While We Were Sleeping

[TCRanch]

Still trying to figure out exactly what happened but . . .

We have a neighbor, probably early 60's, never married, no kids, real nice guy but socially awkward. He has a "junk shop", runs a few cattle and would come over maybe a couple times a year to fish in our watershed lake. About 6 months ago he hooked up with what he refers to as his "Eskimo Woman" and now brings her out to fish every couple weeks. She's evidently married, has no teeth & a tattoo near her eye (yikes!) but seems nice enough, none of my business.

Couple days ago he leaves my husband a voice message, they're coming out to fish. Fine, whatever. Except they didn't get here until almost 7:30 at night, not a lot of daylight left. Hubby was cleaning off the grill and they drove right past him, didn't stop or even wave and there were 2 people in the back of the truck sitting on what appeared to be an air mattress. Not real happy about that & definitely didn't realize it was going to be a party but Hubby blew it off, decided he'd call the neighbor later in the week to discuss the "guest policy".

We get a call from another neighbor the next morning. They had been baling cornstalks until 10:30 that night & on the way home came across a woman walking down the road next to the south end of our pasture. She was completely jacked up on meth (they know the smell?), had no idea where she was except that she had been at the watershed & was trying to walk home - which, as it turns out, is 15 miles south. WTH???? They actually took her home. So we call our fishing neighbor at 11:00 in the morning and wake him up. Evidently the woman is his Eskimo Woman's daughter. I have no idea if they were all having a little meth party or what was going on but she ended up taking off from the watershed & that's the last they saw of her. So right now all we know is that some meth-head was wandering around our property at night, right by our house. What if we had woken up & saw her? That's a good way to get shot! And what if she had injured herself crossing a cattle guard or freaking out a cow? She had to walk almost a mile to get to the county road. We have all the liability. And what if the Sheriff had picked her up & she told him she was at our place? So many things could have gone wrong! Obviously our neighbor is no longer welcome.

Any of you ever have gross abuse of privilege on your property? And how do you handle it?

 

[Lucky]

It’s sad but seems like anytime you allow anyone on your property no matter how good of friends they are they end up abusing the privilege. I get allot of “it use to not be this way” or “ not everyone can afford land”. I say tough titty things are different now and this is America anyone can have anything they want if they work hard enough. If nothing else get a year round deer lease. I’ve got a meth head down the road that thinks whats mine is his. Hard to deal with and it gets old.

 

[skyhightree1]

Still trying to figure out exactly what happened but . . .

We have a neighbor, probably early 60's, never married, no kids, real nice guy but socially awkward. He has a "junk shop", runs a few cattle and would come over maybe a couple times a year to fish in our watershed lake. About 6 months ago he hooked up with what he refers to as his "Eskimo Woman" and now brings her out to fish every couple weeks. She's evidently married, has no teeth & a tattoo near her eye (yikes!) but seems nice enough, none of my business.

Couple days ago he leaves my husband a voice message, they're coming out to fish. Fine, whatever. Except they didn't get here until almost 7:30 at night, not a lot of daylight left. Hubby was cleaning off the grill and they drove right past him, didn't stop or even wave and there were 2 people in the back of the truck sitting on what appeared to be an air mattress. Not real happy about that & definitely didn't realize it was going to be a party but Hubby blew it off, decided he'd call the neighbor later in the week to discuss the "guest policy".

We get a call from another neighbor the next morning. They had been baling cornstalks until 10:30 that night & on the way home came across a woman walking down the road next to the south end of our pasture. She was completely jacked up on meth (they know the smell?), had no idea where she was except that she had been at the watershed & was trying to walk home - which, as it turns out, is 15 miles south. WTH???? They actually took her home. So we call our fishing neighbor at 11:00 in the morning and wake him up. Evidently the woman is his Eskimo Woman's daughter. I have no idea if they were all having a little meth party or what was going on but she ended up taking off from the watershed & that's the last they saw of her. So right now all we know is that some meth-head was wandering around our property at night, right by our house. What if we had woken up & saw her? That's a good way to get shot! And what if she had injured herself crossing a cattle guard or freaking out a cow? She had to walk almost a mile to get to the county road. We have all the liability. And what if the Sheriff had picked her up & she told him she was at our place? So many things could have gone wrong! Obviously our neighbor is no longer welcome.

