywhere I have lived... the people that know me have never been an issue.

The problem in the city is you can have a 20 acres with a few animals and be surrounded and have a 100 adjacent property owners...

Not to get too far off into the woods but it seems some are finally starting to realize that every tree or blade of grass is not sacred simply for existing.

Fire is a clear and present danger and to prohibit someone from discing or removing trees because it might disturb a mouse has no answer when the mouse also looses habitat when fire comes through.

 

[JMER817]

I watched a Detroit TV station and was cracking up when they were interviewing a lady complaining that it had been days since a tree fell across her driveway during a storm and the "city" hadn't come out to move it yet. As a result she couldn't make it to work. Out here in the country where I live we had more than a dozen trees fall across the road within a 1/4 stretch during a really bad storm. Unreal how many neighbors including myself were out there with chainsaws and tractors cleaning up. We take care of ourselves, not wait on someone else.

 

[Pixguy]

I watched a Detroit TV station and was cracking up when they were interviewing a lady complaining that it had been days since a tree fell across her driveway during a storm and the "city" hadn't come out to move it yet. As a result she couldn't make it to work. Out here in the country where I live we had more than a dozen trees fall across the road within a 1/4 stretch during a really bad storm. Unreal how many neighbors including myself were out there with chainsaws and tractors cleaning up. We take care of ourselves, not wait on someone else.

Very true and unfortunately those people procreate.

 

[dickfoster]

I watched a Detroit TV station and was cracking up when they were interviewing a lady complaining that it had been days since a tree fell across her driveway during a storm and the "city" hadn't come out to move it yet. As a result she couldn't make it to work. Out here in the country where I live we had more than a dozen trees fall across the road within a 1/4 stretch during a really bad storm. Unreal how many neighbors including myself were out there with chainsaws and tractors cleaning up. We take care of ourselves, not wait on someone else.

More likely she was just looking for an excuse not to go to work. LOL However in that place she's lucky to have any job at all so she'd better get on the stick. Probably union so it won't really matter. That place looks like a bombed out apocalyptic war ruin and was not one of my favorite places to visit. It's a good example of what socialism eventually does for ya though.

I hear ya, around here you'd have to fight them off. If nothing else they'd be after the firewood since it would probably be oak trees.

 

[Garandman]

Or from hugging that strange looking black cat with the white strips down it's back .

There are skunks in cities too. They look gorgeous, their fur is all glossy - well fed.

Our kitten has befriended a baby skunk from next door. The kitten runs out and they run around together. We're wondering how that's going to end: the dog has already learned his lesson.