edited to add we have broadband and indoor plumbing too...we are in a little rural village. WAY out in the boonies. I LOVE it. I'm literally 500 feet from a cow pasture, and 6 blocks from a VERY good hospital.
My sister's farm is 4 miles down the road.. The kids can and did walk there when Mom was alive just to hang out in the barn with gramma. Heck ...I used to walk there.
Not all that long ago we had a herd of cows get loose and run full tilt down the street just up the hill from us. the farmers wife was in the truck and her hubby was tearing down the street on his John Deere. it was hilarious.
Oh and dont be too sure about the "no 35 mph" sheesh to get to DH 's school he has to drive 30 mph til the main road, then 35 for 3 full miles, then 45 for another mile, then 55 for about a mile, then down to 40.. then 45 for another mile. then depending on which way he goes. he can go 55 for 5 miles then 30 for 3 miles or 30 for 4 miles, then back to 55 for a couple miles then 45 for a mile. Every little teeny burg and hamlet has a 35 mph limit. We are exactly 100 miles from Buffalo. We dont hit a 4 lane til we are 24 miles from downtown Buffalo. its winding hilly 2 lane roads for 75 miles and we go through at LEAST 15 little hamlets and villages all with 30-35 mph speed zones.
Welcome to the country..
kathy_in_wlsv2009-04-05 19:05:31Sometimes people just live to complain. My mother's neighbor was angry that birds nesting in the trees between her house and a neighbors made too much noise in the morning, and was going to sue the neighbor to make her cut down the trees! My mom told her she thought that was ridiculous, so she stopped talking to my mother too!
We used to have goats and when it was springtime and they were in heat they could be VERY noisy. We had a pet rooster too. (He would even crow if someone got up in the middle of the night and raided the frig and he saw the light when the door opened!) But we never got any complaints from our neighbors fortunately.
I can understand when houses are really close together how it could be very difficult if you have nasty neighbors. That's why I need some "land, lots of land, under starry skies above". Having to live in an apartment in the city until after high school, I don't ever want to be a city girl again.
As a kid, we moved from the city to the suburbs....... and I remember not being able to sleep because it was TOO quiet!!
I like my happy medium...... the suburbs........ I am moments from anything needed/wanted/or thought of.....
and my dogs are the noisiest in our neighborhood.... but they aren't permitted to irritate anyone ...... because when they're noisey they irritate me first and I bring them in.
I think where you all live sounds devine....... I would enjoy it.....
I'm trying to convince DH if we move to TX can I have a ranch and raise puppies??
[QUOTE=babs10]
[QUOTE=JasmineRain] . There's a small municipal airport a couple towns over. It's been there for well over 50 years - yet some idiots who buy houses RIGHT NEXT TO IT constantly complain about the noise from the small planes that fly in and out.
[/QUOTE]
I overheard a man come up to a commissioner and complain that the hospital's trauma helicopter was being use too much in the middle of the night and waking him up. I guess he thinks they should legislate something about what time life-threatening emergencies are permitted.
The folks across the hwy from us raise huntin' dogs. Must be a ton of 'em over there, but thankfully, they only get wound-up twice a day. Breakfast and supper time, I suspect. They're usually surprisingly quiet otherwise. I really don't even notice the meal-time ruckus anymore.
About a mile and a half down the hwy is an outfit that raises pigs, chickens, goats and gawd only knows whatall else. LOTS of 'em. On a hot, humid day, if there's a slight breeze from that direction, the smell will get ya. (Laundry definitely does not get hung out on those days!
Maybe you need to plant one of these:
[QUOTE=crabbyhermit]The thing that really irritates the crap out of me is my 'new' neighbor's stinkin' lights. That place is lit up like Ft. Knox every night, and usually all night. No kiddin', they must have a light every five feet around their entire house. Absolute overkill. (Up until 2 yrs. ago, there was nothing there. 10 acres they've got next door, and they chose to build the house right up by mine, that's been here for 40 years. grumble grumble)[/quote]
Yes! yes! YES! The folks "next door" build their McMansion as close to the dividing property line as they could (despite having five acres), built an absolutely ugly hip-roofed shed that is like that proverbial sore thumb from our verandah, and then installed motion-detector lights around mini-mansion and shed. Of course the lights react to every passing stray wind and flicker on/off on/off on/off all night long.
