Posted on 08/05/2004 8:36:56 PM PDT by farmer18th
OK. I thought it was serious, then I thought it wasn't then I thought it was.
This is excellent! It's great, send it out for publication, it really skewers the deserving!
Viewscape, lol, good word!
As a lifelong resident from the fastest growing county in my state...ROFL.
Priceless. Thanks
I attended a few of these meetings and listened to the neighbors talk about their "$250,000" homes and how their property would be hurt by "boxcar" homes. I did some investigating by driving around the area to see what a "$250,000" home looked like. Sheesh, you'd think Charlie Manson had gone Mormon and the whole clan had moved into the valley.
Long story short, my in-laws got their zoning and put up their modular home (along with a few stick outbuildings). I've got to say that their property is an enhancement to the valley.
Well, actually, it's "Viewshed," as in "Watershed," etc. Yes, it was good writing and theraputic for me in that it transported me back to endless hours of public hearings on our county's General Plan. The Exurban Refugees would line up and drone on for hours, into the wee small hours, about "protecting our rule environment!"
I guess the public school system of indoctrination never taught them that rural is a two sylable word and not "rule!" I especially like what you wrote about "organic farming." What a crock!!! All these smartasses are good for is making every single thing cost more... including government that seems to be their god!!!
They just love "winning through intimidation" and coopting the shear force of government enforcement!!! You did a good job of capturing their unmitigated gall, insolence and arrogance, thouroghly mixed with audacity!!!
That's excellent. You really caught the flavor of how those folks think.
priceless! :-)
The main gripe is trees that grow and block the view. I'm thinking of doing a night job myself.
Pardon me, is this the line to the Department of Class Warfare?
I'm still cracking up over this one. His neighbors didn't understand the meaning of Agricultural zoning.
What I find profoundly disturbing about our own local zoning discussions, is that people who are otherwise conservative become downright Sierra Club when it comes to anything their neighbors are doing with their land. Within certain very wide bounds, I couldn't give a rip what my neighbors do with their land. Wish they felt the same.
What you do with your land is fine but you must be responsible for the consequences. NIMBYs want all the power and none of the responsibility.
I end up weeding a fair amount other people's property to protect my own, perhaps an additional an additional 8 acres, but fifteen weeks a year of weeding due largely to other people's irresponsibility doesn't seem quite fair. In addition to my neighbor, the real villain is the County. They banned roadside spraying, so they mow. Those damned mowers and ditch cleaning equipment spread everything all over the county. A lot of it is poisonous. Given that we live in one of the mildest climates in the world, everything grows here.
The problem is the sheer volume and dispersion of the weeds my neighbor owns. I simply cannot weed my own property and enough of his to keep the stuff from coming back, I just can't get around that fast. He has bullthistle, Italian thistle, catsear (two types), hedge parsley (three types), bedstraw (two types), field madder, star thistle (two types), Chinese hats, dandelions, dogtail grass, ripgut, red sorrel, rattlesnake grass (two types), tall oats, soft brome, cheat grass, hairy chess, Zorro fescue, foxtails (two types), rabbitsfoot grass, Italian rye, eucalyptus, acacia, French broom, cotoneaster, black medick, burclover, cranesbill (two types), long fruited filaree, scarlet pimpernel, Algerian ivy, English ivy, cudweed (two types), horseweeed, and sowthistle (two types) along with a couple I haven't yet identified.
This year we got our first sticky eupatorium. Oh joy.
Our property has an enormously rich range of habitat with nearly 285 plant species on only fourteen acres. I have been working on the restoration for fifteen years, and committed tens of thousands of dollars. Why should I have to endure setting aside 20% of it just to be a weed buffer? I don't give a rip what he does with his land either, in the sense that if he wants to ranch it, grow grapes, or raise horses, whatever. I just wish he'd be a might more responsible and start cleaning the heavy equipment he brings in and show the common sense to seed a cover crop. It's only rational when his vineyard is on a 15% slope of silty alluvium and we can get 4" of rain an hour.
I don't know what's worse--a neighboring farmer who is irresponsible or a yuppie couple who want you to farm at a loss to keep up their views.
This is GREAT. Very funny and totally spot on.
He's an engineer, not a farmer. As far as a loss is concerned, I'm doing research for a business that develops habitat restoration processes to help landowners get something for all the free management the government illegally compels them to do. In effect, my land is a commercial lab on a new legal model.
I can barely get any work done because of the extra load on me my irresponsible neighbor induces. I write and speak about environmental issues as well. I have a half million dollars committed to this business. If you don't think what he's doing costs me a bundle you are seriously mistaken.
I know full well that what I'm doing is normally part of the government university cabal. I want you to think about the real cost of all that "free" R&D. My plan is to take that business back for landowners and create habitat management enterprises that overlay existing land uses. Free enterprise respecting private property rights can do a better job of balancing land uses from pure natural landscapes to the urban interface without such destructive coercion.
Or (better yet), this.
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