So I am outside on this lovely day, taking the oppurtunity during my son's nap to do some work on my skimmer and get some well deserved peace and quiet. I needed to drop my skimmer another 2 inches or so, so I am digging and pumping water out of the skimmer. All the while I have an audience of 4 to 5 kids, two that are constantly asking me questions and making comments on how dirty I am. I at first tried to ignore them, thinking they would go play with all their new Step 2 toys but instead they start screaming to get my attention, bang on the chain fence and yell at my dogs.
Now, I like kids. I have one of my one and have worked with behavioral health kids since graduating college BUT I do like some privacy when I am at home working in the yard. Is this too much to ask? This mom that just moved next door opened a daycare but just opens the back door and doesn't even come out to watch the kids. Everytime she sees me she runs away, I'm sure because she knows these kids are being brats and she isn't doing a thing about it. Last summer, her son tried to make off with some of my son's trike and she could not tell him no, so we had to be the bad guys and take it from him!
We found someone who will finish our basement for half the price, so we might not move after all. I told my husband I'm fine with this BUT only if we put in a privacy fence first. I'm happy I might not have to leave my pond but if I can't enjoy it in peace, what's the point? I think that good fences make good neighbors bit must be true;)
Anyone else with neighbor issues?
Neighbor kids....
Evesta - you have no idea!!! Neighbor issues? OMG. We put in a privacy fence (6ft stockade fence) before we put in the pond a number of years ago. The kids across the street were sooo bad and these were kids that were old enough to know better - early to mid teens.
These kids egged our house a couple of winters ago. DH is the one that washed the frozen egg from the front of the house. On other occasions, we would go out of town and lock our gates, and still come home to the electric to the pond unplugged, things like that - just to name a few incidents.
Right now, the ringleader of these 'little darlings' is in juvvie down in the southern part of the state -(he is 16 years old). He is supposed to be back home sometime this June. I am not looking forward to this. I like kids too. But........... as far as I am concerned, there is a line between kids and monsters.
Definitely - I would put up the fence. You will be so glad you did - especially with a daycare next door.
Wow, Carolyn!!!! I guess I shouldn't complain! I had to vent to others I knew enjoy the serentiy of their backyard ponds:) It isn't the kids fault, they are young. I'm more angry with the mom not watching her kids and the daycare kids like she should.
We were going to go on a nice vacation with our tax return but I think a privacy fence is a must. Our yard is very large so I'm sure it will cost a lot but I think it will be worth it. I love gardening and playing in the pond too much. It is my way of relaxing, very theraputic but not with a little audience asking questions and tormenting my dogs.
There's a thread in water garden's about Bamboo-even though it is invasive maybe planting that on their property would be a good secret fence for a while. Is the neighbor going out of town in the very near future? Sneak some of that plant about 5 feet in on her side of the property and that will help keep this kids away. Also, thorny shrubs does a wonderful job. There's also bob wire, mean dogs as well. One of my three does agreat job of scaring the neighbors (young and old. . .)
You may want to check her out.Here in Ohio you have to have a daycare license after so many kids in the home.Don't remember how many ,but I'm thinking it's like 4 or 5.And your own count.
The family next door has shot our dog with a pellet gun, shoots at birds that come to drink and feed from the 11 feeders and the ponds and bird baths, throw garbage in the conifer garden and climb into the back yard to retrieve balls and don't care where in the garden they put their feet. They tease the dogs by kicking the fence until they make them nuts. The back of our house has been paint balled. All of this happens with a six foot privacy fence. Except for the kicking the fence to get the dogs nuts, none of this happens when we are home. We just come home and find the evidence. I've filed police reports for the paint balling, reports with the local humane society about the pellet gun and the dog, and with the fish and game warden over the dead song birds. Every agency visits the family and issues a warning but with no witnesses there is no prosecution. Before we filed police reports etc we tried to talk to the parents. The response was : "Our boys are good Christian boys and they would never do anything like that". They have 4 boys and 2 girls. I seldom see the girls. The boys are finally growing up and seem interested now in cars and more adult pursuits. The problems have lessened in the last couple of years. She home schooled all six until the kids failed all the state mandated testing for home schooled children. They now ( by order of the state) attend public schools 2 years behind what grade they should be in. Thank God they aren't home all day any more during the school year. That's when most of the "incidents" happened. There was a time I wanted to move, especially when Duke our 12 lb Pomerainian mix was shot just above his left eye. The vet couldn't believe it.
