Call Me Old-Fashioned...

But I like to know the people who make regular jaunts across my property.

I opened the front door this afternoon to see the day and saw a white Chevy(?) club cab our by our power lines. I was interested, wondering if this was a truck from our electric co-op as was here a few weeks ago. But then I remembered this is Sunday. And they were cutting across our property rather than driving along the nicely mown path along the edge of our property (you know, the one we mowed so if they wanted to drive farm equipment across our land as a shortcut, they wouldn't mow over anything we had planted like they've almost done before). Well, I watched the truck as much as I could. I don't know if they were already planning to turn around or if they did it because they caught sight of me opening the door, but they started driving away (across our property and toward the field behind our house) almost as soon as I saw them.

I lost sight of them for a bit because the garage got in the way, but I walked outside and watched the truck drive along the path they are apparently keeping mowed next to their field. I immediately walked our property to see if they had damaged anything, and to be fair, I don't think they did. But there's a sinkhole near the area they cut across, and I don't want someone else getting their truck stuck in OUR property. And besides that, I'd like to know who the hell thinks he has the right to just drive onto our property whenever he feels like it.

To be fair, I don't really mind people on our property too much, having grown up in an area with a feeling of community, but I sure as hell like to KNOW the people DRIVING across my YARD. Well, if I could drive, I would have gotten in M's vehicle and driven to the hog farm and asked there, but alas, no such luck. I did walk a bit in the tracks the truck left behind, walking along the cornfield. But I gave it up after I had walked only a small portion of the track and realized that it would probably take me a half hour or more to walk the length of the track around the field and trees and creek, and then I'd have to walk all the way back. I thought about firing up the Montero and driving along their field, too. I figured it would be equal...but I gave up the idea. I plan to introduce myself and just say I like to know the people who are moving across my property, but you never know when my temper might get the best of me and I let loose with a, "Who the fuck do you think you are, just driving across our property without asking or introducing yourselves!" And if that happened right after I'd done the same thing...well, righteous indignation has a little less to be righteously indignant about in the face of hypocrisy.

So I wait patiently for M to get home from work (yes, on a Sunday...good OT) and see if we'll ever finally carry out our plan to meet these people. (Incidentally, anytime they're out in the field and we're out, they're always gone on their high-speed equipment before we can get near. I'm not sure if it's because they're rude, afraid we're people like the previous owner--who purportedly liked to approach people in his driveway with a shotgun--shy, or what.) But this is getting silly. I'm getting tired of being the only one home and seeing a strange vehicle in our driveway or field. I figure walking out there with my rifle, just in case, would send the wrong impression, especially if I'm trying to set up neighborly ties. *sigh*

* Stringham high: Weather below 80 degrees!
* Stringham low: Preparing some strawberries last night to make freezer jam and encountered an inchworm on one. I knew it was just a matter of time before something like that happened, but, well, there went my enthusiasm for cleaning them at 2 AM. Guess I'll have to tackle them again today. lol.
* Stringham super-high: Going to help a friend with wedding plans this week!

While My Sunflower Gently Weeps

Our field neighbors are reckless drivers…or at least one of them is. M watched a couple of days ago through the kitchen window as a sprayer went by, driving like a bat out of hell, with the sprayer hanging over our property line. I then watched through one of our living room windows while the driver swerved and sped through the field on the west side of the house. We hoped they were spraying fertilizer, or even a pesticide, but we discovered today that it was herbicide.

The last time they sprayed, several of our newly transplanted evergreen trees nearly bit it. As a result, I’m now leaving weeds up between the evergreens and our property line to act as a bit of a barrier for the young trees. But this time, because the sprayer was hanging over onto our property line, a whole swath of sunflowers and cosmos that M had planted and that were thriving, are now yellow and dying. (This after they bad driver had crossed our property line and driven THROUGH the patch that M had just planted with those sunflower and cosmo seeds.)

I suppose it was silly of me to assume that neighbors would be as considerate of our property as we are trying to be of theirs. Yes, we felled a tree into their field, but before the beans had even sprouted, and we cleaned up our mess immediately afterward. *sigh* Now we are going to have to track down the people who own the farm and ask them to be more careful and considerate of our property, as we are trying to grow things that are just as important—if not more important—to us as their corn and beans are to them.

Ah, will the “excitement” never end?

Fleshy-headed mutant, are you friendly?

We met our new neighbors today—well, “the mom,” at least. Really, we learned about them. JJ & J are dad and mom, and they have three kids. J is really nice and really talkative. We learned a lot J. It turns out they’ve been trying to buy the house for a year. They’re still in the midst of painting and updating (it’s been unlived-in for 4 years now, but it’s “stuck in the ’70s,” as J says).

We’ve already been invited to come over any time to visit, and J already acts like it’s a foregone conclusion that we will be there and get to know the house pretty well. So that’s awesome. I mean, come on, they bought the house and its 23 acres so they can dirtbike. Yes, that’s right, a family of dirtbikers. Considerate dirtbikers…there are whole sections of their property they won’t bike on because it might disturb the neighbors.

And from J we learned that our neighbors down the road did move in about 6 months ago, so they aren’t the family that owned the property to begin with. Yeah, we need to make friends with them, too.

And J has noticed us peeking out and watching them. So, hopefully that comes across as neighborly concern and not wackiness/craziness. But, hey, the basket of goodies we left them seemed to score some points. J

Now, we just need to walk the thin line between whacko/crazy/considerate/nosy. Hmm…a very narrow line, apparently, since the only good term in that list of adjectives is “considerate…” :D

* Stringham high: Raspberries blooming! Potato plants blooming! 1/2 - 1 pint of strawberries every day! Radishes, beets, and spinach, oh my!
* Stringham low: The highs (temps,---it's miserable out there :( )
* Stringham super-high: Promise of awesome neighbors. (Oh, and I saw Wicked yesterday. Fabulous! I laughed, I cried, it was better than...some other musical that shall remain nameless.)
* Stringham laugh of the moment: George chasing his tail. I think he's rediscovered it again. There are few things so funny as watching a 15-year-old cat chase his tail like he's a kitten again.

More Change than President Obama

* Stringham high: We have neighbors! Both houses across the road from us are now occupied. Our new neighbors just started moving in Wednesday evening. Now we just need to meet them. Waiting for the right time, since they seem to have movers and contractors and other helpers there constantly. We're planning for today...we just have to get our social sides kicked in the butt to take our new neighbors the welcome basket we made them (well, and M has to make some of his tasty bread to go with the basket).
* Stringham low: What's there to be low about? I've been working my tushy off freelancing, and it's been fun!
* Stringham super-high: We had a red strawberry yesterday! It was smile, and it wasn't fully ripe yet, but M snipped it off because he didn't want the birds getting to it first. (Oh, and we picked up a WiiFit when we went grocery shopping last night--first time we'd SEEN one, and there were bunches and bunches...stayed up until 3 AM playing and working.)