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my compost pile

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Peggy:

I don't know if I am over reacting....  :tickedoff:
we have hauled four loads of that free compost you get from the county into the yard. I have spread it around my irises you gave me, mixed it in with my hay bales in order to build soil in our 'garden area', we put it right by our front door on my flowers out front...  (when you think of four loads, think of the back of a small pick up  truck, our trailer was once the back end of a Ford Ranger)

our last load went on the back lawn, we were told if we spread it a couple inches thick that the  worms would carry it under ground and make our soil real spongy and healthy.... 

we were planning spreading it on both front and back lawns, around the flowers around the pond, and in my butterfly/hummerbird/bee corner... yes, basically on almost all of our little 1/2 acre.

and yes it smells.. but it's starting to wear off.. and most of it will be tilled under in the fall after gardening season is over...

Supposedly, our neighbors have gotten together and decided that we should not be spreading this compost on our yard anymore, and they want us to buy straw and cover it up.. geez, louise, how many inches of straw do they want??  I think it's realistic to say that no straw is going to cover up what they don't want.

The one neighbor that approached clyde said three neighbors had come to him about it.. first of all I don't believe it.. but if it's true, it's probably the same three that demanded we cut down our trees as soon as we moved in....

The people who lived here before us manufactured dope, and the we've been told the back yard was used as a dump and it was so bad that rats were all over the nieghborhood... We are cleaning the place up and trying to improve the lot.. so that someday we won't have to haul any compost in... or at least very little...

my neighbor asked me tonight, if i don't care about my neighbors... and you know, i see that as a mean tactic.. it's not that I don't care.. it's that I'm looking at the big picture, and enjoying the fact that this is our first home, and I can actualy have a beautiful yard someday.. and I tried to explain that to him, and he kept asking me over and over again, "so do you care about your neighbors??"

I look at his stuff in his back yard every day.. he puts in furnaces for a living.. there are pipes and furnuce pieces.. and wires, and cables, and a shed that needs torn down..but it's not my yard so I don't worry about it.  I don't see it as my business unless it's a health hazard.

I've tried to tell this story from the neighbors side and from my side, and I've taken college classes and I know good and well, I put an 'emotional appeal' in this.. but right now I'm  really emotional. :Vent:

My neighbor said he wasn't gonna talk to me ever again, he now has no use for me.. cause I said I told him I would not stop hauling compost in, and I invited him to hire an attorney if he wanted.  My husband is mad at me because he doesn't want to make enemies of the neighbors.... this is just stupid!

We live in an area that is zoned in the county.. we live down the road from a cow farm, across the free way from Sheep farms... there is agriculture all around us... I don't honestly get it.

Obviously, I need a 200 acre ranch...cause I think cow stuff doesn't stink at all.. unless you get such massive quanities that it could probably be considered toxic waste.... my grandparents had a farm... it is part and parcel of growing up in the country..  yes, I come from a very long line of farmers...

I'm so sad... and mad.... have you ever heard of such a situation coming up ever?? And how did it go???

xoxoxo, peg

Patty S:
Jiminy christmas, Peggy! I got so engrossed in your story, that I completely forgot I've been so bored tonight that I resorted to sitting here picking burrs outta my brand new warm fuzzy socks! I picked them up at a garage sale for 50¢, then turned around & walked through the field grass at the edge of the yard with them on... & ffwup!  They turned into seed magnets! (How the heck do those one-way grass seeds work their way clear into your shoes?!)

Well anyway, about your neighbor... I do understand your frustration & anger about your neighbors not being even remotely happy about anything you do there!  (Gosh, I remember when a "neighbor" was more than simply a person who lived on the same street!) All I can say about the way they're treating you is the same thing I say to my kids/grandkids when they deal with agitators at work/school... We can't always share an elevator with people who smell good! What I mean by that is, we're all "passing through" on this planet, & our main objective is to just get through it... but some people haven't figured out that it'd be easier for everyone if they just didn't insist on being boat rockers! :rolleyes1: Just go about your business & know that you aren't the one who stinks!

We need to accept people as they are & go about our own lives, being the best we can be.  I appreciate your efforts to have your dream home, while improving your neighborhood by turning what someone else had neglected/turned into a dump, into a place that people will want to live next to!  (In the process of doing that, it's not even necessary to compare your yard to the neighbor's yard!)  You're an intelligent woman who knows how to treat Mother Earth, so take pride in what you're doing.  The "do you care about your neighbors" challenge is nothing more than a cheap shot, made by a person who obviously knows how to effectively intimidate & control people, but I say, don't play the game & assume the roll of "victim", to the people around you... which a comment like that is designed to do!

As for the cattle & sheep ranches and your compost amendments, I'm sure that if the County Commissioners were in the business of mediating such disputes, their bottom line would be that if the homeowners in your area don't like living in an agricultural zone, they have the option of selling their deeds & moving to the city! :razberry: (If your neighbor insists on badgering you & you want to "talk back" to him, suggest that he's welcome to take his complaint to the County!)

As you know, the only neighbor that I have, smiles in my face & screams like a bloody maniac at my guests if I neglect to warn them not to turn around in her driveway!  I take her where she's at & hope she'll grow up one day, cuz I'm from where neighbors were always "neighborly"! 

Keep on doing what you're doing in that yard... & you can vent here (and/or to me) any old time you want!  :kissies:

... and don't allow little people make you feel or act little!

 

Peggy:
thanks, patty...

now, i just gotta get my husband talking to me...
over a pile of compost!
this is just unreal! lol
hugs, peg

Pharmerphil:
Actually, there is something wrong IF, your compost smells anything other than "earthy", like the smell you get when you walk into a greenhouse.
Many municipalities either do not compost yard waste correctly, or let it go out to folks B4 it has finished.
Be very cautious of compost at this type of source. It could cause "other" problems...
A sad tale....
A neighbor that attended Master Gardening courses with me wanted to make a flowerbed at the Township Hall, her and her team worked feverishly to get it done in a timely manner, Tilling, adding ammendments, and 5 truckloads of compost from the city pile.
She, (who raises bedding plants) filled the garden with beautiful flowers, it looked Beautiful :Gardeninhail:
One week lter, everything was DEAD :-\

Improperly composted yard waste can carry residual fertlizers, Herbiicdes and pesticides

duh:
Yep it sounds like your "compost" was not made well.  I know the price is right with municipal compost but pharmer is on the money.  They just dump everything they get that's green in there.

I've found that it's very easy to build a compost pile that doesn't smell or attract pests using just grass clippings and leaves.  The leaves mixed with the grass clippings keep it from smelling.  Mine is about 75 percent grass and 25 percent leaves and I live in the city and don't like strong smells so you know this works. 

Compost should look and smell like good dirt if it doesn't leave it alone. 

As far as what you can do now I would suggest sprinkling lime over the compost.  It will decrease the smell if there is any and it is a good amendment for the soil.  With acid rain being what it is most uncarefor soil can use a dose of it anyway.  And it doesn't hurt to apologize for disturbing your neighbor.  That's frequently the easiest way to open up a close minded persons ears.

If there was a dope den in your house before you got it I'm sure the neighbors are all a little paranoid and will probably act in a controlling manner until they realize what good people you are.  Remain open and friendly.  They will come around it will probably just take awhile. 

They sound like me when new people move in.  I always expect the worst.  I know I shouldn't but I suffer from PTSD and it affects my attitudes and actions until I become accustomed to people and things.

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