Any of you ever have gross abuse of privilege on your property? And how do you handle it?

Neighbors are like drugs.. just say no

 

[JMJ Farms]

Two kinds of people in the world. Givers and Takers. Givers keep giving. And Takers keep taking. Sad but true.

 

[TCRanch]

We've had a lot of friends/neighbors abuse fishing privileges and as a general rule I don't mind as long as they pick up their trash. But we had some neighbors that was turning it into a twice weekly event, even inviting friends we didn't know. Final straw was when they were driving across the dam & ran 2 calves off the road, down the side of the dam which is about a 20' slope. This is our home!!! Please do not turn it into your own personal recreational site &/or put our animals in jeopardy! We have allowed a few people to turkey hunt but cut one neighbor off after they made ruts through the brome field and left their hunting blind/chairs/etc, evidently with the intent of coming back the next season. Cut off another neighbor after we found multiple beer bottles broken at the lake. And no drugs!!!! We have a ridiculously huge insurance umbrella and so far we've been lucky. We hate being the "bad guys" but you're absolutely right, JMJ, takers keep taking.

 

[slick4591]

I guess now is probably not the best time to ask, but....

 

[True Grit Farms]

There's no drugs and I really don't want any drinking on my property. I do let the hunters enjoy themselves, but I tell them the motel is less than 10 miles away, go and stay there if your going to get drunk or we'll have a problem. Sounds like you need some good dogs. No one is going to walk around our barns or house without the dogs letting us know. I'd be a nervous wreck if I thought any different.

 

[TCRanch]

There's no drugs and I really don't want any drinking on my property. I do let the hunters enjoy themselves, but I tell them the motel is less than 10 miles away, go and stay there if your going to get drunk or we'll have a problem. Sounds like you need some good dogs. No one is going to walk around our barns or house without the dogs letting us know. I'd be a nervous wreck if I thought any different.

Obie will take out coyotes, beavers, you name it. Cecil is 13 & zero protection unless you take away his food or Jolly Ball. But we keep both dogs in the garage at night. You would think I'd hear them barking but I have actually slept through an earthquake & a tornado (before we had smart phones with alerts) & Hubby can't hear squat. Maybe she did hear them barking and at least prevented her from trying to get into the house or his truck parked in the driveway? Who knows. We never even used to lock the doors but started about a year ago after a robbery not too far south.

 

[TCRanch]

I guess now is probably not the best time to ask, but....

Slick, you are more than welcome to fish the watershed! Pretty sure you're not gonna drive up from TX EVERY week ;-)

 

[Ky hills]

There's no drugs and I really don't want any drinking on my property. I do let the hunters enjoy themselves, but I tell them the motel is less than 10 miles away, go and stay there if your going to get drunk or we'll have a problem. Sounds like you need some good dogs. No one is going to walk around our barns or house without the dogs letting us know. I'd be a nervous wreck if I thought any different.

I agree with you, no drugs or drinking allowed around here. I'm of the mindset that drunks, guns in proximity to houses and livestock is a no go. We are very selective in who is allowed to hunt here. Has to be someone we know and trust. I also like to know when they are here, mainly so I won't be disturbing their efforts out in field.
We have had good watch dogs for years and would not be with out at least one. Good watch/guard dogs are worth their weight in gold.

 

[herofan]

I have two people that I allow on my land; they are very respectful and have never abused the privilege. Otherwise, the answer is always no. I must seem kinda cold. I haven’t even had anyone ask for several years now.

 

[greybeard]

Being Eskimos, maybe they thought they were back near the Artic circle and back in the land of the midnight sun...

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Sound like the man must be desperate for friends..and probably gullible as a kid...

 

[TCRanch]

Sound like the man must be desperate for friends..and probably gullible as a kid...

I suspect you're right and in his mind, any attention is better than none.