Boundary wars: (hopefully) the epilogue

[bobm]

When I read Guinea fowl eat ticks and snakes I was ready to order a 100. Then I read up on how loud they are. Red what about clipping their wings so a fence will keep on your side.

You should only clip the end feathers on ONE wing only so that if the bird tries to fly it then is so lopsided that it can't. That works untill the next molt, so has to be recliped. What is recomended to do for a permanent fix , is when the birds are just a day to a few days old, heat a chisell end to searing hot, then burn off one wing tip at the first bone joint. And now you know !

 

[Nyboy]

And I thought cropping ears and docking tails was bad.

 

[baymule]

Probably not a six foot fence. Just sturdy farm fencing that will keep their dogs on their property. They are the ones who wanted us to stop clearing our land because "She likes her privacy". I rather figured a tall light pole with bright lights shining all night in their yard and into their bedroom window(to watch and protect my animals, of course) would be nice.

Then the straight run chickens will get their mobile coop close to the boundary line fencing. I can only house about 24 birds comfortably at one time but, hopefully, there will be lots of roosters to crow all day long. Of course, the vent window will be on the East side of the coop. We get the fewest storms from the direction of their back yard. Perhaps, with all the lights, the roosters will even find time for night crowing as well.

Yes, to the pigs, Bay. Two or three will be plenty. Of course, I will need to build low fencing of solid wood to keep the little ones inside their playground area. Pigs are so good at digging under fences. Unfortunate that the solid fencing will prevent the rushing water of spring access to my gully. It will settle in their side yard until it soaks through the winter frost and into the ground -- a sort of "Lake Neighbor" for me to enjoy since I don't have a decent pond of my own yet.

I am also looking at the possibility of boarding a couple of miniature cows -- for milking privileges -- from a friend. With our prevailing Westerlies, they will forever be down wind from pigs, cows, and chickens a mere few feet from their back yard. Not that the animals won't be kept clean, but I'll need a place for composting their waste and I'm sure downwind is better for me.

Yup, I've got plenty of plans for using that space along the boundary line.

I like the way you think! You have had plenty of time to plan and plot your victory revenge. I love all your ideas and I particularly like @journey11 's idea of turkeys. I didn't know that about turkeys and I can imagine that a turkey or two or twelve would make a wonderful addition to your farm.

 

[baymule]

And I thought cropping ears and docking tails was bad.

It's called pinioning and it isn't as bad as it sounds. It's no worse than branding cattle. The chicks are only a day old and as the wing tip is cut/burned off, the hot iron cauterizes the wound, thus no bleeding. Cattle branding is worse that that. The cattle are old enough to feel and know what is happening, but it's either brand or let them get rustled and you have no identification mark on them. I have participated in branding and ya' gotta keep the branding irons hot so that they are applied for a short time, seconds. Let the calf up and it runs back to Momma for a comforting suckle and in a short time, it is forgotten.

 

[Smart Red]

Nope! If I can't figure out some way for them to at least sort of free-range I'm not getting any. I try to give my animals the best life possible and for Guineas that is NOT a cage or inability to escape danger.

 

[bobm]

A pig pen with a wallow for more than 3 feeder pigs ( + + + ) near their bedroom comes to mind for a squeeling good time at feeding time with a wafting all incompassing aroma that cuases one to use a close pin at dinner / bedtime.

 

[Larisa]

I do fertilizer from nettle or weed. I put it in the tank and fill with water for several days. Then I add it to the water for irrigation. This is an excellent fertilizer. But the smell ... Opening the tank cap is equivalent to opening the gate to hell. But it is not screaming and does not ask for food.

 

[Smart Red]

I do like the fertilizer program you have, Larisa. Just might give it a really big effort next year.

Yup! I am not a good neighbor. I continue to instigate trouble with the neighbors in hopes they will finally get their derrieres in gear and have the survey done. I consider myself to be a law-abiding citizen and I'm not doing anything illegal. I realize that the neighbors have a different interpretation of the judge's orders, but I am very literal and I am taking the judge literally. That section of the shed is mine now and has always been mine since 1976 when the deed was established.

Another court may make a decision on the ownership of the shed some day, but that decision would be "ex post facto" to the court orders of last year and nothing I've done so far is subject to legal action by the sheriff's department.

