WOW

[Thomas]

I can't believe it!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif
After so many years of trickers on Halloween making a mess,like smash pumpkins..eggs..the plastic on the role hay spray painted..mail box smashed/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif,there was no clean up or damage this year. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif
Now comes the true test..xmas tree jackers. /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Hope you folks made out well also.

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

 

[Bird]

Heck, Thomas, we live so far out in the sticks that we haven't even had a trick or treater, much less any pranksters in the nearly 6 years we've been here.

Bird

 

[alan40]

Glad to hear that the Halloween goblins didn't get you. Up here in Fairfield Vt. we've have been lucky three years in a row. I just started to plant trees last year. I planted a 100 Norwegien Spruce, 5 Blue Spruce and one Balsum just to see. It's alot of fun but I have alot of road frontage so like you I'm going to wait and see what happens a couple of years down the road. I planted wild flowers on the edge of my yard two years ago and I was out mowing my yard when a van stopped. The next thing you know people are pulling my flowers out by the roots and I'm sitting right there.
When I planted my trees I was mowing with a Toro and spaced them 6 feet apart so it was easy to get around them. Now that I have my N.H. with a brush hog I relised that I should off planted them farther apart. Now that I know that my next hundred will be a little better spaced. There is nothing like working on your property and getting your hands dirty to improve your day.
Take care and good luck,
Al

 

[Thomas]

Al,
When I planted my evergreens I also planted them 6 foot apart /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif,and now I wish I planted the 10 to 12 feet apart like the Colorado blue spruces.

Know what you mean about some people just helping them selfs.
Last year in front of my home on the main road someone cut blue spruces half way down and left the rest,/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif does indeed make one wonder.

I agree there nothing like working around the outside,and its not really work if you enjoy what your doing. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Hope the snow has melted up there in Fairfield,VT,I just have spots here and there....whew. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif



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

 

[ejb]

same here...haven't seen a trick or treater in over 11 years...we figured this year we would defintely have at least one since it was the first year my wife didn't buy a few candy bars just in case...but not a one!

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

We tied our 25 year record high for "trick or treaters" zip, zero again. I do like to see the little one's but I guess not having any problems makes up a bit.

 

[RobertN]

Thomas,
What if you got a electric fence controller and ran a few strands in a few of the trees? Someone gets up close, and gets a little jingle... Turn the controller down, so it's just a little jingle though...

Or... I like this! Put some rainbirds out there(insulate them). Connect a couple inexpensive Radio Shack motion detectors to a automatic water valve. When someone walks out there to steal your tree, The sprinklers come on and give them a "shower" /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Or, you could hook a motion sensor to a loudspeaker that directs them "please step away from my tree" in a authoritative voice.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[WVBill]

I've seen battery powered motion detector "rainbirds" in gardening catalogs. They're advertised as "Deer deterrents". - Suppose they could be "tree rustler" deterrents just as well, maybe better.

Bill

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Any ole motion detector security light thingy with an electric water valve (like from a junk dishwasher) instead of a light bulb can turn the water on for a rain bird. Put the switch in the "TEST" position as this defeats the photo cell and lets it turn on in the daytime as well as limits the on time period to about 10 sec past when it no longer detects motion (saves a lot of water and makes less mess). Built one to keep dogs and cats out of my landscaping before going to ultrasonics. It trained the postman to stay on the sidewalk and not cut through the yard and hedge. Was pretty funny to see lil miss "Do-it-for-mama" with a rat on a rope nearly have her arm jerked out of socket when the dog went into 4X4 and max throttle when the water came on. Actually the dog tried to be a block away while the air in the line was still being cleared out before any water sprayed out. Anyway it shut off within 10 sec afteer dog left and didn't waste water during drought because I coulda been ticketed. The neighborhood kids discovered that if they ran back and forth through the yard the sprinkler would keep spraying whhich started running excess water down the gutter and threatened to get me a ticket so I replaced it with ultrasonics and put the sprinkler setup in the back yard for cats visiting my garden (worked well in a most satisfyingly amusing manner).

Hadn't thougt of using it for deer as was mentioned elsewhere. Seems like a good idea as I have a fair sized resident deer population that beds down neer a couple of my ponds (switched locales on you... living in San Diego but have 160 acres in Oklahoma where I will be moving in a couple months or so if escrow closes on this dump as predicted for the 24-27 Nov '00... The 1/4 section is why I'm hanging out around a tractor info Mecca, gotta get a tractor)

P.S. The authoritarian, "Step away from the tree!" recorded message sounds neat. Maybe, "Warning! BIO-HAZARD and RADIATION DANGER ZONE!" would work. Would, "Warning, Extreme Tire Damage, my rifle-your tire" be too agressive??