The Neighbors...

[1976gmc20]

This old guy apparently just sits up there in his tool shed cabin for weeks at a time judging by the tire tracks, or lack thereof. He does have electric now but no phone so he can't possibly have internet. Maybe he has a satellite dish for TV (do they even still make those?). He had a well driller up there this year but there appeared to be some sort of drama over that and I rather doubt he ever got water. He has 160 acres of cliffs and trees but I think he is too lazy and crippled to go hiking even if he was so inclined. That doesn't mean he couldn't be dangerous if he got close enough, or decided to shoot from a distance with a rifle.

So between painkillers and probably alcohol and isolation it's no wonder that he conjures up all sorts of stuff to be offended about. I'm basically a hermit, but I have a wife, and pets and horses, and a few friends plus our daughters that call, and I go hiking and horse back riding when the weather allows.

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

I moved to my current home a little over 17 years ago. Where we used to live, we had that crazy neighbor, in the house next to us. Stories. I'll post them in this thread periodically, but here's one. In '91, when the investigators came around to do a background check on me (security clearance- I worked in military satellite communications for over 27 years) the neighbors put cedar pickets up on the block wall to obscure their yard. I didn't care that it didn't meet code- you need a variance to make a fence over 5' tall (and didn't know why they did that, at the time). The '94 Northridge earthquake, we lost 110 feet of block wall, 62 feet of it along the side they were on. When replacement time came, I was all for using chain link, because I wasn't about to foot (even half of) the bill at $50 a foot for earthquake-approved block wall. So, we got an 8 foot tall cedar picket fence. Why did they want the tall pickets, and previously put the first set of pickets on the old wall? Because they run around their back yard naked, the whole family, and it would have been possible for us to see them from the master bedroom window going to their hot tub and pool, since we were at a slightly higher elevation! Didn't know, didn't care. A guy, two sons and a brood sow of a wife, none of which I had any interest in looking at.

We have the same problem . Before I met my wife she bought the house we live in now. At the time her son was 6 and these people would parade around naked. She complained but the police said if they cant be seen from the street they could. Were way back from the road so they did nothing about it. Fast forward 19 years they do the same. He even rides his tractor buck naked. They are in their 70s now. Hopeing one hot day hd runs over one of the boys. We planted a double row of arborvities to screen the view. Their pretty nasty people too . We found that their gravel drive going around their barn was on her property. I went to discuss it with them and he basically said he'd get his rifle if I didnt get off his property. I informed him I was standing on my property. He made a gesture like he was going for a firearm . I reminded him I was a retired LEO and I was carrying. He backed off quick.

Two days later we put a few sections of chain link on the property line. Cops came and we showed them the servey . They called the property inspector he measured off the guys barn and our new fence was 3 inches away from his property line. The guy is livid now and yells "how am I supppose to get up to my house "Property inspector says I guess you need a new driveway. Around me there are only a couple of year round residents. These idiots aren't so I only have to deal with them a couple times during the summer

[special-K]

Did you check up on the law on public nudity. Sounds like BS to me, saying only if visible from the road. That is not the only public view. If you can see from anywhere off their property, that is public view. The public doesn't mean everyone, it means anyone not associated with that property. Maybe it's a lame butt law and states "from the road" and not public view. Dust some lime on his tractor seat

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by special-K

Did you check up on the law on public nudity. Sounds like BS to me, saying only if visible from the road. That is not the only public view. If you can see from anywhere off their property, that is public view. The public doesn't mean everyone, it means anyone not associated with that property. Maybe it's a lame butt law and states "from the road" and not public view. Dust some lime on his tractor seat

Yes we talked to the town attorney. He said there is no law against unless you can be seen from a public road.

