Your neighbors view of you

[flusher]

Do your neighbors, friends, co-workers etc. look at you in amazement when you meet them and tell them what you accomplished over the weekend? You would think some of them never get out of the house and do/attempt anything.

Like myself, all of my neighbors live on flat 10-acre parcels (square, 1 furlong per side) in a checkerboard layout. So I have 8 nearest neighbors. Four of them have horses (which they tell me is like having kids), one has orchards (prunes, mandarin oranges) and sheep, another has a small olive orchard and 10 or 15 head of cattle he's fattening up, another grows hay crops, and one has just finished building a 2700 sf home and is doing the landscaping now.

As for myself, I moved into my place last Jan and have been pretty busy since then. Built a shed for garden tools, a greenhouse, about 140 feet of paver block walkway, backyard patio, masonry BBQ pit. Planted a dozen grape vines and about 10 berry plants and built the trellises. Finished installing vinyl gutters/downspouts a few weeks ago. Used the Kubota B7510HST and the brush hog three times so far this year.

Present project: an observatory shed for my telescope.

Next project: install the landscape sprinklers (in Nov after the rain softens the ground a bit). Then fence in the backyard and get a dog.

Had a little setback a few weeks ago. Landed in the ER with dehydration/heat exhaustion. Felt normal after about 45 minutes on an IV. Overdid it and didn't drink enough Gatorade. Easy to do up here in the North Valley with temps in the mid-90s and humidity around 10% if you're not careful. Learned that lesson the hard way.

BTW: I'm retired so working around my place is my full time job.

 

[BTDT]

That's what I'm talking about. Jack of all trades. If something needs doing, do it. I think I was blessed by having a dad that not only did all his own repairs, but let/encouraged me to help. I try to instill that in my son as well. He looks at some of my projects and asks how I did them. I just tell him I try to figure it all out in my head, make sketches, etc., then just make the project end up the way I had it pictured. I like the way rotten harv treats his workers--with respect.

 

[Soundguy]

Do your neighbors, friends, co-workers etc. look at you in amazement when you meet them and tell them what you accomplished over the weekend? You would think some of them never get out of the house and do/attempt anything.

Yep.. I know lots of peopl ethat work a 9-5, come home, and plop down on the couch. Nothing else.. nada. A few of the more 'driven' ones may even mow their own lawn.
Then they rag me about not having time to go 'waste' with them playing cards or watching a ball game cause i work 2 jobs and have a farm and a few hobbies.

Soundguy

 

[MossRoad]

We have about seven neighbors that we talk to regularly. They all agree that I am entertaining to watch.

For instance, when we moved in, I had my father's old sixties Simplicity lawn tractor and my father-in-law's 70's Simplicity at my house. The neighbor has a nice wheelhorse. We share about 100 yards of fence. One day I saw him out there mowing with his wheelhorse and I thought it would be fun to sneak up next to him along the fence on the older Simplicity in third gear and kind of drag race him down the fence line. I kind of startled him when he noticed me coming up next to him hunched over and hauling along in third. I looked over and gave him the evil eye. He is about 30 years my senior and wasn't going to let the young punk win. He rammed his hydro control forward and beat me to the end. Expecting me to stop, he stopped, but I threw it around and made it into a two lap race. He met the challenge, but as soon as he caught up to me, my muffler exploded, flew off the tractor and started my very dry lawn on fire. I had to pull over and stomp out the flames.

The next week, I again pulled up next to him and challenged him along the fence and pointed to my shiney, new muffler. As he left me in the dust, my left rear tire fell off and I had to pull out of the race. He laughed hard and kept mowing. I slipped the tire back on, drove around the corner of the house and hopped on my FIL's tractor. A minute later I appeared next to him yet again only on a much nicer, newer Simplicity and that really startled him. I had him in the turn but must have turned too hard because the right front tire then fell off. I about put him in the hospital with a split gut from the laughter.

This went on for a couple years. He never lost, but I never gave up. Then one day he was out mowing and I snuck up on him with my PT425, 60" front mower, and a score to settle. He heard me coming and as he turned to look I raised the deck 54" into the air and roared past him!!! Victory!!!!

 

[SkyPup]

Kind of a sad state when the only thing a person can operate is a remote, don't you think?

These same folk are generally pretty good at popping off the top of a beer can too!

 

[HomeBrew2]

... pretty good at popping off the top of a beer can too!

I resemble that remark It's not as easy as it looks, late in the day

 

[Torrak]

You guys sound like you have angels for neighbors compared to mine.

