Homestead mailing list

[Magnus <stinkfart AT gmail.com>]

My county, thankfully, is not on that list.

I bought my lot in Person County almost ten years ago.  Most of the roads
were dirt roads, including the one my lot fronted to.  No cable TV.  No
entertainment.  No high speed internet.  You had to drive 20-25 minutes to
the nearest supermarket.

Now the roads are all paved.  The cable company dropped a box on my frontage
(utility easement) anticipating that someday I would want cable TV.  They
also offer high speed internet now.  Right down the road there is a new
entertainment complex with movies, roller skating, bowling, and video
games.  All of the public schools in the county have been rebuilt for much
higher capacity.  North of my property line used to be tobacco fields.  Now
the farmers have figured out that they can whittle away at their farmland
for fast cash (and have switched from tobacco to soy).  Big opulent homes
have been built on these tiny plots they've carved out.

South of my property line, a number of high falutin homes have been built.
Two of the neighbors are eager to get out as the one between them has taken
to breeding pit bulls ("farming" them would be a better word) and the noise
and danger level has scared them out.  No big deal.  Did I mention I collect
military rifles as a hobby?  The same Mosin-Nagant that put giant holes in
Germans during the Battle of Stalingrad should do a hell of a job on a pit
bull that wanders onto my land.

I hope the dog farmer, who backed right up to my property line, doesn't mind
when my buck goats back right up against his (I don't want them close to MY
house! P.U.!!)

Country roads that used to be vacant are now seeing a regular flow of
traffic.  Not a lot, but it's pretty regular.  You can't go more than a
couple of minutes now without seeing a car somewhere.

The light pollution has gotten terrible as the county has now taken to
putting up STREET LIGHTS out in what was farmland a few years ago.  All of
the neighbors have these floodlights pointing at my property.  What used to
be a wonderful view of the evening sky has turned into one more familiar
from years of growing up in the city.

This is war.

I've got enough land (36 acres) that there is some buffer.  Once I find a
cheap effective barrier that I can use around the perimeter to contain it,
I'm planting bamboo.  Preferably a very invasive variety that grows very
tall.  Tall enough to block out some of that danged light pollution, and
thick enough to give the pit bull herd nothing to bark at.