[special-K]

Strange

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

We have the same problem . Before I met my wife she bought the house we live in now. At the time her son was 6 and these people would parade around naked. She complained but the police said if they cant be seen from the street they could. Were way back from the road so they did nothing about it. Fast forward 19 years they do the same. He even rides his tractor buck naked. They are in their 70s now. Hopeing one hot day hd runs over one of the boys. We planted a double row of arborvities to screen the view. Their pretty nasty people too . We found that their gravel drive going around their barn was on her property. I went to discuss it with them and he basically said he'd get his rifle if I didnt get off his property. I informed him I was standing on my property. He made a gesture like he was going for a firearm . I reminded him I was a retired LEO and I was carrying. He backed off quick.

Two days later we put a few sections of chain link on the property line. Cops came and we showed them the servey . They called the property inspector he measured off the guys barn and our new fence was 3 inches away from his property line. The guy is livid now and yells "how am I supppose to get up to my house "Property inspector says I guess you need a new driveway. Around me there are only a couple of year round residents. These idiots aren't so I only have to deal with them a couple times during the summer

One thing I will say is that if someone drives across your property enough times, it can be considered an easement, from what I've heard. I ain't no lawyer, though. I worked at a shop in Idaho in the mid '70s, and we had a problem with people driving through the lot instead of taking the street around, which must have been a horrible thing, since the difference was at most 100 feet. The bigger problem was when people went through the lot on foot (like on the way to the county fair), and people were stealing parts off the equipment. We found a turnbuckle laying on the ground that had been taken off one side of the mechanism of a crawler's bucket. The remover probably dropped it because it weighed a lot- must've been 20 pounds, easy. What would they do with it, anyway? We put up a barbed wire fence and a gate to stop the transient traffic. The mayor (small town) got wind of it and told the owner that he had to have a survey done, which was going to be about $1200. The owner (and I) put it all up anyway, without the survey. The city came out and surveyed the place, only to find out that the shop owner owned the land all the way into the middle of the main street into town. Of course, it had been used for years so he had no legal standing on getting that part back. But the fence and gate stayed.

Funny story about people driving through that lot. It was dirt, first of all, and we shared it with a hauling company that used to herd cattle up a ramp into a trailer after the auction that was just a bit to the west from us, to be taken for slaughter. When the truck got back to their building, the guys went in and hosed all the fertilizer out of the trailer. We had this one guy with a '65 Ford Galaxy who used to race through the lot like he was Parnelli Jones, or something. Well. One day he went speeding through the lot and spun out in the big puddle of fertilizer that had just been washed out of one of those trailers, and got stuck. Not bad enough, he stalled the engine and ran the battery dead trying to start his car.

ETA- Tim's got the right idea about a sprinkling of lime on the tractor seat.

[davischevy]

WE own 8 1/2 acres west of us. It is surrounded by subdivisions and I have two 50 Right of Ways (not easement) off the street into the property. A while back, I noticed a "For Sale" sign on a lot adjoining one to the Right of Way's and it was in the center of the empty property (the empty lot and my ROW.)

I called the Realtor and asked if he was aware of the ROW. Of course not. He wanted to know why there was a ROW there. I told him I left it there for access to my property for future development. The lot owner had a fit, then wanted to know if I would give it up. Nope, I left it there for a reason.

The guy on the other side tried to claim it as his once, but he got transferred with his job, so I got rid of him.

Sorry, I don't have any nudists or meth heads.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

I'm basically a hermit, but I have a wife, and pets and horses, and a few friends plus our daughters that call, and I go hiking and horse back riding when the weather allows.

With those caveats I'm afraid we are going to have to revoke your "hermit card".

K

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

With those caveats I'm afraid we are going to have to revoke your "hermit card".

K

That's okay, I almost never carry a wallet anyway

[72c20customcamper]

Here you need to petition the court to obtain a row or take possession of abandoned property.

This guy has more money than brains. No local plowers or carpenters will work for him . He stiffs everyone saying they didnt do what was agreed to.

I have had the local LEO s at my house several times because I was out shooting a machine gun in my back field. Well 5 people shooting will have a sound close but no cigar. He's from the city so he gets offended when I hang a deer and calls the DEC all the time . Saying I have to many deer hanging so they come and I'm there with 4 or 5 other friends with deer hanging . All tagged and reported correctly.

I used to hang them in the barn but now I hang them in a tree within eyesight of his front door.

