found out who complained

[Stacy]

...about the pigs stinking. It was the neighbors on the other side of us, as we suspected. My son, it turns, out, heard them the other day "complaining" throwing the F word out there about the pigs stink and why do THEY have to put up with it and smell it, blah blah blah. You know what really sucks?! They told us not too long ago that a couple of guineas we had were getting into their yard. That DAY Mike came home and shot them. We told them then and there we didn't want to intrude with our farming on other folks space. Why didn't they just come to US and say their complaints about the pigs instead of going to the county and taking it to court?! I don't get that. And why are they out there NOW complaining and cussing instead of just coming to us still?!? If they asked, I'd tell them I'm working on getting rid of them, JUST FOR THEM! Well, that's what initiated me getting rid of them anyway.... We'd a had to end up getting rid of them anyway, due to Mike's job thingy now... but I did start it just because the sheriff came and told us someone complained about the smell and it went to court and was decided there was nothing they could do to us, but could we please put down some lime (which we did!).
Lemme tell you... the swamp is on fire, AGAIN. It smells AWFUL. I get a terrible headache when the wind blows this way while it's on fire. Did the neighbors report the SWAMP to anyone or do they just accept it's something they have to put up with in order to live out in this area?!
We've been putting up with folks dogs eating all our high dollar poultry for YEARS till I just quit buying it, hatching it, selling the eggs on Ebay... everything. There's just no getting around other people's dogs!
Why can't people just try and get along at least a LITTLE?!?

I'm so dang tempted to just keep the little gilts and breed them just to annoying the neighbors now! GRRR!!! I WON'T, but I'm tempted!

[suzorse]

I am so glad I live in a right to farm state, If someone moves into an area where farming is they can not complain about the smell or noise , hay it was there when you moved in
got to love it Suzanne

[Stacy]

I guess they can't do anything about it here either. The sheriff said there was nothing they could do, but they sure tried. I just think it's a wussy thing not to at least own up to the complaint and come to us in the first place. I hunted down EVERYONE who's dogs they were to let them know we were going to shoot them if it didn't stop. It didn't stop. We shot one dog, had three more removed.... and we quit raising expensive chickens.
People just have to learn to work with each other at least a little bit. I saw one of the people that owns the house right next door to us that's never been lived in the whole time we've lived here (the guy that's complaining owns the house next door to that one and his mother owns the never lived in house) driving away and trying her BEST to look INTO our backyard today. I made sure she saw me waving at her as she finally moved on.
Somehow, they know we have goats and cows and pigs. They can't SEE the goats, cows or pigs from their property due to the heavily wooded tree line between us. They can't SEE the goats or pigs from the road... so how DO they know what we've got, anyway? I bet they came over here and looked when we weren't home one day... sneaky folks.... We've had that happen before too.
Anh... whatever. The big pigs have found a new home and "should" be going to it this coming weekend.. oh please let that happen! The little pigs.. well, like I said in my other thread, we'll just eat 'em. I'll load 'em and take them to the butcher myself if I have to!

[SnowHunter (X2 Farm)]

Hate yall got crummy neighbors Stacy. And you're right, they should have at least come and talked to yall.

Thats spooky knowing folks have been in yalls place while yall weren't there. We had someone, over 3 weeks, come during the night and handpick my best heritage chickens from the pasture tractors, kinda makes ya feel voilated.

Hope yall aint gotta deal with em anymore!!!

[Stacy]

Oh we'll deal with them till we leave I guess. Maybe moving won't be so bad after all... if we get made to leave... ? Always gotta look for that upside, hunh?
It just kinda miffs me is all... I'm really not as mean as it seems like when I posted up there... well, I try not to be. We won't keep the pigs just to irritate folks, we'll get rid of them just to help make things better around here for ourselves and for the neighbors.
I saw you posted your ad for your piggies in the auction barn at the same time I did. I hope we both manage to sell! Maybe we should both be eating bacon...

[SnowHunter (X2 Farm)]

Fingers crossed for good selling vibes

I've contemplated bacon nom nom nom!

[hartscottage]

Hey Stacy,
If you do have to move, definitely look for a place with neighbors as far away as possible. That sounds anti-social, I know, but after some of my experiences, it was THE highest thing on my priority list. The house we got needs work, but all of my neighbors have a tree buffer between us and them. We had issues when we moved here too with them all wanting to hunt on our land. (they had done it without our permission then asked when we posted signs)- I sent their little hunt club a certified letter making it perfectly clear that the answer was no (I have boys that play in the woods- they could have shot my kids the first fall we were here!). I didn't make any friends, but I don't really care. We bought our land to do with what we want- not what they want... anyway, just a real estate searching tip for ya:).

[amyniowa]

Why do these people live in the country? I suppose their food just magically appears in the grocery store?

Stacy, I feel for you, people are so ignorant sometimes. You know what irritates me, when people have just a house out in the middle of the country. If you are not going to do anything out in the country why waste the gas, move into town.

It is to crowded out here with nonproductive people.

Just my 2 cents

[hardamber]

Sorry, but if your neighbors aren't even going to be nice enough to come talk to you face to face and do it around your kids, I'd get even more pigs. They aren't worth trying to please in the first place. Let them be the ones to move into the city where there are no farm animals.

