Gardening / Homesteading

[The Guy In Pants]

First weekend in the new place. Was overall good. I hate moving. Too much shit. 
 

Contractor came to fix the only medium issue found during the inspection so all good there. Didn’t get much time to relax but did sit on the porch for a few last night looking over the pastures and pond. Quiet. There is a nest with 2 baby birds in it on the potted plant hanger near my chair. Just watched them for a bit. 
 

If this has taught me anything it’s that we can make all the plans we want. Attempt to execute them flawlessly and make them happen. However; it’s what and when God decides that is best.

 

Not a fan of having a mortgage again but oh well. Work on the barn starts when it’s cooler.

 

Hope everyone is doing well

[RochesterRob]

  Thinking about a late or short season garden.  Yukon potatoes, peas, green beans, and cabbage.  The black raspberries did fantastic in terms of yield but were a smidge short in sweetness.  Getting sweet corn right now from a guy that hunts my land.  

[The Guy In Pants]

On 7/29/2023 at 12:27 PM, RochesterRob said:

  Thinking about a late or short season garden.  Yukon potatoes, peas, green beans, and cabbage.  The black raspberries did fantastic in terms of yield but were a smidge short in sweetness.  Getting sweet corn right now from a guy that hunts my land.  

Go for it!

[The Guy In Pants]

Hope everyone is doing well. Settling in to the new place. It's quiet. Surreal to think something as simple as being able to hear the faintest of nature's sounds could bring such contentment. 

 

Fence is up for the dogs. You can see some of it in the pic below. Also got the riding arena fence up too. Planning on going to the county's local ag-civic day to meet with some from the agricultural sector. Have a call in to the university for their team to visit and do soil tests / farm planning. 

 

We found out that the lady who originally built this home died not long after she built it. She was single as her husband had passed a few years before. She was only 59. My wife came home yesterday and I could tell she had been crying. She told me that she had done some digging. The woman looked like her mom when she was younger. Loved to bake cakes like her mom which is why we have 3 ovens. The woman had the same birthday as my wife does. Not long before she died, she had a whitish dog show up at her door and she adopted him. A week before we moved in Charlie showed up for us, we adopted him and he's mostly white. The pictures from their last thanksgiving had the dinning table in the same spot as ours and was the same color. She then told me that the woman died in her sleep in the master bedroom. Coincidences I am sure but many and very moving/humbling. Almost in tears last night as I thought about how someone who seemed so gentle and loved by so many would just go and the world could continue as it always has. Weird I suppose. We really are just dust in the wind. One day we are gone and it's like we were never here. 

 

 

 

 

[Ann]

We left a few weeks ago, and it had been raining EVERY STINKING DAY, so I did not worry too much about my plants getting water.

Bad decision.

I don't think it rained at all while we were gone as I have a lot of fried plants. It is pouring right now (of course, we returned home a few hours ago) and I will see if anything makes a comeback, but I may have to have someone water while we are gone in the future (we have someone checking the house, so he can do it).

I am more ticked about missing two+ weeks rain free than losing the plants. 

 

[Nanker]

On 3/23/2021 at 2:57 PM, CarpetCrawler said:

 

My neighbor's cats get about a bird a week in the summer, usually mourning doves who stay on the ground getting the droppings. Once the two of them took out a woodchuck, it was an epic battle I wish I could have filmed it, but it was before the ubiquitousness of cell phones. They ended up somehow gutting the varmint and his intestines were everywhere. They had no interest in eating any of it, just left it in my yard to bury.

 

 

Back in Princeton, we had really exceptionally stupid rabbits. I once saw a neighbor’s cat eat one WHOLE. The head went down last. 

[CarpetCrawler]

5 hours ago, Nanker said:

Back in Princeton, we had really exceptionally stupid rabbits. I once saw a neighbor’s cat eat one WHOLE. The head went down last. 

 

gruesome 

[Nanker]

5 minutes ago, CarpetCrawler said:

 

gruesome 

Awesome if you ask me. Incredible too. 

[The Guy In Pants]

We lost a war last night. I've been fighting the war with locals since I joined their community about 45 days ago. I told you about the addition to an existing sub division that I was able to see from our new place. Well; that wasn't all. The same developer is building another 253 home subdivision right up the road.

 

Let me highlight some important things that came to light last night:

 

*** In 2020, this developer was denied the purchase of the 96 acres. He shared his plans with the owner and they said no. In 2021 a person who proclaimed to want a farm purchased that property and a short time later sold it to the developer for 3 times what he paid for it. 

 

*** The developer immediately went to the town for rezoning and approval. At the time; a gentleman was serving on the board as well as zoning commissioner for the town. He convinced the town they had no choice. It was approved by the board.

