Still more good points. Thanks, Jammie. I agree that I don't want anything sitting around in the kitchen that will draw bugs or smell. We already have our fair share of house flies, and fruit flies if I leave produce on the counter. I don't need to be attracting them. Some of the stuff goes out to the chickens, like melons, cukes and so on, and the dogs get most of the meat scraps. We butchered some lambs this spring, but there was no way on earth I was going to put all that on any compost pile. It all went off to a neighbor who did something with it. I gave him the hides in exchange, so it was a good trade. I don't have a tumbler and would probably forget to use it if I did have one, but I can see that I've been wasting a lot of produce that could have been added to the pile instead of being thrown out. Lettuce, cabbage, sprouts and so on, not to mention all the egg shells, coffee grounds, and paper plates I've thrown away. Thirty lashes for me! All the grasses and weeds that I pull out of the flower beds have been going on the burn pile because I've been afraid of stuff simply seeding and reproducing in that nice mulch. Will it break down and not be a problem? My mulch heap would be at least twice its size if I had been adding that stuff. I can see that I'll be grabbing a grocery bag to take to the garden instead of dropping stuff in the garbage can from now on. Our chicken coop is big, about 12 x 24' or so, with a regular walk door. The wheelbarrow or trailer won't fit in the door, but I can pull up right in front of it to shovel the stuff out after it's been gathered into a pile. The sheep pens are the same way. Usually they are roaming out in the pasture, but if they are lambing or the weather is really bad, they like to go in the pens for shelter. Even when the bedding has been pulled out for summer, there is usually enough manure to make it worthwhile to clean them out now and then. One added note is: the main problem I have with putting any cardboard down at all on this property is that the scorpions love to hide under it. Since each reaction I've had to a bite has been worse than the one before, I tend to be a bit nervous about creating a ready-made habitat for them. I do use thick layers of newspaper a lot, but soak it down completely and then pile mulch over the top. It's usually kept damp by the regular watering. So far it has not been a problem for harboring any sort of nasties. Pat.

I think that wandering more than 5 or 10 miles each way is quite doable for a smaller dog that's in shape and should pose no problem for a larger dog. (Our 50-pound collie got out through the fences twice in her life and went visiting at least 5 miles away to our kind neighbor who rescues dogs and cats.) You might consider visiting the farms and asking if anyone owns a dog, what it looks like, and mention your concerns. Even people who don't think their animals will get hurt by wandering (and a surprising number believe that the animal will be OK no matter what) don't want problems with their neighbors and will do something if they know you are seriously considering calling Animal Control. Or, as cindyb said, the owners might have no idea their dog is roaming so far every day and will be glad you told them. When we moved here 12 years ago our farm neighbors warned us they would shoot to kill any dog they saw going after their livestock. (That position didn't make them wildly popular but people did keep their dogs in.) On a lighter note, my father solved a stray-dog problem when we were little and lived in a neighborhood where everyone let their dogs out to run. Our house was on the corner and ALL the neighborhood dogs would mess in our yard all the time. He politely asked the neighbors to keep their dogs in and was mostly ignored. He took drastic action when he had to stop a stray German Shephard from chasing my little sister. The next afternoon (Sunday) he put a 100' log chain between the two biggest trees in our yard. Every time a dog came into the yard, he called it to him (or bribed it with treats) and fastened it to that chain (or he rigged a collar and attached the dog to the chain. He was an engineer and had devised a dog-safe fastener that only he could open.) He monitored the yard, and by mid-afternoon there were at least 15 dogs out there and many very upset owners telephoning, yelling at him in person, or trying unsuccessfully to take their dogs off the chain. One furious fellow even called the cops to complain, but the officer who responded ended up watching the scene and getting the design for the dog-fastener from my father!) People kept their dogs in from then on.