And the sad thing is we were going to try to work out some type of accord on the driveway situation .

Maybe he's on some site complaining about his crazy mountain man neighbor.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

I have had the local LEO s at my house several times because I was out shooting a machine gun in my back field. Well 5 people shooting will have a sound close but no cigar.

Oh heck - I almost forgot that when we first moved out here there actually was a neighbor with a machine gun

He was a hoot! Great neighbor Claimed to be reserve Navy EOD and also done some "contract work" overseas. Everybody called him "the mercenary." When we first moved out here, he sort of tried to scare us. I don't blame him because for all he knew we were some foolish city-folk busybodies and he might as well get off on the wrong foot with us and be done with it. Early on he started on a pro-gun rant and I finally got him stopped and said "well, I think you should still be able to buy machine guns through the mail." Later on when the weather warmed up he figured out that I always carry a sidearm and I was one of his best buddies.

He had lots of "toys" and he showed me some of them. This is a story that he himself told me that happened before we moved here: he was shooting at a running coyote across the crick and the muzzle rise caused him to shoot the power line in two. Knocked power out in the whole neighborhood. He went in and called the co-op first thing and they didn't even charge him to fix it because he fessed up right away.

When he moved away, he gave us a bunch of stuff including a 1000 gallon water tank for fire protection.

[1976gmc20]

Also, when we first moved out here the previously mentioned old guy living behind us with his child molester boyfriends told me that the neighbor to the west was a "redneck asshole." Of course, I figured right away that meant I would probably get along with him right well

So anyway I saw somebody up on the hill and went up to see about it. It was the west neighbor out working on rebuilding his fence which wasn't exactly right on the property line. He was wearing a cowboy rig with a Single Six and he said that he had heard that the crazy woman's place had sold and he figured he'd better get the fence in the right place just to make things straight with the new neighbors. I suppose he expected us to be as big of a problem as the crazy woman and the old guy behind us (turns out he had his own neighbor stories with them!).

So of course we got along great, and he never did a damn thing more about that fence as long as they were there, as he wasn't worried about me causing any problems about the property and fence line. We never got to spend a lot of time with them as he drove truck and she started going into town every day to babysit her grandkid(s). A couple years later they just gave up and moved closer to town.

Later when we got our horses, my daughter and I rebuilt that electric fence right where it was (actually way over on the other place) and through two subsequent owners it stayed that way. I told them about it so that they would know that I knew and offered to move it back if there was a problem. A couple years ago when the other crazy woman's horses and alpacas were running all over the neighborhood, I decided to upgrade the fence to three wires and so I did finally move it back on the property line because I didn't want to spend all that work and money on a fence in the wrong place.

So anyway we have had lots of good neighbors too, but damn I am mad at some of them for moving away!

[67C10Step]

"Good fences make good neighbors" - Mending Wall, Robert Frost

I consider myself super fortunate in that I have spent a lot of time shooting with one of my neighbors. Yes, on his place next door. My other two immediate neighbors are hunters and they are not frightened of inanimate objects either. We text one another when we are about to dispatch a skunk, armadillo, etc. after dark just so nobody gets worried.

Unfortunately, I realize that can all change in an instant if one of us sells and some "city folk" move out here. No offense to all urban dwellers, but some can really upset the balance of a perfectly good place.

[1976gmc20]

I was born and raised in a city, but that was just a mistake of nature, as I self-identify as having been raised on a ranch in Wyoming

As soon as I could get away, I moved to the mountains, and after a few years of murdering helpless trees for a living, I became cleansed of any unfortunate remnant of city thinking (or what passes for such).

One of my priorities for buying this place was that it had to have a place to shoot. There is a little basin out back and to one side of the house and garage with hills on three sides. Not really long enough for centerfire rifle, but plenty for handguns and rimfire rifles. Hearing shots around here is about as remarkable as hearing dogs bark.

What I don't understand about the "townies" is how they somehow think that everything outside of city limits is national forest or something.

[special-K]

Yep, and so can some country folk.