When I moved into my rural neighborhood I heard a story about people who had recently moved in and sent a letter around about a dog pooping in their yard. It left a bad impression as all the other neighbours wondered why they didn’t just ask around? But I’ve always wondered if people would have complained if they had gone knocking on doors. Sometimes you just can’t win. In my neighborhood the letter writers have been labeled ‘big-city snobs’ although I’ve never interacted with them, so I don’t know if that is based on more than just the letter.
2 Likes
It was just a thought since the OP has so many neighbors bordering the property? I guess I was wrong but then I have only had 1 or people at most bordering our property lines. With that many occupants bordering their property it sounds like farmette living.
That is what we do. They do not however, willingly leave once they find us. Be prepared to dispose of them yourself or keep them. We have no shelters here for stray dogs. I imagine many rural places don’t either unless a private party is doing it on their own.
If you got such a letter, what would you think?
I would think it was super weird and these folks were odd. Odd is nor where you one wants to start. Neutral and normal can become friendly and respectful.
3 Likes
I have a mustang mare you can borrow, how fast do you think those dogs can run? Our neighbor’s German Shepard will never ever get into our pasture again.
6 Likes
Hi All!
After a busy busy weekend, DH and I finally talked about how we want to handle the situation.
First of all, we found the same trespasser on the trail cams again. They had two dogs with them, and one had the unique markings of one of the deer-chasers and the other was a match as well.
This time, one was leashed. Based on their pattern of behavior, we think the owner probably let the dogs out one evening after work and they left their yard and ran amok for any number of hours. A later shot of our trespasser showed her with one dog, not two, standing around in the little area where we have our trail cam (sheer luck, I think), and appears to be looking around. We think that perhaps they were looking for the other dog. The trespasser seems to hike the property on weekends only and does go quite deep into it. I wonder if their use of the trails will increase as the weather is nicer.
Anyway, DH and I agree with some of the above posters that sending letters would be weird. To do that officially, I’d have to get all their names/addresses, and mail the letters. I don’t think you can simply put them in mailboxes.
DH actually didn’t want to “be that jerk that buys a hunk of property and immediately posts all the boundaries. I hate guys like that.” However, it appears that is what we must do. First though, we are going to double check with the prior owner to see if anyone has permission to be on the property. If they do, we will try to contact them by phone or in person and have a discussion. Otherwise, we will post the property with new no-tresspassing signs and go from there.
From what we can tell no one else is using our property. I have a close friend with a co-worker whose yard borders ours and she asked if they ever hiked on it, and the co-worker said no, they hadn’t.
12 Likes
I’d be curious to hear what your neighbor did to irritate everyone.
DH and I are both very introverted, like to stick to ourselves, and could probably come off badly unintentionally, so I’d love to learn from others’ mistakes.
3 Likes
This is by and large the conclusion we came to. Before I read your response, my DH actually said “I’m putting nothing in writing,” and was also reluctant to talk to approach anyone in person because they might feel offended or cornered/defensive. I think he has a point there.
I do feel that a dog that runs deer may be interested in also running livestock, but I’ve also seen coyotes in our pasture (here) with our horses and they showed no interest in the horses, nor the horses in the coyote, and I know coyote will hunt deer.
I would not hesitate (although I’d feel bad) to take care of a dog running my animals.
5 Likes
We’ve had dumped cats but never a dumped dog, or even a stray. We’re 2 miles down a dead-end road with hundreds of acres of hunting/farm land on 3 sides and 3 residences on the other, quite spread out. It’s very different from what we’re moving to.
We agree on the letters. DH doesn’t understand why to date the signs, but I think it marks a clear timeframe. The snow has melted now and it is a good time to post them.
4 Likes
It looks like the original property owners had a large tract and then sold off 1/2 acre parcels along the two adjoining roads. Probably recouped a fair amount of money doing that. The rest, behind the houses, was left virtually untouched other than being logged 20-25 years ago. We think they had intended to sub-divide farther or perhaps put in a subdivision there, but never got around to it. We feel so grateful to have found this property in this location at a fairly affordable price. The realtor was an idiot and marketed it poorly. Gave focus to the tiny run down house on 1/2 acre lot that came with the property. Oops.
With regards to the dogs, that was a point my husband made. Once dogs find something they like to get into/get involved with, good luck keeping them home. My GSP likes to visit one of our neighbor’s gut piles during deer season. The only way to keep him home was to install a fence. Before he found those gut piles, he was a homebody and never left the yard… until one day… his nose took him on an adventure.
Fortunately, we do have several shelters.
3 Likes
Thanks. Looks like we don’t need anything special. Just clearly marked, but that was a cursory search and I’ll dive a bit deeper before we post.
If it can out move a GSD, I’ll borrow her!
Our GSD is a model citizen if I’m outside with her.
If I send the kids out to do pony chores and the GSD is with them, she harasses the ponies (who hate dogs). She will run at them/bark, they chase her out, she ducks under the fence for a little barking, they chase her out. She’s smart enough not to get close, and they don’t try really hard… but if either ponies or dog got serious… I’m not sure who would win. The ponies DO have short legs.
If she’s left alone outside, she won’t bother the horses or the ponies. I can see her heading to the paddocks and pastures to check them out and then circling back to the house. No shenanigans. So who knows what goes through her brain when the kids are out messing with the ponies.
