Rough week in the country.

[Gary Fowler]

Dogs are naturally going to respond to someone walking or biking down the road in front of their stomping grounds. If the owner cares for their dog, he will have it fenced in so it cant get to the road. I wouldn't be a bit concerned about a car hitting a dog that was chasing me while walking or riding on the road.

I have the entire 42 acres fenced with net wire to keep my animals in and others out. There is a spot where a creek flows thru that a determined animal can get under the wire when the creek is not running. Any domestic animal that behaves himself if he accidently gets on my property gets put back out thru a gate and can be on his way. If they come in and start killing my farm animals, then they have signed their death warrant if I see them.

I keep my animals behind a fence and I expect others to do the same if possible. It is not possible to keep flying creatures (guineas, chickens, peafowl, geese, ducks) behind the fence all the time so if one of them gets smacked by a car, I cant complain about it.

 

[Thomas]

Hard not to feel guilty in a way but the owner to fault.
You folks seem to be the type doesn't like stirring pot,but I would keep eye also ear open on your neighbor.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Cyclist that obey traffic laws are seldom a nuisance. But those are few and far between. I'm not aware of any traffic laws that permit hoards of bicycle riders blocking traffic, failing to stop at Stop signs, and totally ignoring traffic signal lights.

Yes, I do occasionally ride bicycles, and a lot of motorcycling, as well as driving my pickup. However, traffic laws are not selective - if you use public roads, public traffic laws apply.

What I don't understand is why cyclist don't have to buy license plates or carry liability insurance. Isn't that interesting?

Hitting an animal or causing one to be hit is a real bummer though. When possible, I even avoid hitting a squirrel, racoon, or whatever that happens to be in the road. That's not because I have a certain love or respect for them per se, but causing loss of life is painful regardless of where or why.

 

[Sigarms]

Cyclists should show respect for traffic but they have also full right to use public roads. Many drivers seem to have a superior attitude towards cyclists and try and express there inferior superior attitude.

Other way around in my neck of the woods.

I use to run biathlons in my youth. Many hours on the road both on bike and running. My mother taught me that even if I'm right, when dealing with a car on the road, does you no good to be right and in a cemetery. I always ran and road defensively on rural roads, always trying to treat a driver behind me with respect because I knew they could kill me.

I can assure you, when I'm either behind a cyclist or coming up on them, I treat them with respect because I know what it's like to be in their shoes and wonder if I had a idiot car driver coming up behind me.

That said, going to church one morning, and got behind TWO bike riders. The two were taken up the entire lane and made it to risky for me to pass, so I didn't. This has happened to me more than a couple times now, and to be honest, really kind of irritating.

Seems now the mind set (at least in my area) with bikers is if you can't let the car pass you, you run less likely a chance of the car accidently "clipping you". Seems the arrogance at least in my area, has gone to the bike riders.

That said, still remember what my mother taught me about cars. If a cyclists pisses off a car driver, the cyclist is genearlly going to lose everytime.

I'm at the point now where if they don't want to let me pass, I will in a straightaway even if they're taking up the entire lane (of course when opposing traffic allows me to do so).

Every once in a while I do come across some cyclists riding in single file. Generally few and far in between. That said, never could understand biking with 20-50 people on the road with me. Kind of defeated one of the better aspects of cycling for myself, time with myself or some close friends trying to get better.

 

[MossRoad]

When I found illegal deer stands on my property, I just took them down to the county police station and dropped them off. I left a note in a zip-lock back tacked to the tree that they could pick it up there, and that the land was private property and no hunting without my written permission. I also got in contact with my local DNR conservation officer and had a nice conversation about the stands and the bait piles. Gave him my blessing to feel free to look in on my place anytime he felt like it. And also told him anyone who was hunting would have my written permission, name and phone number. Please call me to verify if necessary....

Two years later, he "caught" my in-laws cutting firewood! :laughing: I forgot to give them a note, but they showed him the key to the gate that I gave them and he figured if they had a key, it was OK.

As for dogs, next time one comes out, stop and let it chew your leg up real good, rather than have it run out in the street and chase you. I admire you for feeling compassion about a dead or injured dog. After all, it's not the dog's fault, it's the owner's fault. However, you should be upset with the owner, not yourself. In no way are you primarily, secondarily, or even fractionally a tiny bit responsible for that dead animal. It's 100% on the owner, wether it be a vicsious dog or one that slipped out of the house. It's all on them.

I have a friend that rides quite a bit. He carries bear spray on his bike, and has used it half a dozen times. If he sees a dog run up across a yard, he arms himself. If the dog just runs along and barks, he keep riding. If it lunges at him aggressively, he sprays it. It stops them right now!

When my daughter ran cross-country and we'd go for runs, I'd ride along with her on my bike. I almost always carried pepper spray for dogs. We had a few come at us. I'd put the bike between us and the dog, and fortunately, they all went away. But I was prepared to spray them if it came to that.

