Corn Hunt, 2022

[Pulsegleaner]

Have you ever used an electric fence before?
When I rented space for my horses years ago the owner thought an electric fence was preferable to Fixing fences.
When you forget and touch it/grab it, the surge goes Right through you to the ground bc you become the circuit connection.
Just thought you should know.
Chicken wire is cheap and works,, too.

Four problems.

1. I'm suburban so things like chicken wire and hay bales are not thing I can just walk down to my local feed store and get. I'd have to hope the hardware store carried it, and even if it did, it would be VERY expensive there. Ditto ordering it by mail, the wire might not cost much, but the shipping would.

2. It's almost impossible to get the ground there even LEVEL or smooth (there just too many rocks), so pretty much ANY fence is useless. And digging it out and replacing it with better soil runs into the same problem as the wire, I'd go bankrupt trying to get enough top soil to fill a 12x12x12 space (let alone the fact that, with all of the oaks and hemlocks shedding their innumerable acid producing leaves in there I'd have to replace all of that soil every few years. AS IS, it take two whole bags of lime to make it neutral enough to grow ANYTHING.

3. It's a fair distance between the garden and any place on the house we could plug in the power, and even farther to anywhere we could put a generator, as well as no clear route between the two that would not end up with the cable shredded by either the gardeners as they mow (since they don't pay attention to anything,) or us tripping over it every time we wanted to walk on the side patio). And even if there exists some sort of way to power it solarly, there, is, as I said, almost no where on our property that GETS any significant sun.

4. An electric fence would run into the same bans that keep me from using traps, or poison, or weaponry, or attack animals. I can't do anything that even has a CHANCE of potentially hurting any persons pet (or small child) who might wander into the yard. And considering how many local people think it's okay to TELL their dogs to do their business on our yard and then leave it for us to clean up, I see a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[Jack Holloway]

Here, as far as I know, the only ban is shooting guns in the city limits. I was told by a Fish and Wildlife person that it was a shame the market for raccoon pelts had fallen, as the raccoons in citys had beautiful pelts. He told me to kill any I caught as they had to be moved 50 miles to not come back and moving them just took whatever diseases were in my area and introducing them to a new area.

A coworker had a dog that killed cats. He never let it out of his yard and had 6 foot high cedar fences. A neighbor called the cops on him. Once the cop saw the fence and verified that the dog was not let out of it, he went and told the neighbor to keep her cats out of the dog's yard. Kids in the area thought it was funny to throw cats over the fence too.

What gets me are the people that clean up after their dogs, then throw the poopie bag into my yard/garden. That is not taking care of the issue!

 

[ducks4you]

DH and other atty are defending a friend against her local government's ordinance.
The charge is that 1 out of 2 of her dogs, who got out of the fenced in yard, bit a neighbor.
Said neighbor posted photos on FB of an animal bite, but only friends could view it.
I understand that the bite in question was from her own cat.
Neighbor broke the jaw of one of her dogs.
Someone posed as animal control with no uniform, no summons, no subpeona, and demanded the two dogs.
Local government of the small town should NEVER had gotten into this fight.
Other atty is OUR atty for OUR town.
I am convinced that we should NEVER prosecute any of our ordinances.
The only ordinance that we can really use is our water ordinance. We pull from an aquifer for our town's water.
If there is non payment, or a payment plan approved, we may put one or multiple liens on a property until full payment is received.
Dangerous animals? Hire your own counsel and sue your neighbor OR talk to your neighbor and get along.
Call the police and create police reports.
@Jack Holloway , if you catch your neighbors in the act speak to them.
DD's neighbors decided to start parking in their new 2022 moon shaped gravel parking area that DD's paid to have put down where we park in front of their house. Neighbor's gravel parking along the street needs more gravel and is becoming muddy.
I saw one of them walking out with keys to car parked in DD's parking area. I told her that DD's had this put down for their father's mobility issues. Point made and she stopped using it.
Start friendly and then you have somewhere to go.

 

[heirloomgal]

Here, as far as I know, the only ban is shooting guns in the city limits. I was told by a Fish and Wildlife person that it was a shame the market for raccoon pelts had fallen, as the raccoons in citys had beautiful pelts. He told me to kill any I caught as they had to be moved 50 miles to not come back and moving them just took whatever diseases were in my area and introducing them to a new area.