This "good Christian family" as they declare themselve to anyone who complains, also ride their snow mobiles pretty much through everybodies front yards after a snow and they don't care what they tear up. This is a suburban neighborhood with houses set close together, not rural farmland. Athough they usually do this after dark they have been caught more than once. Besides it's pretty obvious with the tracks where the snowmobiles came from. Dad thinks it's funny and a harmless prank. They leave my yard alone now because, 2 years ago, after I lost two nice dwarf conifers, I put a half cement block in the front yard just before a heavy snow was expected. They had to go at least 15' up on private property to hit it and sure enough they did. You could see right where they hit it and that they had to push the machine home.
This family also has a large dog. Now the dog is a great dog. His name is Jasper and we get along great. They don't have a conventional fence. They have an elecrtric fence. That's fine expect if the batteries run out or they forget to turn it on the dog eventually figures out he won't get schocked and off he goes. He chases cars and he chases people he doesn't know, like Moms with kids in strollers or old ladies out for a walk down the sidewalk. People do complain to them and to the police, but the behavior persists. In fact, my DH just got back from a late night trip to the grocery store ( we're sort of night owls sometimes) and he said Jasper is loose again and running up and down the street chasing cars. You want ugly neighbors! These people are the most frustrating, infuriating folks you could be stuck next to.
Thank you for letting me rant.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Dad knocked the dickens out of Mom one night too. Not to worry. I hear Mom got in a few licks of her own. Neighbors on the other side who could see what was going on called the police. Their Pastor interviened with the authorities and I hear they wound up with Church counseling. They are certainly entertaining if nothing else.
mm has a great idea. I did eliminate some of their easier climbing over the fence spots by planting Helmonds Piller barberries. Nasty shrub that's attractive to look at.
I'm so sorry that you are having such a problem with your neighbors!!!! Your home is suppose to be your castle and source of refuge and with all of that going on it would be difficult to receive any kind of relaxation!!!! We live in what is left of the country on 7 acres but we use to live in a subdivision before we built out here and had a swimming pool. I came home one day to a pool party of about 15 kids and didn't even know them(they were from several streets over). Come to think of it we did move shortly after that and it took my kids 10 yrs to talk us into a pool here. LOL!!!
Linda does have a wonderful idea. What I did do .... ^_^ - last winter when it was so desperately cold, we had a number of mice come into the house. We would catch these mice alive before the cats could get them and I would walk them across the street to their house and release the mice by their house in hopes the mice would invade their home. I probably should not have done that to the poor mice.........
It wasn't like I could get the cops to do anything either...... I had to talk the one cop into going to the respective homes and talk to these people. I didn't want an arrest - just a show of force...... you would have thought I was asking the cop to turn his own mother in.
Yes do put up a fence. We put a 6' wood fence up last spring, just love it. The problem we have is the house next to us is a rental. It seems that each time a new rental family came in, they were worse than the one that moved out. I kept thinking, how bad can it get. Well this one family tops it all. Junk all over the place. And now I don't have to look at it anymore.
Oh, I love the mice thing! This link is for a terrific shrub that kids, or adults for that matter, wish they had never bumped into or tried to climb over. I have two pairs of these planted in different places where the little darlings used to climb over the fence regulary. They are hardy, easy to grow, don't take up a lot of space because they are tall and narrow, very attractive and extremly full of wicked thorns. What more could you ask for?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/72858/
Did I mention this crew also hunts deer, brings it home, hoists it up in a big tree in their side yard and field guts it right there at the corner of two streets where dozens of walkers and lots of auto traffic passes by everyday? I cant imagine how some Moms suddenly found themselves explaining to kids strapped in cars seats why Bambi was hanging upside down in a tree with it guts hanging out. I don't have a problem with responsible hunting (although we don't hunt) but I couldn't wait until they got that thing down.
edited - posted on the wrong forum..... I really need to start paying attention!