[ellie]

My neighbors were complaining about our dogs in earshot of my children. I called them right up and said straight out that grownups do not use children to pass messages. I reminded them that when we moved into the neighborhood I forced my phone number into their hands and asked that they call me if anything were ever a problem. I reminded them that if they ever have a problem they should call me and I will fix it straight away. Because that's what grownups do. Then I fixed the dog problem.

I can't say we've ever become friends. Though, these folks are so small minded and ugly, we wouldn't really have been friends anyway. But my addressing them directly completely ended them ever putting my kids in the middle again. Which became the most important thing to me. Because that is seriously inappropriate and a load of its own kind of smelly pig*hit, if you ask me.

You might write them a letter to that affect and also let them know pigs are completely seasonal, that your pigs will be slaughtered soon enough, and that you would be happy to share some pork with them, for their trouble. (If you are going to kill the pigs and if you are willing to share, of course.) Its possible you can still find peace in this situation with them, if you care too, and keep your pigs.

But gosh, that sounds so frustrating! (((hugs)))

[kwell88]

Ugh

[janine/Ga]

I'm sorry you are having trouble with your neighbors.
Just a note on the flip side of this................ Our neighbors (who we LOVE that will do anything for us, feed when we are away ect...) have these annoying little old english bantams that roam our yard and pasture come on our porch to eat our cat food, ate all the green blueberries of the bushes, ate the garden green beans ect... I have put poultry netting around the field fence.(double fencing with electric tape too) and the darn things just fly over it. My chickens are fenced in a large2000 sq foot area and do not roam yet. These chickens of theirs are a royal pain. Their unspayed cat has brought her kittens to eat with ours and runs ours off their food. the kittens are wild and I cannot catch them. Anyway I have not complained because they are such good sweet neighbors. How ever soon we will catch the cats and to the pound they will go. He has told us to shoot the chickens if they bother us but I don't want to do that. He can't clip their wings because they roost in OUR tree.
So I feel your pain but from a different perspective. I hope in your new place you have wonderful neighbors like we do.

[Stacy]

Well, we've already had all the neighbors' dogs in the area eating our birds. I used to do like Melissa on here and sell high dollar hatching eggs on Ebay. We moved here, really ramped things up, got some serious money dumped into the birds and well, the dogs just killed and killed and killed... me right outta business. We lost thousands. Last kill was last Sept. and we "think" Mike finally shot one of the dogs...we haven't seen any since then.

Anyway, on the pigs...

The lady ended up chasing HER dog into my yard two days ago. I said, "I wanted to talk to you anyway". We had a good long talk. I told her the pigs were leaving, we'd heard what they said and how they were talking and that I wished they'd come to ME instead of going to court about it.
She told me she was the one that went down and made the complaint. She said she didn't think she knew us well enough to come complain. HUNH?! That doesn't make sense since she marched right on over here the day the guineas were in their garden (and we shot them the same day to keep that from happening again!). She knew we'd try to make nice nice. Anyway, we had a good long talk and now she knows they are leaving.
I guess her MIL is a bit upset about the "mess" around here too. She's trying to rent the house next door and claims she can't due to the mess. That's NOT true. Her SON took the signs down saying the place was for rent after only being up for a week. Personally, I think he's prejudiced because he only had one color of folks showing up and he's the other color. He doesn't do anything to help his mother rent that place out and I believe it's because it's so CLOSE to his house and "space". But whatever.
IT IS A TOTAL MESS AROUND HERE! I'm even embarrassed by it. Mike and I had a good talk about the pigs and the mess before he made chief. We do slack off so much when it gets hot outside, especially weed eating and mowing around here. We've got everyone's dogs in the area knocking our trash over, no matter how many times we take it, and dragging it all over the place. We clean it up once a week, but still...... It's a mess! Anyway, once the pigs are gone, we're tearing down the pen they are in, burning the wood, taking the rest to the dump, etc. We're going to have to build a small shed to start keeping some of the additional tools in it, etc.

The pigs are just a small part of what's wrong around here, in my OWN opinion. Once it's de-smelly-ed and cleaned up, I think we'll all be happier, me, Mike and the neighbors!

[ellie]

I have a solution for the trash and the dogs. We don't put any food in the trash. Say if there is an ice cream box or something, we rinse it out before it goes in the trash. Now animals never touch our trash. And taking it to the dump is a much nicer chore as well.

I keep an open compost near the back door. All food scraps go there for roaming dogs, racoons, errant chickens, etch. Everyone is much happier.

I'm glad your neighbor had the courage to tell you the truth. That must feel a bit better.

[stablefood]

Aug 25, 2011 7:35:26 GMT -5 amyniowa said:

Why do these people live in the country? I suppose their food just magically appears in the grocery store?

Stacy, I feel for you, people are so ignorant sometimes. You know what irritates me, when people have just a house out in the middle of the country. If you are not going to do anything out in the country why waste the gas, move into town.

It is to crowded out here with nonproductive people.

Just my 2 cents

OH! Thank you for the "nonproductive" people!!!

I have similar trouble, and feel for you.
and agree, look for further out neighbors or a neighborhood with farm animals already established.

[Christine]

I have two pigs, and they don't smell. My horses smell worse than the cows or the pigs. Of course, I don't feed my pigs meat or restaurant waste, so that keeps the smell down.

Thank God I have very tolerant neighbors.