When I was a teenager, my mother thought chipmunks were cute. My Aunt next door cut down on the amount of cats & Mom was feeding them (the tree rats). The next thing we knew, there were chipmunks EVERYWHERE. Dozens of them, digging up all the bulbs & everything we planted. Emptying all the bird feeders. Running & playing & most of all multiplying. My Uncles were poisoning, trapping & shooting them until they finally got down to a manageable number. In later years, I had a Sheltie who thought it was her job to be on chipmunk patrol & she took it very seriously & kept them away. My Newf isn't that excited over such a small mouthfull but we have an Eskie who likes organic dog toys (mice & such are organic cat toys). Linda

Neighbors on either side - great! However, the ones in back are a different story. One directly behind us butted his fence against ours (will probably be going to court as soon as survey is done. Think the stakes were moved) then dug a trench so the water from his yards flows into ours! Not. Our one and only encounter with them was when his wife had a hissy fit when we had the fence repainted and the painter had paint chips in her yard. She DEMANDED we call our contractor immediately and have him come and clean up his mess. I tried to inform her contractor was going to, but since they had just had their lawn resodded, he wanted to wait till it was dry so he didn't damage it. Never did get to let her know that. Other neighbors next to them believe that's it's perfectly o.k. to leave their terriers outside for extended periods of time and don't how much it might bother the neighbors. Apparently someone finally called the police as they no longer leave them outdoors all day long without food or shelter. Too bad some people just don't seem to grasp the concept of being a good neighbor.

World War II began in '39 when I was 10, the hired farmhand went into the army and what farm work Dad and this lad and a couple of younger brothers got done, got done: the rest ... just didn't. Mom had got sick a few years earlier and was in psych. hosp., and we had a housekeeper, with help from 80-year-old Grandma, after Grandpa died. We had cows to feed and milk and horses and pigs to feed ... and to clean up the residue that they provided, both behind the tied ones and in the box stalls where some of the young cattle, and pigs, ran free ... so two-feet deep manure was part of the game, and, though it was smelly, I don't remember being seriously repelled by it ... so getting some manure on hands, or even face, didn't bother me too much. Once or twice a year we had to pitch the manure from the pile behind the barn into the manure spreader, to have a team of horses pull to the field and spread. I've heard said that (certain) clergymen and a manure pile have something in common - get a bunch of them together and they can raise a lot of stink ... but spread them out over the land and they do a lot of good. We had land to cultivate and seed, then harvest hay (pitching the clumps by hand) and grain, first with a binder that made sheaves that were carried by teams and wagons, with a group of neighbours changing works to a threshing machine beside the barn, later with a combine harvester. We cut wood (from dying trees) from our woodlot in winter, cut it into short lengths and hauled it to a woodshed at the back of our house, or into a room in the basement next to the furnace, then split the chunks into smaller pieces with an axe. When I wondered what chore got my goat the worst, I had to think a bit ... then decided that it was carrying armsful of wood from the woodshed at the back of the house through the summer kitchen into the regular kitchen, where we dumped it into a wooden box behind the kitchen range. Seemed to take a lot of nagging on the part of the female components of the household to get the job done. Year-round, but especially in winter, when the range provided heat for much of the house as well as for cooking. And heating wash-water, to carry by bucket to the (wringer) washer in the back kitchen: bath-water as well - we boys had our weekly bath in a round, galvanized tub behind the stove ... and when one took water from the reservoir at the back of the stove to put into the tub, if one forgot to add some more cold water to the reservoir for heating ... ... one heard about it from the one(s) who were to take a bath later (and, if I recall correctly, we didn't throw all of the water down the kitchen sink after each one bathed). Three brothers, no sister, so there wasn't the business of being exiled from the kitchen for a period on Saturday nights. ole joyfuelled ... who bathes a bit more frequently, these days ... and washes undies, occasionally P.S. Which is smarter - a pig? Or a cow? When I was young, Dad built platforms of planks in the corner of several pig pens, and we'd throw a forkful of straw into that platform ... and when we were running around, playing, we could run into the pig pen and lay down on that platform, as the pigs kept it clean. Pigs'll keep the place where they sleep clean ... and do their dirty job elsewhere, and eat in a different location, given the opportunity. While a cow ... will shi! in it's own bed ... manger ... or anywhere. Pigs are clean - they make good, and intelligent pets. o j

Changing colors is very different from hiring an architect and then going through a patent process to have your design copyrighted. Some things can by copyrighted and others cannot. I've worked with several patent attorneys to get designs copyrighted. I think the question here is whether the first house decreased in value after its design details were copied or mimicked. If it did not, then there was really no financial damage done, but I suspect that a house going from being unique in a neighborhood to being one of two in the same neighborhood would affect its value. Patents can be geographically specific so that they would be in effect within a certain radius distance. If they had not gone through the copyright process, then they would not have a case, but since the patent office granted the patent, then they do. I've not personally had experience with this kind of patent before, however. How do you feel when you meet someone at a party or event wearing the same expensive dress that you have on? This is legal, of course, but it might give you an idea of the feelings of the home owners. And it's a lot easier to change a dress than a house. Do you compliment someone for wearing the same dress as you? That might be the civil thing to do, but I've made a lot of custom dresses for women who wanted to wear something that no one else had.