I consider myself fortunate not to live anywhere near your “neighbor”hood. I’ve long believed the best subdivision is 40 acres. I’m looking forward to acheiving that goal sooner or later.
We're working on that solution ourselves.
But for now we're stuck where we are. So we've tried very hard to improve the neighborhood, run out the gangbangers and hoodlums, and just generally be 'good citizens'.
We were literally over run with feral cats in the last year or so, so we have a fairly active trapping program. Several of us have those "HaveAHart" traps.
We bait them with tuna then send the little buggers to Animal Control. It generally only takes once paying the fines and fees and cat owners keep their animals indoors where they belong.
The unadoptable animals are sadly euthanized.
I really, really loathe people who think it's their God given right to let cats roam the neighborhood. Those people are really cruel almost beyond belief.
L
We are in the country, way back on sixteen and a half acres - which is a fairly good start on the anti-subdivisionism solution for life. You’re right, though. Forty acres is even better, and even with that much land, one can still eventually get neighbors suddenly (usually gradually) building up too close to where we choose to build our houses on our land. Neighbors bought the eleven acres on both sides of us, and one has built his house right back here almost parallel and unnecessarily close to our house - the one to the right of us couldn’t build close because of the property line and lay of the land - however, he has junked up his property with old abandoned vehicles on blocks and other junk facing our property. We have planted Leyland Cypress on the left, and don’t know what we’re going to plant on the right.
My advice is, even on forty or more (preferably) acres, DON’T BUILD TOO CLOSE TO THE PROPERTY LINE on either side. Also, if the ten acres adjoining your forty acres comes up for sale - buy it, even if you think it’s a little too high. Ten years down the road and a few arrogant neighbors later, it won’t look so expensive after all.