1 Like
This rings true for me. I feel a little bad barring people from enjoying the land they’ve clearly and respectfully been using, but once we have a residence and livestock back there, it’s no longer appropriate for them to use it. We do not want a “shock and awe campaign.” We want to be as diplomatic as possible.
9 Likes
DH has some pretty strong ideas about fencing. He prefers single strand electric wire, well flagged, with a very strong fencer. So far in our lives together, this has proven to be safe and effective for our horses in our current area. The deer jump it and if for some reason a horse goes through it (very rare) the wire tends to ‘snap away’ from them and not cause injury. DH feels the more strands, the more possibility for injury if the fence comes down for any reason (sometimes a deer makes a mistake and takes down a whole fence line).
The unexpected advantage of the single strand has also proven to be that the horses remember where the fence is, even when the flags wear off. If it goes down, they still don’t cross it. If a snow drift unexpectedly covers it or makes it a 3" high fence, they still don’t cross it. It seems that it becomes a memory/psychological barrier for them, not just a physical one. It does make changing the fence lines a little more complicated because you have to physically show them that a fence is no longer there. I don’t know if it will be the best choice in the new property.
DH wasn’t sure about no climb, but he begrudgingly said he agreed that a low hotwire 12-18" high would be enough to deter a dog. One of mine hit the fence once and now won’t go in the pasture at all. He will sit and watch me do chores in the paddocks/pastures and wait. He WILL NOT come in.
5 Likes
We’ve had two cats find us… and I never wanted cats… but they’re delightful additions to the family.
Your boy is beautiful.
4 Likes
That would be “attractive nuisance”.
6 Likes
Excellent question @RegentLion! Had to really think about this.
I believe the major issue is the initial way he presented himself to us, and the way he likes to brag about his material possessions. He bought a large property across from us, with a smaller guest house and an unfinished 8K square feet log cabin. He paid far more than what it was worth, but likes to think he is on a different level than everyone else here.
He moved in, immediately posted the property, which is well within his rights for sure, but never mentioned it to anyone directly. He then told many of us of his plans to build a draw bridge to keep people off his property. His driveway is directly in front of our house, so I can honestly say people are not beating a path to his door.
He bragged about buying a Maserati, which either has to be boarded at the local storage facility, or hauled in and out on an enclosed car carry and carted over 2 creeks into his property. None of us are impressed with something like that as we all own farm equipment that is valued in the range of a Maserati.
He bragged about the Maserati in front of my 80 odd year old next door neighbor, who turned to me after he left and said, “Cutter, what is a Maserati?”. And the 80 odd year old has more money than God- he just doesn’t brag about it or look the part of anything other than the hardworking farmer he is!
He has started more than one conversation with me with “I am not racist, but…” In my book, when you start a conversation with that disclaimer, yes, you are racist!
The people here might appear to be simple, but we are all farming as a sideline for the most part. My husband works for an international company, and is very well known in his field for example. Most of us farm because we were raised with it and enjoy the lifestyle. But we don’t feel a need to brag about our possessions.
That being said, we have great neighbors. The kind you call in the middle of the night with an emergency, and they come immediately. The kind who offer any tool on their farm for you to use as long as you put it back where you found it. The kind who volunteer to help with anything you need. The kind who want the best for you and the community. I had more offers of land to ride on when they found out I had horses than I can ride in a weeks worth of time. Close the gate you ride through, and all is good.
My last interaction with him was him sending a text about 3 head of cattle that showed up on his property. I asked what color they were, and knew immediately they were not ours. But my husband and I found the owners with a couple of phone calls, and drove them back to their rightful field with 4 wheelers, as we knew their owner had just had surgery. No big deal- it is spring, the grass is always greener, cattle tend to get out this time of year, there was no damage done. He continued to text us and ride up and down the lane on his 4 wheeler, wanting to know where they went, but never offered to help move them in anyway.
I guess what I am really saying is being a good neighbor involves give and take, and approaching people in the “right” way.
22 Likes
@RegentLion, our new neighbor annoyed us by walking on our land to pepper the property line with his posted signs.
I don’t mind that he wanted his property line posted. I do not mind that to get those signs facing the right way he has to walk on our property. But that is not what happened. He did not poke thru and pound while standing on our land, his land was not easily accessible on this property line, too much scrub growth involving things with sharp stuff unless you are short enough to duck under it the height of a deer. So he literally entered our land, walked around our fence and went back to his property line to post his property. He left via our land at the back. We have caught him on our game cameras, on our land, more than once.
We do not really care that he is there, but … if you are going to not stop and say hi and then pepper the whole property line (that is only accessible from our land, so you have to be on our land for these signs to apply) with posted signs…it is kind of rude.
Edit to add - I think you situation is different, because your property has many neighbors on that side. So simply posting it, while accessing it from your side, makes sense.
9 Likes
Yes, the point of putting the date on is to make it obvious that this is a new thing. The land has new owners now and if you got permission before, it no longer applies now with the new date/owners.
7 Likes
I guess your neighbor doesn’t see the irony in trespassing for the purpose of posting “no trespassing” signs? 
20 Likes
Clearly not. We laughed about it when we saw the game camera photos after noticing his fancy new signs.
Most of the people where I live, if they post their land, only post it at the road. They assume that if their neighbor needs to wander onto their land for something there is a good reason.
But, we do not have suburban size lots bordering our land. This guy owns more land than anyone else in the area. Literally 4x the amount of land we own.
2 Likes