 

*** April of 2023 it was found that this person was conducting shady practices and they were removed. The town has a lawsuit against him to get back thousands of documents he took with him. His attorney just happens to be the same firm as the developers attorney (based on what I found via social media). 

 

*** Neither the developer nor the man who was serving the town live in the town. Both of them live over 20 miles away and in very large homes on lots of private land. 

 

*** Last night it was revealed that the initial plans submitted to the town, DOT and others was not accurate. The home count was half of what the actual  is. 

 

Last night the board met again. I was there. So were dozens of other pissed off people. These 253 homes will push the town to 61% growth in population when complete. We argued our points for over 3 hours. One board member was tracking. He asked a lot of pointed and hard questions. He never received an answer from the mayor nor the developer. Just the attorney who just responded with "I'm appalled at the accusations. This is unnecessary". Another board member was not there in 2021 but said had she been "None of this would be happening right now".

 

We lost. They voted it through because it didn't matter whether they approved it or not; the developer was going to do what he wanted. The attorney said "the constitution allows people to do what they want with their land".

 

I laughed out loud and commented that a person who owns 2.5 acres can only put one home on it but a developer with money can put 3 homes per acre and nobody cares. When the attorney spoke and commented that "the town needed to do things legally and justly" I spoke out and said "Its fine to lie and cheat to get your foot in the door but now you want to play by the rules."

 

I went off a couple times. Probably a little more than I should have but I know exactly what happened. I thought the officer would remove me but he nodded in agreement a few times when I had the floor. I even got to speak to the family who was bamboozled out of the land. They were sorry it happened and that they didn't know. 

 

I am so sick tired of money doing this. The developer is a huge republican in the state. "YUGE" Desantis fan. Supposedly "pro rural America" and I see his posts that he is "Ron Desantis 2024". 

 

He was greeted last night with people from towns an HOUR AWAY to contest what he's done to their little towns and now ours. 

 

I don't know what to do yet. part of me says hold off, maybe it wont be so bad. The other part of me says just sell and move further away. I love the property. We waited a long time and it's literally everything we wanted. So aggravating. 

[Uncle Joe]

^^^^^^
Sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately these zoning allowances happen more often than not when somebody has an in on the local board.

[RochesterRob]

3 hours ago, The Guy In Pants said:

We lost a war last night. I've been fighting the war with locals since I joined their community about 45 days ago. I told you about the addition to an existing sub division that I was able to see from our new place. Well; that wasn't all. The same developer is building another 253 home subdivision right up the road.

 

Let me highlight some important things that came to light last night:

 

*** In 2020, this developer was denied the purchase of the 96 acres. He shared his plans with the owner and they said no. In 2021 a person who proclaimed to want a farm purchased that property and a short time later sold it to the developer for 3 times what he paid for it. 

 

*** The developer immediately went to the town for rezoning and approval. At the time; a gentleman was serving on the board as well as zoning commissioner for the town. He convinced the town they had no choice. It was approved by the board.

 

*** April of 2023 it was found that this person was conducting shady practices and they were removed. The town has a lawsuit against him to get back thousands of documents he took with him. His attorney just happens to be the same firm as the developers attorney (based on what I found via social media). 

 

*** Neither the developer nor the man who was serving the town live in the town. Both of them live over 20 miles away and in very large homes on lots of private land. 

 

*** Last night it was revealed that the initial plans submitted to the town, DOT and others was not accurate. The home count was half of what the actual  is. 

 

Last night the board met again. I was there. So were dozens of other pissed off people. These 253 homes will push the town to 61% growth in population when complete. We argued our points for over 3 hours. One board member was tracking. He asked a lot of pointed and hard questions. He never received an answer from the mayor nor the developer. Just the attorney who just responded with "I'm appalled at the accusations. This is unnecessary". Another board member was not there in 2021 but said had she been "None of this would be happening right now".

 

We lost. They voted it through because it didn't matter whether they approved it or not; the developer was going to do what he wanted. The attorney said "the constitution allows people to do what they want with their land".

 

I laughed out loud and commented that a person who owns 2.5 acres can only put one home on it but a developer with money can put 3 homes per acre and nobody cares. When the attorney spoke and commented that "the town needed to do things legally and justly" I spoke out and said "Its fine to lie and cheat to get your foot in the door but now you want to play by the rules."

 

I went off a couple times. Probably a little more than I should have but I know exactly what happened. I thought the officer would remove me but he nodded in agreement a few times when I had the floor. I even got to speak to the family who was bamboozled out of the land. They were sorry it happened and that they didn't know. 

 

I am so sick tired of money doing this. The developer is a huge republican in the state. "YUGE" Desantis fan. Supposedly "pro rural America" and I see his posts that he is "Ron Desantis 2024". 

