Posted on 04/22/2008 3:54:04 PM PDT by Lorianne
BOULDER, Colo. -- When suburbanites look out their front doors, a lot of them want to see a lush green lawn. Kipp Nash wants to see vegetables, and not all of his neighbors are thrilled.
"I'd rather see green grass" than brown dirt patches, says 82-year-old Florence Tatum, who lives in Mr. Nash's Boulder neighborhood, across the street from a house with a freshly dug manure patch out front. "But those days are slipping away."
work.
A school-bus driver, Mr. Nash rises at 5 a.m. and, after returning from his morning route, spends his days planting, watering and tending his yard farms and the seedlings he stores in a greenhouse behind his house.
Farmers don't necessarily live in the country anymore. They might just be your next-door neighbor, hoping to turn a dollar satisfying the blooming demand for organic, locally grown foods.
INDEPENDENT STREET BLOG
Kelly Spors on opportunities down on the yard farm. Read the latest post and share your thoughts.Unlike traditional home gardeners who devote a corner of the yard to a few rows of vegetables, a new crop of minifarmers is tearing up the whole yard and planting foods such as arugula and kohlrabi that restaurants might want to buy. The locally grown food movement has also created a new market for front-yard farmers.
"Agriculture is becoming more and more suburban," says Roxanne Christensen, publisher of Spin-Farming LLC, a Philadelphia company started in 2005 that sells guides and holds seminars teaching a small-scale farming technique that involves selecting high-profit vegetables like kale, carrots and tomatoes to grow, and then quickly replacing crops to reap the most from plots smaller than an acre. "Land is very expensive in the country, so people are saying, 'why not just start growing in the backyard?' "
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Can we go back to raising chickens, too? My grandparents had chickens in their yard even in the “city” back in the 60’s-70’s.
I understand HOA’s....live in one....hate it, but understand its purpose....but, I take a perverse pleasure in getting rid of LAWNS!!!! Useless except in parks or places where people play on them. And, furthermore....in a food shortage....his neighbors would be the first robbing him of his goods.
Probably doesn't get great sun exposure...
And there is also a reason why those homes in brown-shirt subdivisions are so difficult to sell.(what a co-inkydink!)
Plus, less "grass" means less illegals/immigrants needed to mow/edge/fertilize, etc. all of it.
I plan on riggin’ up my old digital camera and an alarm. I’ve given this twerp every break possible. But I’ve also informed my LEO buddy of the situation. I’m hopin’ he comes to his senses, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. If I have to, I’ll screw his ass to the wall, whether his Dad is a friend or not.
[Neighbors who lend their yards to the effort are paid in free produce and yard work.]
Man oh man, this fellow would be so very welcome on my back acre.
I don’t know-haven’t watched in a while.
>Society may never have been as vulnerable as we are now, totally dependent on others for our very food.<
Just another threat to our national security, courtesy of free trade.
Sounds funny.
My kids were like that until they got used to the idea.
My favorite is when the farmers/ranchers are already well established and it is obvious that there are numerous livestock & houses/yards aren’t what city slickers expect and the city slickers move in and try to change everything and everyone to suit them. Most of them bought the land in agriculture area because it was cheaper- since not everyone likes a farm/ranch for a neighbor. The really crazy ones bought in a rural area for the atmosphere, then set out to change it ASAP. I will say the city slickers, provide a large amount of entertainment for us- their lack of knowledge about even the basics of rural life is staggering. I love the list of questions they have when they move in- and the look on their face is priceless when they get the answers- things like:
Q. When is garbage pickup day?
A. LOL the only pickup related to garbage day around here is the one you will have to buy to haul your trash to the dump.
Q. How often do they grade these dirt roads?
A. Once right before a county election- if the race looks tight.
Q. Who takes care of _______ around here?
A. You do.
Q. What is that horrible smell?
A. The smell of money- to the farmer or rancher.
Q. Are your cattle/pigs/goats/chickens pets?
A. Only until they are big enough to eat.
The only consolation is they usually give up and move away pretty soon- unless enough of them move in at once to take over. So far we are far enough in the boonies to escape that fate for a while. The ones that are smart enough to learn, and tough enough to stay usually turn out to be decent neighbors.
