$ 6,000.00 Drunk

[fractal]

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

When I was a kid my dad was taking me up to boy scout camp at night after he got off of work. We were out in the middle of nowhere, lost, when the car started acting up. We started walking down the road, stopping at every house we came to, knocking on the doors asking people to please call the police for us. At several houses we were chased by dogs let out of the front doors. At one house we had a shotgun pointed at us out of the window and were told to leave. We went back to the car and sat for a long time, until some other lost boy scouts picked us up. We got to the camp and called a towing company. They picked us up, we went back to the car and it had a ticket on it.

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How true. This is one side of the equation that many rural folk don't seem to understand. Let's just say you got off easy.

My father and his student were flying their helecoptor during the air traffic controllers strike a while ago. The air traffic controller issued them a "course change directive". They followed the directive. Right into the side of a mountain. Both dad and his student were thrown clear of the copter. Shoes and watches stayed in the bird. Student had two busted legs but crawled to a nearby farm house. Pounded on the door for 3 hrs. Owner apparantly called police after an hour or two and told the cops that there was an accident. The cops spent an hour driving up and down the road looking for the crash before visiting the house.

Well, 6 hrs after the crash they finally find dad. He was still alive after 6 hrs in 20 degree weather. He wasn't alive when they got him to the hospital.

I don't blame the air traffic controller who directed him into the side of the mountain, nor do I blame the air traffic controller for "forgetting to notice" that the bird he gave a course change to "dissapeared". Heck, I don't blame anyone. But, had the people in that napa farmhouse bothered to answer the door and had the napa county sherrif bothered to respond... Who knows.

Next time you think how "inconvenient" it is for you to answer the door at 2am, try thinking about my dad freezing to death on the top of that mountain. Yeah, it may be an obnoxious drunk. Then again, it might not.

 

[RSeymour]

Glen,

There are less expensive alternatives than I chose, & I know some TBN members have done it themselvs for less. It seems to me there was a thread last winter on this subject. Listed below is what I did/spent.

Black (painted) Aluminum gate 4’ high, 16’ wide $1,485.00
Straight top, no arch, no pickets, but good looking (i.e. wife likes it)
The fancier gates run from $3,000 to $5,000.

Swing gate opener (Osco commercial grade) 220 volt $1,178.00

11 Gage 8’ long posts (1 @ 4x4 & 1@ 8x8) $ 332.00

Labor $1,112.00

Michigan Sales Tax & Misc. Stuff $ 300.00

4 remote transmitters & receiver at gate $ 400.00
1 for each car, 1 for tractor, & one for house

Safety photoelectric switch $ 275.00

The Fire and Police emergency access will be via a Knox Box as recommended by our Fire Chief. It will only cost about $100.00. In fact, I may add extra units to allow emergency access to the garage and house. Their web site is at http://www.knoxbox.com/store/rapidentrysystem.cfm.

I estimate the electrical work will cost $ 500 to $1,000. It is running 10 gage wire from the panel in the house to the controller about 120’ from the house. I should have that price today.

As I have an emergency generator, I am not worried about any kind of standby power (battery) supply.

I will eventually have a wireless TC/PIP camera system and wireless intercom at the gate, but I have not priced those items. I will install them myself, as they are no-brainers and not very expensive. I am not in much of a hurry for them, as the gate will only be closed at night or when we are gone. We will keep it open during the day.

 

[RSeymour]

Fractal,

First, I can not convey how sad your story makes me. I would NEVER turn anyone away that is truly and obviously in need of assistance. That is the main reason I will be installing a camera and intercom at the gate. If someone is in desperate need of help I want to be able to help him or her. The inconvenience of 2 am is not a factor in my thoughts.

I also grew up in a time and place when houses were not locked & nobody worried about us kids getting snatched up or molested. Hell, back then if you got hurt it was generally assumed to be your fault, not someone elses. Unfortunately those days are gone. Today we are hesitant to stop on the highway to help a stranded motorist for fear it may be a setup. Thank goodness for cell phones.

Many of us live in rural or semi-rural areas. The fact of life here is that it takes longer to get any kind of assistance than “in the city”. My wife and I moved from Grosse Pointe Park (part of the Detroit, MI metro. Area). We were used to a response time of 30 seconds from our police or fire dept. Where we are now we expect a response time of 5 to 10 minutes, which is still blazing fast compared to some areas.

My goal in this gate exercise is to protect my wife from the “casual” intruder and secure our yard from wandering neighborhood dogs (don’t get me started on that one). I realize the serious criminal will ignore the gate and fence. My wife and I love the area and if a gate is required to make my wife more relaxed at night and/or when I am gone, then so be it. To me it is a small price to pay for her piece of mind.

I never want to be one of those “country folk” that go out of their way to be unfriendly. I may or may not let someone into my yard or house, but I will get them help.

 

[MossRoad]

I was just surprised, as a kid, that no one would answer the door, or at least acknowledge our presence on their porch. They'd turn the lights off and pull the curtains. It really turned me off to country folks for a long time. I realize that they probably get all kinds of weirdos out there bugging them, but the same thing happens in the city. Even today, in the city, if someone comes to my door asking to use the phone, I'll politely ask them for the number and make the call for them myself, so that they don't have to come in, and they still get help for whatever they need.

I like your gate ideas. When we move out to our property, we will have a gate with intercom and X10 camera. And a well lit area off of the road for people to pull in. I will still help people, but there is no need to let them into my home.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Bird,

When I lived in Idaho the fish and game department caught two poachers who had backed up to the road bank to load and elk and left a perfect imprint of the license plate in the dirt bank when they pulled away.
Al

 

[DaleW]

After having built and moved into our new house in the country we found that our country road with the deep drainage ditches was a magnet for tippsy drivers. They found that after driving off into the ditch they couldn't find a way to get back out so with our house being the closest, up the driveway they came.
We always called the local garage for them, so many times that we were on a first name basis with them. They would come and haul them out and then contact the state police.
One time the bell rang and as usual I got Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson to accompany me to the front door and much to my suprise who was standing there......A STATE TROOPER coming to investigate a recent robbery next door.
Needless to say, there was some tension in the air for a few seconds when I informed him about the 9mm in my waistband. He watched very closely as I brought Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson back to the kitchen and left them on the table.
He was very nice about the whole thing saying that he would do the same thing if he was living out here.

 

[frank_f15]

reading these posts, reminds me of something that happened to me when i was a bit younger, about 1960. i went to visit a friend who had moved to a REALLY remote area , as i was driving home about 1am way out in the boonies, i hit a patch of ice and into the ditch i went, winter was bad and the snow was so deep i could not even open the door, had to go out the window, car was not damaged but it sure was stuck, down in a ditch 4 ft deep, nose of car under barbed wire fence, 1 am and nothing around but a few houses(no cell phones) when out of this house comes these 2 flash lights, old man and his wife, says to me "u ok young fella" yes i say. but i am stuck real good. then the old man ask me " u been drinking?" i say no sir, he wanted to smell my breath, so i breath in his face, and he says no liquor smell, but u had garlic for supper! well i almost wet myself laughing, and the wife says to him, honey get the little cat out and yank him free, so he says ok and goes to the barn and ,i 'll be goldanged if he don't come out with one of the biggest cats i ever saw, pulled me out and when i asked what i could give him he said $.50 for gass will do! so i gave him all my extra money$2.00 and said take your wife out to dinner. NEVER FORGOT THAT OLD MAN AND HIS WIFE. but that was a differnt time, people on the whole are good,BUT U MUST ALWAYS PROTECT U AND YOURS.
HOPE I DI NOT RAMBLE ? JUST HAD TO TELL THAT STORY.