Maybe look into that, and see if its legal to carry pepper spray in your area.

 

[Overtaxed]

does you no good to be right and in a cemetery

LOL, my father used to say the same thing all the time! Better to let someone else be wrong and live than to be right and dead. It's how I've always ridden my bikes, both pedal and motorcycles. Sure, you didn't have the right of way and turned in front of me on my motorcycle, still a much better idea to swerve and avoid than to tbone you and while being carried out on a stretcher, explain the finer points of traffic law to you. Same thing with riding side by side in the road, yes, it's probably legal (although, I don't know that for sure), but, if there's a car behind you who swings around you and another car is oncoming, guess what? You're getting hit, because that driver isn't going to take a head on to avoid hitting you on a bike. So, all the "I was in the right" in the world isn't going to help your bones heal.

I have 60 acres invisible fenced for my dogs. So yeah, I know, they want to run the cars, I even have the driveway "off limits" for them because I'm afraid of them getting in front of the UPS/mail driver. So many animal owners are just idiots, if you can't afford a fence and you live right on the road (as was the case in my recent incident) keep the dog on a leash, a run, or, frankly, don't get a dog if you're not willing to do either. My dogs chase me on a bike for God's sake; they sure as heck would chase me down the driveway if there wasn't 10,000 volts standing between me and them. And I'm sure they'd be murauding the neighborhood bikers if that fence wasn't there. It's not that they are bad dogs, it's that is what dogs do.

BTW, in case anyone is interested, fencing 60 acres isn't as expensive as you might think. Took about a mile of wire and a subsoiler with a pipe welded on it, but all told, the cost was about 1200 bucks, IIRC (for the wire, 2 collars and the controller). Pretty darn reasonable, if you ask me. Maybe I'll walk over (or wait for the neighbor to come over) and offer to help him put in an invisible fence with my tractor. I might have enough wire left over for his front yard.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I grew up in the country, and car-chasing dogs were pretty common...but everyone, especially their owners, knew that their days were numbered and it was just a matter of time until they were dead meat. You either fenced your yard or trained them to stay in the yard...or maybe keep them on a chain...which most farmers never did...if you wanted them to be around very long. Most country folks I knew were pretty hardened to the death of animals, else come butchering time you would not be able to kill your "pets".

The face of country living is changing; in my old home town area there seems to be a significant number of the white trash types moving in, living in trailers and some say cooking meth. Even so, the upright city folks moving to the country sometimes don't quite get the code of country living. There's nothing like a big city type coming to the country and trying to tell us hicks how to do things we have known how to do for a hundred years. As for bike riding, that was for kids...and I have ridden as far as 10 miles to visit my grade school buddy...watching out all the while for the raggedy *** old German Shepard mix that sure as the sun comes up, will be out to greet me about half way there.

There was one farm that had a big flocks of guineas, and they liked to play in the road...to top it off, the was a hill going North just before you got to his driveway. No if you drive fast...like most country boys did...you could expect to occasionally encounter a flock of guineas topping the hill. Now they say you can never run over a guinea, but take it from me, it's possible to not only run over one, but you can get several at one time if you are driving fast enough.

We live on a suburban acreage now that used to be a rural acreage...and my neighbors...none of them are country folks. In fact, the one next to me mows his acre once a year whether it needs it or not. last year he found a SUV he had forgotten about.

In any case, I wouldn't trade it for city living under any circumstances that I have the choice to make.

 

[GregbkH]

For what it's worth, a drive to the local gas station in my area can break my heart when I see how some people treat and handle their dogs. Oh wait, should I put my big boy pants on and man up? LMAO

If you have real tears streaming down your face by the time you get to the gas station...... then the answer is yes! LMAO

 

[Groo]

I'll never understand the mentality of moving "out to the country" then building your house right on a major road.

The only traffic I can see from my house is one neighbor comming and going when the leaves are down and boat traffic on the river; maybe 1 boat a week in season. I own all of 10 acres (half across the two track I share witht he neighbors), so you don't need a whole section to get a little privacy either.

 

[CobyRupert]

As for dogs, next time one comes out, stop and let it chew your leg up real good, rather than have it run out in the street and chase you. I admire you for feeling compassion about a dead or injured dog. After all, it's not the dog's fault, it's the owner's fault. However, you should be upset with the owner, not yourself. In no way are you primarily, secondarily, or even fractionally a tiny bit responsible for that dead animal. It's 100% on the owner, wether it be a vicsious dog or one that slipped out of the house. It's all on them.

:thumbsup: That dog sees you as prey and most likely wants to harm you or even kill you if given a chance. In my book that means: Game on! No quarter given. If that dog choses, by instinct and poor ownership, to enter a fight to death, so be it. It's you or him.
Consider yourself lucky the car came along.
If not yourself, then consider the 10 year old kid or 80 year old grandma who might ride their bike down that road tomorrow lucky.