This morning I went outside around 8am to feed the dogs, outside kitties and two horses. My routine is fairly unchanged over the 27 years I have lived here. We have 1 acre and have never had friendly or kind neighbors. I wonder if it is my fault..yet as I look back..I made attempts by gifting new neighbors with baked goods, or if I had them, fresh eggs. And my one time advances to be a friendly but unobtrusive neighbor have been literally shunned! It is an unfriendly area here. Especially since my husband, sons and I left the predominate religion here officially years ago. But these are new people, not necessarily wise to the social pariahs around here so quickly..unless the church gives them a welcome to the ward packet..stay away from.....!!
Still I try to be friendly but I am burned time and again..we have had lots of neighbors..from the guy who beat his pregnant wife in the garden to the family who shot bb guns at my horses and cars, to now the reclusive, home schooling, I have no idea how many kids they have neighbors. When I went up to the fence the day after they moved in and the pregnant wife was standing there..I asked in a friendly manner..are you our new neighbors? and she lierally gave me a most withering look and turned her back on me! Then that 4th of July she and her children shot off illegal fireworks into my dog kennel and horse paddock. When I asked them to stop they were rude and degrading. WOW
Then they decided it was ok to buy dogs from people advertising their pets on a news classified site that is free. Then they sell the dogs a few weeks later to whoever will pay the price they ask. As a licensed hobby breeder who has to obey strict rules as in housing, selling ,breeding my dogs..it is wrong I feel to dupe the people giving up their pets, thinking they have found them a good home and never realize that the pets are going to be sold to whoever has the money.
I can't tell people what to do but it is ethically a bit iffy to me.
Then there are the sheep..The husband is cruel to them and the feeding is sparse. And today they added 4 more to the flock bringing it to 8 or 9...while only 3 are allowed per acre and they have less than an acre.
Of course while I was trying to feed my animals in our routine which is sort of zen like to me..they were there staring at me while I fed the cat. I finally said good morning as they sneered and continued to pile block and rolled fencing against the chainlink fence seperating our property. One year their calf and then their sheep pushed under that fence and I politely suggested that they not try to use chainlink as a livestock fence since it doesn't work well for that. Now lets address the smell already. Reached the 70s yesterday and it was already powerful because they are in a small area that never gets cleaned.
So now I am faced with the possible scenario of stink all summer which translates to flies..I clean my kenels 2 times a day and the horses have enough pasture to keep the flies way down.
Also the likelihood that the sheep will get through to my property and after the last debacle I determined they could not be welcome on our property again..the neighbors i mean since they kicked and hit the poor animals trying to shove them back through the fence.
So I guess it is time to call animal control..it is always a last resort to me since I had a bad neighbor years ago who called on my dogs every other day. I even went to the extreme and had the dogs debarked and that didn't stop the harrasment! The city finally told them they would no longer respond to his calls and he quit.
I guess I will just go to m studio which is 27 miles away and try not to think about them. Oh and we have the 5th new neighbors on the other side and they are just as self involved as the others..sigh..I often remember growing up in Ohio and having wonderful neighbors. No one is civil anymore, they don't respect privacy and they are so self involved it is all about what they want and not what might bother the neighbors..could they just be be friendlier?
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so the sheep numbers are down to 2..possibly 3 since the ram got through the fence one day and I haven't seen him since..he could be penned in the cinderblock shelter. I called animal control and because of the new animal cruelty laws the officer did not want to deal with them. The new laws mete out jail time if you have been cruel to a dog or cat but livestock are another matter since the powers that be capitulated to farmers and ranchers who did not want to be observed as cruel to their livestock when the lay person certainly doesn't understand how it is ok to be cruel to a cow but not a dog. Then he wouldn't come out without exact name of neighbor and address..which I don't have since they are so unfriendly! But I told him that they are the only house on that corner with sheep!!! Then a day later the numbers were way down. And the smell has not occurred or flies. So who knows what happened. The new neighbors to the North were friendly when I talked to them one day and even made noise like they might actually build a privacy fence. Wouldn't that be heaven.
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