A coworker had a dog that killed cats. He never let it out of his yard and had 6 foot high cedar fences. A neighbor called the cops on him. Once the cop saw the fence and verified that the dog was not let out of it, he went and told the neighbor to keep her cats out of the dog's yard. Kids in the area thought it was funny to throw cats over the fence too.

What gets me are the people that clean up after their dogs, then throw the poopie bag into my yard/garden. That is not taking care of the issue!

It certainly makes me wonder how raccoons overpopulate as they do; usually populations of any animal are kept under control by factors in their environment. I can't help wonder if access to human refuse is part of it. Where I live you'd never think there are any of them around, you only get a glimpse on a rare occasion. They are nearly as invisible as the wolves. Seems urban areas are more affected.

 

[Zeedman]

Four problems.

1. I'm suburban so things like chicken wire and hay bales are not thing I can just walk down to my local feed store and get. I'd have to hope the hardware store carried it, and even if it did, it would be VERY expensive there. Ditto ordering it by mail, the wire might not cost much, but the shipping would.

2. It's almost impossible to get the ground there even LEVEL or smooth (there just too many rocks), so pretty much ANY fence is useless. And digging it out and replacing it with better soil runs into the same problem as the wire, I'd go bankrupt trying to get enough top soil to fill a 12x12x12 space (let alone the fact that, with all of the oaks and hemlocks shedding their innumerable acid producing leaves in there I'd have to replace all of that soil every few years. AS IS, it take two whole bags of lime to make it neutral enough to grow ANYTHING.

3. It's a fair distance between the garden and any place on the house we could plug in the power, and even farther to anywhere we could put a generator, as well as no clear route between the two that would not end up with the cable shredded by either the gardeners as they mow (since they don't pay attention to anything,) or us tripping over it every time we wanted to walk on the side patio). And even if there exists some sort of way to power it solarly, there, is, as I said, almost no where on our property that GETS any significant sun.

4. An electric fence would run into the same bans that keep me from using traps, or poison, or weaponry, or attack animals. I can't do anything that even has a CHANCE of potentially hurting any persons pet (or small child) who might wander into the yard. And considering how many local people think it's okay to TELL their dogs to do their business on our yard and then leave it for us to clean up, I see a lawsuit waiting to happen.

It sounds like you are living behind enemy lines @Pulsegleaner ... you have my deepest sympathies. That sounds a lot like living in a repressive HOA.

I saw one of them walking out with keys to car parked in DD's parking area. I told her that DD's had this put down for their father's mobility issues. Point made and she stopped using it.
Start friendly and then you have somewhere to go.

Agreed. When dealing with inconsiderate people, or those who violate my rights or my property, I always make an effort to deal with the issue one-on-one in a calm, respectful manner. Over the years, I'd say that approach worked about half of the time, and we went on to become good neighbors. That applies to all of the great neighbors on my street (but not to those on my back lot line ). One of my pet peeves is people who call the authorities for anything, without making an attempt to resolve things in a friendly manner. Unfortunately, there seems to be one of those in almost any neighborhood.

What gets me are the people that clean up after their dogs, then throw the poopie bag into my yard/garden. That is not taking care of the issue!

Unfortunately, bad dog owners make up the majority of my 'bad neighbors' over the years. Two of those just let their dog out to do its do - which they did in my yard. I explained to the neighbors that the reason I didn't have a dog is that I didn't want my 3-5 YO children walking & playing in excrement. When that failed, I collected the feces, and left the pile in front of their door. We were never friends, but they cleaned up after that.

The dog from one of those bad dog owners would also run into my yard & snap at me, if I happened to be outside. The owner would just stand there watching. One day when the dog was being especially aggressive, I kicked it away. THEN the owner yells that he's going to call the cops. I pointed out that his dog was on my property in violation of leash law.. and that if it bit me, he would not only lose his dog, he would be liable for legal action. The park I was living in evicted him not long after that.

