Hah... neighbors.
So at the GF’s farm in Harvard (where I spend 90% of my time) there is only one neighbor, as there’s about 1000’ of field that separates us from the neighbor to the east, he’s cool as shit and we’ve become great friends. Nobody to the south for about 1/4 mile. Directly to our west is another 10 acre parcel with a house on it. The house was vacant for like seven years until this spring...
A large family moved in next door this past spring. At first I was cool with them because they were cleaning the place up nicely, built a nice fence, etc...
About three weeks after they moved in I got a call and a couple picture messages from my neighbor on the east side that there’s a dozen county sheriff vehicles in front of my house and cops going around in my back yard. (he did time when he was younger so he’s got that sixth sense for the cops lol). I rush home from the diner in town I was grabbing breakfast at wondering what the fuck is going on, scared for our livestock. All I got out of the cops was that they were there for a wellness check.
Since then, it’s been a pretty regular monthly occurrence. Half dozen squads, ambulance, fire truck, etc... One time while this was happening their dog got out and we caught it. I was able to talk to one of the daughters who said the cops were there for her brother because of the voices in his head. Sick. Kid is coocoo for Cocoa Puffs. But whatever, not his fault most likely and I’m pretty empathetic as long as the voices don’t say ”kill the neighbor“ or some shit.
All the while this continues to happen, they start accumulating livestock. There are no barns on this property so one by one they start having shipping containers dropped off to use for pens. I cannot cannot count how many times their animals have escaped through their fence or by simply walking out their open front gate they never close. They are backyard breeding everything from ponies to goats to sheep to rabbits at this place, getting this stock from god knows where, and letting it escape. Having us worry about disease (we have closed herds and quarantine new stock), our guardian dog fighting their dogs or killing a helpless whatever that may wander over, etc. The final straw was when their stud pony got out, broke our fence and allowed our two mares to get out. He mounted them both so we had to have them pregnancy checked as they were going to be being bred soon after.
Fast forward until a month or two ago. My neighbor to the east was out working on his truck when the mom came over with the young kids frantic and asking if she could stay there for a while to be safe. Turns out its not mental illness, the kid and his GF are meth heads and the voices are from them being up for days at a time and he just loses his shit and everyone just leaves him at home and heads for safety.
Supposedly they are flipping the house, so I’m hoping they will be gone within the next few months. But yeah, getting that nice peaceful country lifestyle isn’t all it’s cracked up to be now a days.