>LOL the only pickup related to garbage day around here is the one you will have to buy to haul your trash to the dump.<
The look of horror one receives after delivering that message is priceless, no?
ummm, actually it’s the opposite. I’m not an expert on more than a handful of real estate markets in the US but I would take the bet that the rest of the country matches the ones I do know about. And in those, the HOA communities are the ones with the amenities and whose prices ran up the fastest. And now that prices have all fallen off there are people who were unable to get into those area before who can finally do it. And they ARE doing it.
I totally understand the desire to be crotchy and independent. I am considered to have a deep vein of that in me. But what is brown-shirt to some is considered the best schools-best parks-sports friendly-walking trail accessible-dog park having-closest to retail-no commuting-well maintained community they could find.
Fortunately, most cities have a variety of communities so that there is something for you, something for me and something for the young families would want all the brown-shirt stuff.
First words out of a new neighbor's mouth. We don't exactly live in the boondocks, unfortunately. There's currently a "For Sale" sign on the house.
Here is something about HOAs which is gonna piss you off even more - they are chock-a-block with GOP voters. Obama acolytes have been swarming these type of communities in battleground states like Jehovahs Witnesses trying to get anti-Hillary voters try the new messiah - just for the primary, of course. Obama knows that these suburban communities are where the GOP voters frequently go to escape the Dem voters.
Being the only person who is willing to publicly defend the need or desire for the existence of HOAs, I’m willing to take the heat. I can because I know precisely what you are talking about. My next home will be a ranch which will be watched by my dogs and probably a Mossberg 12 gauge (I’ve have to go shopping for a housewarming present...) But I’ve happily lived in HOAs and I know good ones from bad ones.
Personally, I’m agnostic. I represent people who love them and people who hate them. I’m glad that I’ve got options for both so I continue to have a career.
But we increasingly find HOAs being established in order to ALLOW communities to be built which have all of the amenities which people increasingly want. I’ve got the most successful masterplanned community in the history of mankind right here in Las Vegas - Summerlin. In order to maintain those amenities and ensure that the community you move into STAYS the community you moved into ten years later, the HOA is the best vehicle. And the HOA can also help do the things that your local city/county will not do for you like keep the streets clean or clean up graffiti.
Here is the place where I’ve picked up the pitchfork and threatened jihad on behalf of my clients. If a person buys a home or land and is fully aware of any and all deed restrictions, encumbrances and anything else related to their purchase, I will (and have) round up lawyers, confront politicians and start campaigns to prevent an owner from being burdened by an HOA, city government or commission or the Federal government. I don’t care if it is a change in FAA flightpaths or an attempt at annexation.
If you didn’t sign on to it, you shouldn’t have to agree to it later just because somebody else with more power thinks it will be good for you. And I think we would all be on the same page with that.
If any of you run into issues where you are, feel free to run it by me and I’ll offer any assistance I can.
You’ve grasped the idea of the modern HOA.
In ecomonic terms, homeowners are paying for government services they want that they can’t get through their tax dollars so they are functionally paying the HOA fee as an additional tax to ensure they get serviced properly.
Typically it is the city/county who resurfaces your roads, cleans up graffiti, landscapes and maintains public areas and parks, buildings basketball and tennis courts for public use and swimming pools. But when you’d rather have those services but have them maintained to a higher standard and have the access to them restricted to the people who actually are willing to maintain some standards, you not only ensure the quality of life but you also miraculously weed out a huge percentage of those people who don’t share your values, your interests or your socioeconomic level.
Two primary types of people won’t buy into an HOA community in my experience: 1. the ones (like you or I) who don’t want more rules, restrictions and neighbors who can infringe on their activities or lifestyle, and 2. those who think that the cost of the HOA is a waste and they would rather spend it on rent or a bigger house.
Most Freepers would be in category #1. The category #2 tend to be people who are renters or ones who are either struggling to survive or just continually act that way. And those people tend not to be great neighbors because they treat any effort beyond that which helps themselves as being unnecessary.
And when you decide to start looking for land out there you let me know and I’ll hook you up with somebody conservative and competent in your neck of the woods.
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