This message was edited Mar 7, 2009 7:40 PM
LOL, I guess I am definately not alone;) I grew up on 40 acres of woods and meadows, so neighbors this close is just unnatural. But we have lived here for almost 5 years and have never had a problem like this. There were some teens next door for awhile but besides the occasional loud stereo in the middle of the night and some skateboarding there wasn't a problem. They hung out in the front and the garage, so it didn't bother me.
Good idea, I think I might check out the daycare aspect and see if she is even liscensed. I don't like to get people in trouble but some people really have a problem with personal responsibility these days...sigh.
And if she isn't watching the children very well ,it may be in the childrens best interest.
That's true. I think she sits inside the door but some of these kids are pretty small. One of the girls was asking me how they could get to the pond. I told them they couldn't because it could be dangerous and they can fall in. I noticed that they had moved one of their toys over to the fence to stand on it. I'm scared one day someone will fall in the pond or my dog will bite one of the kids if they come in the yard. Someone might get hurt and I will have a lawsuit because she can't watch her kids. I better check her out AND put up the fence.
Okay is is the Nasty gardeners revenge thread? It is making me laugh because last year our community association came out with a whole bunch of NEW rules that my husband and I were opposed to. (we just hate rules for rules sake . . .) They included rules on businesses conducted in residential properties, number of cars parked in the driveway and not allowing commercial work vehicles on premises after 6pm any day during the week and 5pm on weekends. Anyway, the list was long and now after reading your complaints about your neighbors I am starting to understand that all these rules are in my best interest and I won't grumble in the future about change. I laughed about the "good christian boys" part. There are a hell of a lot of excuses going around like that in my community. That's when I like to go into the bible and discuss the disciples and Judas. And being that I love to argue and am intelligent enough to have fast come backs most people back down. . . bad mole.
BTW: The worse thing I have ever experienced with my neighbors in the past 12 years I have owned homes is that my current neighbors teenage sons like to have beer and pot parties that started under their old playset and then the playset was turned into a bonfire pit and pot party. We live on a minimum of 1 acre lots and have enough space between us. So as a joke my husband and I went over there and asked them to pass the joint. They almost choked on it and haven't smoked outside since (Mom and Dad weren't home that night . . .). Anyway, they are really good kids and we really like them and their parents and tease them every so often when their parents are in ear shot but can't quite hear what we are saying to them. It keeps the boys on their toes . . . As you can tell we really like kids . . .
I strongly suggest you take steps to make sure those children are not able to get into your yard and to your pond. A good friend of mine had a grandchild who was a near drowning in her pond when he was 3 years old and it was almost completely drained at the time. He is severly disabled now. Just a warning.. anything can happen in a very short time.. he was only missing for a few minutes. With small children next door not being watched closely and already wanting into your pond... you could be held liable ... or they could try. You should write a letter to her and mail it to her certiffied mail notifying her of their efforts to get over the fence and your concerns. That may also help you in the future if she does not make efforts to protect the children she is in charge of. She should be responsible for putting up a fence that protects her charges! Are they possibly renting? If so, I would contact the owner of the property who holds the liability of a day care on his property. Texas has made it virtually impossible to run a day care out of a home because of all the regulations.
I know good Christian families and thank heaven for them! The real ones are appalled by the psudo group that lives next door. I don't retaliate, ( except for cement blocks under the snow) don't get in any arguments with them and try to keep their dog from getting hit by cars. In truth I feel sorry for the kids. Two years behind in school? You know that they have to know they're different from other kids their own age. What a bad hand their parents have dealt them. I 'm hoping I live long enough to see them all move out on their own and I can let my dogs out without worrying. Living long and well will be the best revenge. May God grant me the first wish and the brains to do the second. Some days are harder than others!
The neighbors are why my cats do not go outside. I have seen pictures posted on DG where the pets are in their gardens while they are out weeding or doing whatever, but I just couldn't chance it. If I lived on the edge of town where I used to live or up in the hills, I would probably let them out - but being in town, there is no way. When we had my mothers dog, the gates were always closed and the dog was fenced into the backyard. Just not worth it.
I have a GREAT elderly neighbor, but I still want a privacy fence. There's just something good about having the seclusion, especially around a pond. AND, maybe my dogs won't bark at things so much if they can't see them!
of course, if I had the daycare next to me, my Dogs would scare them off! HA.