We built a seven foot with a drop down to six foot brick wall around our back garden to regain a modicum of privacy and they complained that we had blocked their view of our fountain and rose garden.
[quote]I'm up in the middle of the night a lot, so often I'll go out and sit on the porch and listen to the owls and other nocturnal guys. It sucks having what feels like a high-intensity spot light trained on all of my 'sittin' spots. (Love the way it shines into my bedroom windows, too.) They just recently installed lights on the posts at their driveway, and again, obviously they went with high-intensity. These illuminate my livingroom. Shadow puppets, anyone?[/quote]
Like you, I spend many nights sitting under the stars listening to the night and find that on/off on/off all too reminiscent of the search lights scanning back and forth across prison yards in black and white movies. I sometimes have to resist the urge to stand up and yell, "I surrender!"
[quote]I've been busily planting things to try and screen some of it, but I swear, the more I plant on my side, the more he cuts down on his side. I just don't get it.[/quote]
We have a 'desert honeysuckle' growing on a ten foot long X six foot high trellis and a hedge of cane grass and cactus, however xerioscaping is not known for creating privacy barriers. Thanks! ShugI have a friend whose neighbor, close quarters, had a dog that barked all night. He went to Court, the guy didn't show up and the Judge prohibited him from having a dog license so he could no longer have a dog. This is L.A.ugh..jumping on the neighbor vent.......
my youngest daughter just called to say that the little one next door (about 5) just got nipped at by my terrier........ when the boy stuck his hand inside my fence..
I was upset..
Meg (youngest DD) said that they had been sticking sticks through the fence at the dogs which was why she was bringing them in..
well, no wonder!! I'd bite too!!
Then youngest son, who's in Miami with me, said he caught same kids tossing rocks from my flower bed into my back yard at the dogs.
I'm going to have to have a neighbor meeting when I get home............ ugh.
A few years back, we couldn't use our backyard for almost an entire summer because the section-8 deadbeats (I know, they have rights too) next door who didn't have enough money to pay rent always seemed to find enough money for beer, weed, and 6 mean, growling pit bulls (a few had what appeared to be dogfighting scars) which ran wild through the neighborhood. We (the rest of the neighborhood) finally got the dogs taken away and got them evicted after repeated hellraising with the alderman, the police, the housing authority, and animal control, but it was pure hell until they were gone.
And don't even get me started about the neighborhood semi-stray cats who love to dig up and crap in my flowerbed out front, and insist on trying to claw through the screen to fight with our indoor cats at 3:00AM.
Neighbors bah! I love that shrub JR! We should all have at least 5 acres to live peacefully on! Spelunker what happened to you can very well happen to me. The township bought up all the land around me for preserved farm except for 1 lot right on my property line. Someone already tried to do the sam thing but it's only zoned for a 1600 sq ft home and they were putting up a 5000+ I'm sure since times have changed & they could have got the zoning changed to something larger but perhaps not large enough for their taste. I have a home from the 1800's that's about 2500. The area has turned in to McMansionville however.
Your post also reminds me of people who have to park their beach blanket right next to you when there are miles of unoccupied space and the time we were camping and woke up to find a tent right next to ours when their was a lot of open space.
My dog Duke barks at every little sound and sometimes he wont be quiet so we also take him inside. It is even worse when we have tourists in the summer, so we just keep him inside all the time which he loves because he is a golden labrador retriever and they hate to be alone plus in the summer he enjoys the air conditioning
I was brought up in a very rural town and much of that time spent on a farm. Barking pooches we had then, and still do in the city but that is another story. lolol
I sooooo miss the country life, I had my pony then horses, picked field mushrooms two seasons every year until I was sick of them ( for a month or two!), caught crawfish ( USA term!) in the stream, gathered wild crabapples for my mum to make jelly with, lay in fields of daffodils in Spring, spent winters sledding down hills without a crash helmet, loved the smell in the Woolshed and the lanoline smell of freshly shorn wool, eagerly devoured cut lambs tails BBQ'd on chicken wire over a hot fire, catching slippery eels for Dad to hang and then smoke, gathering chestnuts in Autumn, parading my pet lambs at the school pet day, winning a new saddle at the A&P Show, doing Lino Cuts and Sand Saucers for competitions, growing the best Lilac, Snowball, Paeonie ( too warm where I am now), feeding the chooks, ducks and geese and being scared of the peacocks, Guy Fawkes Day with a proper Guy to burn and fireworks galore, and I'll stop!! This has made me so very nostalgic. And I am sure I have totally wandered off the subject, sorry.