I believe crime is further down the list way below economic conditions of the neighborhood and here is why: Crime makes news story in an upper class neighborhood as it is abnormal. We know crime happens everywhere in every neighborhood but upper class folks don't like to be disturb with it or have it lower their image so cops are called in, etc. e.g. Beverly Hills Middle class neighborhood also may make a news story but not as shocking as upper class. e.g. Irvine In lower class or depressed neighborhood - it barely makes the news as it is expected. That doesn't prevent more criminals from setting up shop. e.g. Watts or Compton We must keep in mind in the US many neighborhoods and their social economic were forecast by US government policies after WW2 and it is no shocker that interstates/highways (Interstate Highway Act) cut through previously good neighborhoods and some inner cities are predominately one group or another. Until you have a renaissance those communities will attract crime and less than ideal living conditions resulting in unattractive housing market for outsiders and businesses. No business owner wants to risk opening shop in a poorer or increasing crime neighborhood if they can pay a little more in rent and have business in the 'good' part of town unless it is fast food or church. The next biggest attribute to neighborhood downfall in the US - is companies/business relocate to cheaper or elsewhere. E.g. We have heard of Walmart killing a downtown or example Schenectady, NY which was HQ of GE until they moved elsewhere and it went from one of the most desirable destinations in NY to one of the most depressing (never able to turn itself around). Most of the mid-west cities follow the exact trend of losing a big employer footprint while continually receiving low-educated residents looking for employment/future. You are left with uneducated folks without money in a place with little upward opportunity. A family with no job and kids will probably foucs on some type of illegal activity to obtain $$$ eventually (even if they can hold out for a long time) or some dependency (gambling, drugs, gangs) to escape their desperate condition.

Ohhh, MamaGoose, I am dying laughing at the orange jumpsuit! And that alarmed me when I saw it too, especially when he ducked down out of signt immediately after I called the dog. I knew the fence guys had the option of working Saturday, and I checked the front drive again to see if I'd missed seeing their truck, but no they did not come to work. That meant someone else. I suspected who, but had to return to the back door and wait for about two minutes before he finally stood up. Yep, orange jumpsuit and a white head of hair, just visible from shoulders up above the shrubbery along that property line. And orange jumpsuits signify prison to me too, Mama. But the white hair meant the neighbor. And his presence there was not on his property, but on his back neighbor's property, which he is treating like his own. The owner is the niece of the lady we bought the back forty from. And she had to put up NO TRESPASSING signs facing HIS HOUSE in attempt to keep him out of there. The house is vacant. He does cut the back yard up a ways, but not all the way to the empty house. He is doing to HER property what he once did to OURS, expanding his space, even planting hydrangeas in places. Well, it is better than weeds I know. But also in the tall weeds up near that vacant house is where he was secreting his infamous burn barrel. On someone else's property, so he could deny it was his. But that was stopped too. I have no idea where he hid it this time. But now and then, I do smell burning stuff late at night on weekends. And Scott, we had a survey done and we paid to have both our lot and the neighbor's lot totally surveyed. Money well spent. The old survey markers next to this neighbor had been removed. Well, one of them had been cut off below the ground out by the street, and it was located in what I thought was HIS YARD by about 6 feet. After he backed his trailer up our driveway and across our lawn to haul away huge tree limbs and boles, I popped a line and built my rose bed to prevent any such future occurence. No fence on the front yard portion of this property line, but I did make the flower bed pretty on both sides as viewed from both our yards. I dare say it is the best flower bed in the neighborhood, and it is out in view of God and everybody. LOTS of compliments on it. I installed a line of brick flat to the ground on his side of the line (still on our property though), so he could put the wheel of his mower on it. As to plants growing in the Back Forty. No poison ivy, which really surprises me. But thank heaven it is not there. And no one has tossed any pot seeds there. I had not thought about that. A grandson lives with them, a college student, so I appreciate the heads up about that. It would definitely cause us some grief if such seeds thrown in our new space suddenly grew. The authorities would be notified and we would be turned in you betcha. And I'm not so attentive to WEEDS that I'd notice any strange things dropped into a basic overgrown place. We've cut back the major overgrown stuff, but not fine tuned it yet. That will come after the fence people quit stomping around back there. Even their presence for one afternoon has made a big difference in the open ground. But I am careful walking there until all the stobs of cut-off tree seedlings are removed. I cannot afford a foot injury with my diabetes. Oh yes. I revisited the spot where the neighbor was seen. He's pulled out some grass along the old chainlink fence, but not significantly so. I suppose he was doing his own survey of the post locations--for what other reason could he be so fascinated to go so far as to HIDE his presence, and not stand up until he expected me to be moved away from the door? But the new posts are inside our property markers. Good Sunday morning to you all. Lovely day.