 

[ducks4you]

Our town government cannot $afford to legislate neighbor issues.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

It sounds like you are living behind enemy lines @Pulsegleaner ... you have my deepest sympathies. That sounds a lot like living in a repressive HOA.

Well, were aren't quite on the "specify the kind of grass you can use for your lawn and it's height level of control", let alone the "everyone has to have identical landscaping and home repair from our specified workers so that every home always looks exactly the same as every other one" level, but yeah, the rules are there. And to be honest, I am generally in FAVOR of a lot of them. The no cutting down trees one does mean I can't get more light, but it also keeps the profit minded people from clear cutting every single inch of land to fit as many McMansions on it as they can. Remember, I'm only about 30 miles from NYC, and when your are that close to a major city, there is a pretty decent amount of pressure to move areas to the more urban side of suburban to squeeze as many residences on to them as possible for people who work in the city. Let things get too free, and your really do risk winding up more or less just an outlying annex of the metropolis. I may not have approved of Dad decision of burying our first cat in the backyard (I would have preferred cremation in that case as well, so we could take her with us if we ever left) but I like the fact he was ALLOWED to (which he wouldn't if we actually lived in NYC). I may have to deal with squirrels and chipmunks out here, but at least I don't have to deal with urbanized rats (mice yes, rats no). My garden may give me a huge amount of agita, but at least I have the space to HAVE one, I'm not crammed in a two bedroom apartment in the middle of a skyscraper sized complex, and have to worry about getting mugged every time I open my door.

Going the other direction to fully rural wouldn't suit me either. Yes, I could have a ton more space, but I'd also have little access to anything particularly interesting to do (NO access in fact, since I don't drive and there'd probably be next to nowhere I could walk to and little to no public transit to use.) No interesting ethnic restaurants to eat at, no cultural markets to hunt for exotic ingredients at (or hunt seeds, for that matter)less access to a wide selection of stores so I didn't have to settle when picking things. Probably an extra week or so to get anything I ordered via mail (and going to the Post office to pick up a registered package I missed being a major expedition. rather than a brief jaunt.) I'd probably go crazy with boredom very quickly.

Actually (to return to my original point), with no rules at all, it would not surprise me if there wouldn't BE a house left here for me to live in. Since we are as close to the Hospital/ Exclusive senior living community as you can get without being there (I can walk there in twenty minutes, and I'm slow. Driving, it's maybe two) and since that senior community is always looking for both increased acreage AND another way in, many people would be REALLY interested in buying up our cul-de sac, knocking everything down, getting the area re-zoned, and making it into an alternate route there (it's twenty minutes walk as it stands know, with going out and back in. If you went as the crow flies, across the street, over our neighbors lawn, through the fence and through the scrub bit, it would be about five.)

 

[Jack Holloway]

I bought some Strawberry De-Lite corn seed. The label doesn't mention it being an F1 hybrid, but the description on the website said that. It also doesn't say it is a popcorn, but an Ornamental corn. Looking at the seed, I don't see any rice kernels, or ones with a sharp end. I bought plenty, so if you want some @Pulsegleaner I can send you an ounce or two.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Thanks, but I have a ton of corn to plant already, including some Indian Berries I had totally forgot about. I forgot I put four ears away last fall intact for reference (and because I remember reading something once about it being better to store complete ears if you are planning for long term storage.)

The only one I would like a closer look at maybe is the kernel at the very bottom of the picture with the small purple blotch on it. That looks like it might have a dent top.

And I actually DO see rice type kernels in the picture, MOST of them have a point at the tip. That's all that's needed for a kernel to be defined as rice type.

 

[Jack Holloway]

The only one I would like a closer look at maybe is the kernel at the very bottom of the picture with the small purple blotch on it. That looks like it might have a dent top.

And I actually DO see rice type kernels in the picture, MOST of them have a point at the tip. That's all that's needed for a kernel to be defined as rice type.

I'll see if I can find it. I dumped them back in the jar after taking the photo. I'll see if I can find similar ones that may have a dent top.

Thanks for letting me know there are rice type kernels in the mix. I'll be growing the Indian Berries as well as some of these. I'll detassle these, as I have a pound of them, so I don't really need to save seed from them. I'll save seed from the Indian Berries.