A bit of history:

It has been a full year since the Court orders asserting the land is and has always been mine. It has been a full year since I posted the notice:
1. They were to remove stored items from my property or have it considered abandoned.
2. They were to cease trespassing on my section of the property. With the formal trespassing notice, if they get hurt inside the shed they can't claim they got hurt on my property since they can't legally go onto my property.
3. I would be removing the siding from my side of the shed.

For that notice they called the sheriff and said they saw me trespassing on their property when I delivered the notice. For that they wanted me arrested.

Nope! I had paid a non-interested party to deliver -- eventually post since they were gone -- the notice. Did the deputy care they had lied to him? Nope. That seemed to be just fine. Of course, there was nothing the deputy could do. I was well within my rights to have the notice posted.

The time for their action having passed, we started removing the siding. (Nothing structural, but hey, the shed has holes in the roof, broken studs, top plate hanging down 1.5 inches below the studs, broken rafters and support boards, and missing facia boards.) The building really needs to be torn down. In fact, that is my solution to the problem, but I can't tear half a shed down. I also have a letter from the neighbors asserting that the shed would be removed BEFORE January 1, 2016 at their expense. I guess that's why I waited a year, now that I think of it.

Again they called the sheriff. Again the deputy said there was nothing he could do. The deputy did ask that we hold off on removing any more boards for a week until something was figured out.

Then the neighbors called someone on the town board and (lying, since the deputy had already said I wasn't doing anything structural) said I was demolishing the shed without a permit. An inspector stopped by and posted a citation to cease and desist the "demolition" including a "Do not remove" and a "stop work" order. That was a year ago.

Flip to the present:

A week ago I called the County building permit department asking if I needed a permit to work with the siding on a shed. I have their answer saved on my phone. No permit is needed for the county, but perhaps the township has permit requirements. I stopped at the township clerk's home and was told no permit was required for siding or windows.

Last Saturday, son and three friends removed the rest of our siding. They also removed all the abandoned items on my side of the shed. Just as we finished, up drove the deputy. As we had expected, the neighbor heard the sound of boards being removed and called the sheriff, telling him there was a stop work order on the building.

Wasn't I still under stop orders? Nope! Since I wasn't demolishing anything I needed no permit. In addition, non of us had ever seen a notice posted on the shed nor removed such. We had seen a notice flying in the wind and on the lawn near our wood shop, however. We assumed it was the one he was discussing, but, hey, how could I know for sure.

During this time the deputy kept staring at the piles of junk in the yard near the shed, but said nothing. Neither would he listen to my side since he had already decided there was no action he could take.

A couple of hours after the first deputy left, another deputy drove up. He was rude, curt, and tried to intimidate me. It seems the neighbors had driven past and seen 'their' property in my yard so they called the sheriff once again to report the theft. Since it had been removed before the first deputy asked us to stop working on the shed -- he thought we had taken it out after being asked to stop -- there was nothing he could do to me. He then told me that the Register of Deeds and another county commissioner (I didn't hear who) would be deciding who owned the shed on Wednesday.

Having two deputies hearing only the neighbor's side of the issue seemed biased, so I contacted the Register of Deeds asking for a hearing before any decision would be made. As I had expected, the man told me there was no way county officials could make that legal decision. It was a matter for the court and the court had settled the matter a year ago (he looked it up before we talked).

So, I have two very angry neighbors. I have a collection of things in the yard that will need to be removed soon for mowing. I want to wait first to see if they will take me to court for the property. Even though no one officially asked me not to move anything further, I had decided to let everything stay where the boys had put it.

Naughty neighbor that I am, while I didn't take anything from the abandoned items (I don't give a hoot toward keeping any of the junk we removed), I did add several things of my own to the piles. I figured the sheriff would need to be there when they retrieved what they thought was their property and I could easily prove they couldn't identify what was theirs and what wasn't. Unless the deputies wanted to aid and abet the theft of my property they couldn't allow anything to be removed.

So. . . . . .

That's where the boundary wars stand now. Yes, I am an instigator adding to the problems, but if I do nothing where will I stand on reclaiming my land? If this doesn't get them to take action and get the survey done I have one more plan to get under their skin, but I'm hoping the end of this whole affair comes soon.

And, yes, I do have a wildlife cam directed at the piles in the yard for when we're not outside. Tsk, tsk.

 

[baymule]

What a shame of all the food, water, oxygen and life's necessities that is wasted on these two, when it could be given to homeless people.

 

[seedcorn]

I have been reading. I'm sorry, your legal system seems to be inept at best.