Hi All
Well I guess I got lucky,
The bank foreclosed on my horrible neighbors, the company that sold them thier double wide repoed the home and hauled it off, my city passed zoning laws concering the land ability to be perped ( this means the lands ability to absorb water I think?? )
Well it failed so I bought the land DIRT (LOL) CHEAP!!! Hugh corner lot with no trees and excellent shape. I am in heaven.
This will be my new garden!! Of course then they told me I cannot put up a fence taller than 4 feet. So I put up 4 foot fence and then planted pompus grass,,haha. I will have my privacy one way or the other.
They did tell me there was no rules on plants yet and to get mine in the ground before any new laws were passed. I just love living in a small town. And no bad neighbors.
Nice to hear something good coming out of this recession. Nice to meet you Elf's. I never saw you post hear before-are you new or shy? Don't be a stranger-chirp right in!
Linda
I am new here and while not shy I do tend to be somewhat of a hermit.
I have been told that I am anywhere from abrasive to unforgettable. What ever all that means.
I do wish I had found this site while I was bed ridden for the two months after my car accident. I was going nuts not getting out of the house and all my plants died from neglect and winter freezes, Sigh. But it is ok. I have new garden and while I am not as strong as I was last year my grand kids are one year older and more than willing to help thier Nana,,lol
As for the land,,, well I only paid $7500.00 for it and believe me it was a steal.... 3/4ths of an acre,, As I said I am in heaven, or will be in a couple or three years after it quits looking like empty lot.
Nice to meet everyone here. I am tryng to learn everything I can to make my garden a wonderful place for us to relax in and also to produce some food for us to!
Nice to meet you. Don't forget to mention you are always looking for seeds or plants for postage! A lot of members here will divide their plants and mail them to other members for the price of postage. It helped me a lot to get my pond garden started. There is a swap list as well. I have even read about how some of the members helped out fellow members in need when they were hurt of sick. I think that is really nice.
Do you have a pond or a water feature?
I have 3 ponds
1 has fish
2 just have dead plants in them, they all died when I could not get out to winterize them
I was lucky with my fishthey have thier own gazebo and were somewhat protected from all the bad weather. I just lost the plants
I have some lotus seeds coming from one person on this website and will be trying to get some more.
I would like to move one of my preformed none fish ponds to the new garden. I will put the lotus seeds in there if I can get them to germinate.
I have one hugh 14 inch Koi and 10 gold fish in the new fish pond. It is about 600 gallons. and is very murky right now but they seem to be thriving.
Pic is of the new pond
oops wrong pic. That was going to be the new koi home and a tornado hit is 3 hours after we set it up,, luckily no fish in it yet,,lol
Let me try this again
wow, I love the idea of a pond having it's own gazebo! And congrats on the land purchase.
Okay Miss Alabama (Elf), how is it that you worried about your fish in Alabama???? I live in the stinking frozen tundra (well it feels that way to me . . .LOL) and both my plants and fish made it through the weather (the fish I think are very sick though).
Are all of your plants tropicals? I think you need to consider some hardy waterlillies and similar. If I separate any this season I will send you a piece. Did you participate in the Texas Water Lily co-op this year? They have beautiful plants and the prices are great.
3 ponds huh? I have pond envy . . .
Post more pictures please!
Gee,, I really didnot think I had such a area, maybe I should call my self pond-proud,,,lol
Actually it is funny how it all started. We were at lowes and they were thowing out a preformed pnd that had a large hole in it, I asked if I could have it and the man said he could not give it to me so he sold it to me for $25.00. It was about 180 gal.
Then two weeks later I was at home depot and they were going to toss another pre-formed pond that was 220 gal so I aske dif I could have it, again was told nope could not give away, so they sold it to me for $10.00. So I had two ponds. So being the newbie I am I go out and dig two great big holes, dig and dig though rock had clay and tree roots. Get the ponds in the ground, get every thing nice and pretty. I put the two ponds in and then we add fish plants and have such a pretty pretty area to sit.