On one side we had a neighbor who thought it was ok to let his pitbull roam while he sat inside and presumably downed cases of twinkies and cases of vegetable oil. While I was at work this dog killed at least 5 of my chickens, threatened my wife, and was nearly shot by animal control. I found out later that this jerk just took the dog out further and let it go. Needless to say I don't like this neighbor a bit.

Across our field is a migrant hispanic family who admirably pooled their money together to build a huge home. Of course while they were building, instead of renting a garbage dumpster, they just threw their trash on the ground and let it blow into my property and then refused to pick it up. I also caught them stealing rock off my property to build a rock wall. Nice enough people but clueless on what is socially acceptable.

Then comes the business family. They send out a video to the neighbors (lucky we didn't get one) about how much money her husband made last year (1.5 million). Every week they get a new toy, and when they walk their dogs past our home, they mock our house and make snide comments. His wife actually scolded my wife for working telling her that a woman should stay at home and watch the kids. Oh yes, her german shepards kept getting out and attacking our horse and they never even offered to pay for the vet bill, they claimed the dogs were "playing" with the horse. These are the same dogs that slaughtered one of their goats.

Then, up the road is the biker family. Their kids are weird and mal-adjusted. When my wife walked our dog up by their house, their dogs snarled at her (of course they were not penned up) and they just laughed. Their house is a dump and they have no pride in ownership.

So, as you can see, I clearly need to sell and get the **** away from these people. Home for sale, located on 9 acres =)

 

[wushaw]

You guys sound like you have angels for neighbors compared to mine.

On one side we had a neighbor who thought it was ok to let his pitbull roam while he sat inside and presumably downed cases of twinkies and cases of vegetable oil. While I was at work this dog killed at least 5 of my chickens, threatened my wife, and was nearly shot by animal control. I found out later that this jerk just took the dog out further and let it go. Needless to say I don't like this neighbor a bit.

Across our field is a migrant hispanic family who admirably pooled their money together to build a huge home. Of course while they were building, instead of renting a garbage dumpster, they just threw their trash on the ground and let it blow into my property and then refused to pick it up. I also caught them stealing rock off my property to build a rock wall. Nice enough people but clueless on what is socially acceptable.

Then comes the business family. They send out a video to the neighbors (lucky we didn't get one) about how much money her husband made last year (1.5 million). Every week they get a new toy, and when they walk their dogs past our home, they mock our house and make snide comments. His wife actually scolded my wife for working telling her that a woman should stay at home and watch the kids. Oh yes, her german shepards kept getting out and attacking our horse and they never even offered to pay for the vet bill, they claimed the dogs were "playing" with the horse. These are the same dogs that slaughtered one of their goats.

Then, up the road is the biker family. Their kids are weird and mal-adjusted. When my wife walked our dog up by their house, their dogs snarled at her (of course they were not penned up) and they just laughed. Their house is a dump and they have no pride in ownership.

So, as you can see, I clearly need to sell and get the **** away from these people. Home for sale, located on 9 acres =)

The Pit & German Shepard should have been shot on the spot...any dog on your property "playing" with your horses, kids, wife whoever gives you right to protect your family & property.
Clearly you need to move though...you are completely out numbered by the trash of our species.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. I think I'd have put some lead into any dog messing with my horses.

Only on 2 occasions has a dog gotten to my horses, luckilly both times the horses made speed bumps out of the dogs, which eventually limped and drug themselves back off my property.. etc. Havn't seen them since. Hopefully their owner got smart and put a fence up on his property.

Soundguy

The Pit & German Shepard should have been shot on the spot...any dog on your property "playing" with your horses, kids, wife whoever gives you right to protect your family & property.
Clearly you need to move though...you are completely out numbered by the trash of our species.

 

[monkeymonk]

Not to get to far off the orginal topic. Rules round these parts,if your dog runs don't expect to see it later on. I wory about my dog when she chases horse's back to the neighbors.One neighbor told me she'd do anything to protect her kitties! these are my neighbors on the 8 acres river side.My German is trained to "Git the horses".Free range county.Hopefully thell get smart and fence the horses.............Nahhaa

theres 250 of us in 1,000,000 acres. if your 20 miles away were still neighbors.like it or not. we all might not agree on topics but we stil need each other at times,and community gatherings are the RAGE. you see folks that you havent seen in months and wonder if they had died or ?. So much excitment and catching up on how ya doing and projects the time just flies and then its months later again. close by on my "8"theres 15 people some agree some don't,but hey were all in this together.

when we were up on the other spot our nearest neighbors were 6 miles away and were related.unrelated neighbors were 12miles and 20. Talk about peace and quiet.but when you needed an extra hand you were on the CB or out'a luck! Our Biggest neighbor that owns all the property in between all of us and is surrounding our property is the U.S.F.S. not to bad considering there office is hours away.