 

He was greeted last night with people from towns an HOUR AWAY to contest what he's done to their little towns and now ours. 

 

I don't know what to do yet. part of me says hold off, maybe it wont be so bad. The other part of me says just sell and move further away. I love the property. We waited a long time and it's literally everything we wanted. So aggravating. 

  Sadly, I have seen most of these things happen to myself or people I know.  The bottom ring in hell is reserved for developers in my mind.  What are these developments going to be like a few decades into the future when the targeted demographic has died off?  My fear would be after paying top dollar once in retirement the money will not be there to pay the lofty prices to maintain my value.  If the real market halves my value is the tax assessor going to do likewise?  A lot of things went into value growth of homes the past 50 plus years  that I feel will not be there in the future.  If the other extreme happens where the government prints money so everybody rides the inflation train into seven figure homes then why work so hard when the guy next door has UBI to make his gravy train go?   

 

  I most likely have the answer to your question that you won't want to hear.  Move.  As I said before I have seen this happen before.  A good friend living in a Rochester, NY suburb watched his community go from a sleepy little town with plenty of green space to an overheated with McMansions mini city.  The first thing that happened once these homes were occupied was new zoning and ordinances that interfered and worse with his lifestyle.  Can't run any shop tool such as a 5 hp air compressor because it can be heard (barely) in the new neighbor's home.  All items such as antique vehicles and farm equipment must be kept inside out of view of the neighbors.  My friend kept a very tidy property and it could never be confused with the Old Haney Place from Green Acres.  

[Ann]

42 minutes ago, Uncle Joe said:

^^^^^^
Sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately these zoning allowances happen more often than not when somebody has an in on the local board.

The locals are bitching up a storm in my area about exactly this. There are two boards here, one elected, one appointed. The elected keeps vetoing stuff, the appointed over-rules. One guy (a realtor) got on the board, got a road built to his landlocked land, and had houses going up before that road even opened!

The thing I complain about isn't the growth as yes, people do have a right to build on their land. It is the lack of infrastructure. One lane in either direction (and sometimes a turn lane) and they approve subdivisions that will add a 1,000 (or so) more homes on already overburdened roads. How Florida DOT lets them get away with it, I don't know.

[RochesterRob]

5 minutes ago, Ann said:

The locals are bitching up a storm in my area about exactly this. There are two boards here, one elected, one appointed. The elected keeps vetoing stuff, the appointed over-rules. One guy got (a realtor) got on the board, got a road built to his landlocked land, and had houses going up before that road even opened!

The thing I complain about isn't the growth as yes, people do have a right to build on their land. It is the lack of infrastructure. One lane in either direction (and sometimes a turn lane) and they approve subdivisions that will add a 1,000 (or so) more homes on already overburdened roads. How Florida DOT lets them get away with it, I don't know.

  With infrastructure comes the taxes.  Soon transplants will wonder why they moved to a humid environment where it is uncomfortable to be outside for more than a half hour.  

[Ann]

3 minutes ago, RochesterRob said:

  With infrastructure comes the taxes.  Soon transplants will wonder why they moved to a humid environment where it is uncomfortable to be outside for more than a half hour.  

Ha! We wondered that our first year, and and have not stopped wondering.

It is brutal here in the summer. Coming from WNY where summer was lovely, this is the opposite of that. There is no sitting outside in July and August, no sports activities, little dining outside, etc.  The locals who grew up with this weather and are full summer participants really are a hardy bunch.

[Foxx]

29 minutes ago, RochesterRob said:

If the real market halves my value is the tax assessor going to do likewise?

Bwahahahahaa

They raised our assessment two years in a row now. Last year it was 50% which caused our taxes to go up 33%. This year the assessment went up another 33% and I am waiting to get the school tax bill here in a couple days to see what the over all tax hike will be.

When is the last time you paid less in taxes? If the RE market craters, you're not going to see your rates go down. The tax rate will just go up.

At the town hall meetings, the board and supervisor all argue that there was no raise in taxes. It is a semantic argument that they are clinging to. Yes, the base might not have changed, but we are still paying more taxes. Taxes that will never, ever go down.,

[RochesterRob]

1 hour ago, Foxx said:

Bwahahahahaa

They raised our assessment two years in a row now. Last year it was 50% which caused our taxes to go up 33%. This year the assessment went up another 33% and I am waiting to get the school tax bill here in a couple days to see what the over all tax hike will be.

When is the last time you paid less in taxes? If the RE market craters, you're not going to see your rates go down. The tax rate will just go up.