Well along comes fall, and the tree start to drop leaves, lots and lots of leaves. Did I forget to mention that the ponds were on the tree line of a forest? Yup, I am dumb, dumb, dumb. So I frantically dig all the oak, elm and whatever leaves out of the pond. Pumps are cloged fish are dying plants die and I have a panic attak. So we put pop-up tents over the pond.
A year goes by and popup tents still there, one more year and pop up tent collapse's,, gee, I am back to panic attack again,
So then we buy the land, and decide the fish did so great with popup tent they need thier own house, We get really nice gazebo for the fish and two hours after erecting the gazebo a tornado comes though and turned it into a pretzle. We call k-mart where the gazebo came from and the really nice manager says BRING IT BACK HE WILL REFUND MONEY!!!! I am so excited I run to get money before he changes his mind...lol
Next we go to Home Depot and buy new gazebo, I really like this one so I sank 4 4x4 in to the ground concreted thoise bad boys in and bolted gazebo to them. Now maybe fish will keep roof over thier head.
Now we are all caught up. I get new pond for fish done. get plants set up on shelves. I actually used all tropicals and house plants cause I knew I was going to move them into the house or build greenhouse so I was not worried about the cold,,right??,,, WRONG. I was minding my own business and sitting in my car waiting for the car in front of me to make left hand turn, when along comes dumb 19 year old kid sterio blasting seat laid back so far he cannot see road, talking on cell phone, doing 75 miles and hour in a 30 mile an hour zone. He hits my car , never touched his brakes, drove me 15 feet down the road under the other car in front of me and so my car is totaled front and back. It took 5 very strong men to get me out of car and I end up bed ridden for 2 months and barely walking for the next one. I am much better now. But the accident happened in October and when the freezes hit, plus I could not get out to water any thing, the plants all died of lack of water, and then frezzing to death... WOW this is huge message. Sorry I just got carried away.
Anyway I am starting over and will just take it slow and make it all way way better than before. And I still have no BAD Neighbors,,,lol......
pic two of old pond
pic 3
pic 4 the two preformed ponds are side by side
pic one of new pond gazebo that got destroyed. We finished setting it up, went inside took nap and storm came though with small tornado and turned it into a mess. Thanks god we had not moved the fish yet.
After the storm....
oops, wrong picture,, this is after the storm...
This message was edited Mar 9, 2009 1:12 PM
I donot have any pics of how it looks now. I will take some and post later.
Thanks for taking the time to look at everything, and any suggestions on what I can do to make this work better would be very appreciated.
Thanks all..
Kris,, aka
Elf
Wow, that's quite the story. i'm glad you're safe from both car accident and tornado. I had to chuckle at the irony of a tornado demolishing your gazebo just hours after installation! Silly tornado!!
Elf looks like your ponds are coming along very nicely despite your set back and physical hardship. Going through something like that must have been so very very hard and I'm sure it will take you quite a while to get back to where you where before the accident. Your fish pond looks very much like my box pond. I will say I haven't had many problems with my neighbors or their children. Not that there haven't been a few bumps here and there over the years but mostly not. It can get pretty nasty though when you have problem neighbors. We live in a rural area but do have a small neighborhood and I have been here 34 years and raised my family here. My children are all grown and those neighborhood children that I had a connection to have also grown and gone. The new young children didn't know me, but I usually give them a Hi when they go past and one day when I was out cutting some Lilac branches a group of them came walking by and I offered them some Lilac blooms to take home to their Mothers. Next thing you know a few more came up and asked if they could have some, too. Those children are now teenagers and we never have problems with them. I know that not everyone wants to befriend their neighbors and some neighbors you just want to stay as faraway from them as you can. A little bit of kindness can go a very long way, but then I can retreat to my backyard and get my peace and privacy when I want. You can't always do that.
Here is a pic of my Box Pond.
How pretty!!
I guess mine would be consitered a box pond too! I built it out of 100 year old recycled 2 x 12's from Old barracks out of Ft. Benning. The lining came from Lowes I think. I had it for 5 years before I finally built this.
How did you fix the two ponds that you bought at the store with the damage? I laughed about your comment about being "dumb". A lot of that going around here . . . I have surpassed dumb on a number of occasions and have reached "down right stupid" !!! Live and learn I say and welcome to ponding. I am forever asking for help with my pond and everyone is very patient with me. . . (thanks guys!)
Linda