BTW, there are easy humane ways to stop dogs barking but with mine (Maremmas) it is in their nature to warn of perceived danger and to protect. I do not try to stop mine from barking unless it becomes attention seeking. Then they stop!
If any of you have links to your communities Id love to look at them. Thanks for this thread, I have spent a good deal of time reminiscing. And its all good. My grandparents were farmers so I spent many school holidays with them. Running through the cornfields, helping with the livestock having tractor rides with the other kids in the area. My grandmother bred Border collies so there were always a lot of puppies around. Her 4 adult collies barked at strangers and had an intruder up against the porch one night but did not bark at nothing.
I love open spaces, we live in a pretty village now on the outskirts of a large town, our village has a post office, bakers, a small store, a butchers and a pub. We overlook the village church and rolling hills. When the Irish mist rolls in off the sea it looks like something from a victorian historical scene.
Oh Sandra....you live in Ireland! If I had one other country to choose to live in over NZ, it would be Ireland first.
Long live the Emerald Isles. Good Grief......Three farmers on the board. Like you both I was raised on a farm and sure wished I had been able to do the same for my kids. The wide open spaces and pets of goats, calves, puppies and kitties and of course the little chicks in the spring. Tons of hard work for everyone but we appreciated every little things we got. God Belss the farmers for without them we would not be here.I would have LOVED to have grown up as you did on a farm...... I read tons of books as a child about farms and horses and all those things that I longed for........ yet, I love our close city.... the plays, the concerts, the shopping, ... and having the neighbors close at hand to chat w/ over the fence in suburbs.....
I truely think I would have been most happy.....on a farm. I always wanted to be a veterinarian .. and my dad wanted me to reconsider thinking I'd never be able to handle it... nor did he wish to pay for all that schooling.... so he asked, do you know how they examine cows and horses... I said Sure DO!! put on a LONG glove and go up inside...... He was so busted...... but, alas, monies was not available and I had to pay my way through school and vet school was too expensive w/ labs etc...... so I stayed in business and law classes for starters... *sigh* if we could go back........
My memories are not quite as idyllic. I was raised on a ranch in the mountainous desert of the Great Basin. I remember being awakened before the sun rose; chilblains in the winter, heat exhaustion in the summer, I remember breaking ice with an axe in the winter time, and mowing hay, and then baling it, in the summer time until the exhaustion would be palpable. I remember riding behind a herd of cattle for four days running, covered in cloying dust, flies everywhere, sleeping in a bedroll that was never warm enough, comfortable enough, or rugged enough; I remember cold so deep that range animals suffered frostbite I remember locust moving through pasture land and hay land devastating everything in their path; I remember drought that killed thousands of animals in the iron grip of thirst and hail that battered whatever remained. I remember being kicked, bitten, butted, and run over during brandings; I remember horses crippled by tangle vine and cactus spines; I remember spending two hours on the school bus morning and evening; I remember not being able to attend state championship ball games, proms, and award ceremonies; I remember being so tired I would fall asleep at the dining table; I remember the stench of kerosene lamps; the pain in my hands and shoulders from splitting wood and chopping kindling beneath the cold stars or mending fences under the fierce sun. I remember…
Certainly I have some wonderful memories of family and of living in the back of nowhere, however I also have many on the other side of the pastoral life.
my goodness.......... Spelunker...... You were quite in the middle of nowhere....My mother grew up on a farm in Indiana. My sister and BIL grew oranges in central California. It was nice to visit the wide open spaces. They were also near Yosemite which is gorgeous.
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