At the town hall meetings, the board and supervisor all argue that there was no raise in taxes. It is a semantic argument that they are clinging to. Yes, the base might not have changed, but we are still paying more taxes. Taxes that will never, ever go down.,

  The question was rhetorical.  At the same time you are only going to get so much blood from a turnip.  Yes, the town ,county, and the local school district spending is absolute.  But I do think the day is coming that RE values will go the other way and most likely will happen before I descend into senility.  We will never see the economy and opportunity like we saw from 1945-2000.  It was the perfect storm and with us the last man standing so to speak after WWII we used other nations' money to build ourselves up economically as we were the only country building and/or growing things to export.  We had enough momentum to carry us to the end of the 20th Century after that trend started to reverse.   

[The Guy In Pants]

Morning everyone. Hope all is well and you are all navigating this crazy shit well. Doing ok here. Been busy. Did my 50 hour break in service on the tractor a few weeks ago. Permit is approved for my shop. Concrete guy said about 4 weeks before he can get the slab poured. I am itching to spend the winter building my stuff to sell in the spring. 

 

Last weekend I removed about 6 acres of 3 wire fencing the previous owner had up. I didn't have a way to spool it up neatly so I just used a few rain barrels. I removed my water valves, flipped them over and then threaded the wire into them letting it spool itself as it wanted. Made quick work of it actually. then we used the tractor to pull out the 100 plus metal posts. All the damn fire ant bites and bee stings had me ready to nap come the evening. I still have some clean up to do before I can bush hog the fence line. There is trash and fallen trees all through it. 

 

Not sure what we are going to do with the greenhouse. Still trying to figure out where we want to put it. One thing at a time. 

 

 

[The Guy In Pants]

On 8/30/2023 at 9:37 AM, RochesterRob said:

  Sadly, I have seen most of these things happen to myself or people I know.  The bottom ring in hell is reserved for developers in my mind.  What are these developments going to be like a few decades into the future when the targeted demographic has died off?  My fear would be after paying top dollar once in retirement the money will not be there to pay the lofty prices to maintain my value.  If the real market halves my value is the tax assessor going to do likewise?  A lot of things went into value growth of homes the past 50 plus years  that I feel will not be there in the future.  If the other extreme happens where the government prints money so everybody rides the inflation train into seven figure homes then why work so hard when the guy next door has UBI to make his gravy train go?   

 

  I most likely have the answer to your question that you won't want to hear.  Move.  As I said before I have seen this happen before.  A good friend living in a Rochester, NY suburb watched his community go from a sleepy little town with plenty of green space to an overheated with McMansions mini city.  The first thing that happened once these homes were occupied was new zoning and ordinances that interfered and worse with his lifestyle.  Can't run any shop tool such as a 5 hp air compressor because it can be heard (barely) in the new neighbor's home.  All items such as antique vehicles and farm equipment must be kept inside out of view of the neighbors.  My friend kept a very tidy property and it could never be confused with the Old Haney Place from Green Acres.  

 

It really is sad. We will have to move at some point. The redid their 10 year growth plan and my property went from Rural Ag to Moderate growth. Wife and I thought it was fitting that we would have waited so long to finally get the place of our dreams just to have it rained on but forces outside our control lol. 

 

Had some new people move in down the road. I stopped to say hello. "We are from the city but it was just too much. We wanted some quiet."

 

Guess who isn't quiet? lol I've never heard an 8 year old scream cuss words at his family like theirs does. The husband is like 5'4; 'roided up. Drives a loud lifted Tundra. Got offended when I told him his children were not allowed to fish in my pond. Their voices and music echo through the woods seemingly straight to my rocking chair on the porch and apparently he gets his 4's and 6's mixed up. It says 45 MPH, not 65.

 

I am not old. I will be 42 in a week. Thing is; I like quiet and I love the country. I love doing the things outside that I do. I love farms and growing food and animals and tractors and feeling exhausted with muscle aches after working outside all day. I love sitting on the porch when its raining. When I am drinking my coffee on the porch as the world is just waking up; those are the moments in which I find my peace. Last Saturday it was cool enough for us to sleep with the windows open. (First house we could open windows in lol - its the little things) Anyway; I was laying there awake just after 4 and was getting ready to get up. I heard the owls. I went out and sat on the porch and I listened. I head one, then the other. They were moving closer to each other. Coming back together after a night out doing their thing. They mate for life. They're beautiful. Our farm name is Owl Creek Farm so it works.

 

Oh yeah; and our new sign showed up. It's 4 foot by 3 foot. I am going to use an old water trough; fill it with soil and put the wooden posts for the sign in the center; I'll plant flowers and add some cool rocks from the property to it. 

 

[RochesterRob]

  New people just make me wish that I had the money to buy the place they now occupy so they would have wound up elsewhere.  

[CarpetCrawler]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:48 PM, Nanker said:

Awesome if you ask me. Incredible too. 

 

I never said gruesome can't be awesome too. 👍