The FORCED demolition of my inventory and good equipment as well is in the 4th week and rages on.---I cant have ANYTHING sitting outside and was ordered by the EPA to deliver it to a CERTIFIED landfill,--which I did (VERY COSTLY) and now they want the stuff that was destroyed during the destruction hauled out. (trees and buildings)---- well the trees will burn, and as far as the rest of the stuff,-- right now I dont know what to do with it.
I did manage to stash a few pieces to see if I can get my garden creeper finished up.---this is just the tip of the iceberg to this story!!!! thanks; sonny

Whatever happened to the constitution? One county over, a friend of mine has been dealing in machinery for 45 years at least. Some rich people bought the property across the road, hadn't moved in yet and called the county on him saying that his place was an eyesore. The inspectors were almost apologetic but if somebody complains.....so as long as he was showing progress in getting rid of all the stuff that he had paid money for they would only check in occasion. There is no zoning against industry or business in fact he has a business licence and his shop is rigged with 3phase power. Just because he is't a fortune 500 company or has unlimited cash to fight these arrogant SOBs he is stuck with the option of finding storage, building storage, finding buyers or scrapping. Folks, this can happen to any of us. Where will it end? I'm starting to feel that this is becoming a bigger issue than we all think (just ask Sonny!). Maybe it's time for all of the people that think for themselves and use their hands to band together from all the different sites and forums to make changes to the system that discriminates against us in the pursuit of our hobbies. Sonny isn't the first one on this site to have this problem and won't be the last.
I'm sorry I got on my soapbox on this but the time is coming where someone will tell us what flowers to plant,the color for our house,the brand of car to buy for the neighborhood.
Oh, by the way, the people that live next door heard what the others did to my friend and reported that the rich people's horses must be being mistreated because they smell so bad and that manure tainted runoff occurs when it rains hard.
Is this what living in this country has become? One big pissing contest? Until people like us get out there and vote out the the elected officials that allow this sort of stuff to continue we will need to look over our shoulders and worry....
OK I'm done. I'm just a cranky old disabled veteran that gets kinda upset when the rights that myself and all fellow veterans fought and died for get trampled.
Terry

that is what 12 foot electric razer wire fences are for. wink wink then put super silt fence behind it to cover the run off

opps forgot the neighbor associations around me already do that. including the flag poles.. (not allowed ever) plus they charge 125.00 per month to do this

The razor fences for the polititians to keep them in... then let them get covered in the runoff! I LIKE IT!
T

I believe I'd pay for a wooden fence before I got rid of everything. It's communism at work what's happening to this country, and I really hope we can stop it.

Been wondering about those billboard "tarps". Farm Show had a story on a company that collects expired billboard plastic covers and sells them as 20mil tarps. Supposedly 14'x48' is $45. Could it survive as a privacy fence - with how much support? (advertising facing in toward our inventory.) Zoning hasn't gotten me...yet. Fully agree.

Our problem here is that stuff has to be covered,either with a tarp ,car cover or 3 side covered building. This includes untitled-ininsured vehicles.These regulations were brought into effect back 3-4 years ago when scrap steel prices were so high. Of course our elected officals were going to buy into this, literally,when there is big, easy money to be made. The way how the thing read when first written made it illegal to have a new car dealership unless they titled ,insured and covered every thing. Of course when more rich influential people got involved it got changed just to benefit them. For a while it was a scrap metal orgy with groups of rollback trucks scouring the country side. If you had a car in the front yard for sale and no tag,it dissapeared, got scrapped and crushed before you could report it as stolen. Granted there were the abandoned ones that had no windows filled with trash and breeding mosquitos that needed to go.Rumor has it that some old guy in the south part of the county took the county to court when he followed a number of his cars from his car lot going into one of the many scrap yards that popped up overnight around here.
This was defended with the fact that these people were only cleaning up the county to provide a safe and beautiful environment for decent, law abiding citizens to live in (and line their pockets with easy cash). Suddenly the possies hunting down the unlawful steel fugitives dissapeared with no trace just like the cars. Now it's to the complaint thing, totally anonymous of course and could be somebody from across town. Or in a guy's case in town, someone you beat on the track last week. Privacy fences were deemed unsightly too, until it was reaized that all those things around those big flashy swimming pools were just that.
TEOC I agree with you. It is a state within a state and our apathy has allowed it to be. Communism works so well because the rich get richer,get put into power because of their infuence and deprive everyone else from getting to that.This is why the rich are fighting to get on board the train,mostly our polititians and the ones with the means to influence them. There is nothing equal about Communism, it is a monopoly where "they" have it and "they" don't.
All I can say folks and myself included, we need to get educated about what our officials are up to and then exercise our GOD given right to vote these jerks out of the system. Even council meetings have gotten to where spectators are discouraged and when they are there aren't allowed discussion.
Come on, folks. If every one who works for a living, uses their head for something other than a hat rack and uses their hands to create things stood together it would be an undeniable voice.
Sorry gang,if I don't quit I'm gonna get myself kicked off of here.
Cheers
Terry

I'm not much worried about zoning, as I live 20 miles away from the nearest town. All I have to say is "anyone" caught on the wrong side of my gate loading things up is going to be dancing their way back to their truck. I think I'm accurate enough with most of my long guns and pistols to not hit their feet. "Hey I thought he was a burgler and was going to hurt me. The castle law allows me to defend my yard too."

Does the same thing work for polititians? There are a few out there that need to fear the citizens that actually DO something in this country.
OK TEOC, we've got to get off of this before the moderators get ill with us(or me). We just need to be aware that this sort of stuff is becoming more frequent and try to take a proactive approach in stopping it. "WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY THE MICE WILL PLAY" Belive it or not we are the cats. And when the people in charge think we aren't looking or don't care, they will do what they want. Educate your self and VOTE!
NUFF SAID
Build anything lately TEOC?
Just a cranky old veteran
Terry

Thanks for your service,Terry. From another old cranky vet.

From what I can find out this BS is spreading all across the USA!---NOT just one or two local areas and Illinois is the WORST, followed by California and several other states!
They can make your life a living hell, thats for sure and also cause you monetary hardship as well!---We have NO rights in this country anymore.
I only get a small income from our farm, and must rely on the garden for food supply, (garden is probably out for this year because I cant get it planted and cared for with this other mess going on)
A couple of weeks ago I got slammed off a big trailer trying to load stuff and ended up on crutches! (2 sprained ankles and hurt shoulders, plus more damage to my spine, which I have been struggling with for 10 years)
I have been trying to sell the equipment that I last farmed with,--BUT it dont look like new so no body will buy it!---guess it will have to go to landfill too! The expense of the trucking alone is astronomical then add in the loading cost and you can see real fast how far down the toilet you are!
We are just poor taxpayers that are getting kicked around because we dont have the money or fancy lawyers to fight them! (one lawyer told me to just get rid of everything then they would go away and leave me alone!--wouldnt even consider defending me in court)---they said if I dont clean out they will take my property, sell it and bill me for the cleanup cost(which they would inflate to the high heavens)plus big fines for each charge and send me to prison for at least 5 years per charge against me! (they listed 3 or 4 minor charges, BUT if going to court I would lose!
This is true facts here guys, not just a wild story!---it could happen to anyone of you, so prepare yourselves! thanks; sonny

Sorry to hear about your problems Sonny. One thing seems unusual, how did the EPA get involved? I don't see how they can make you clean up your farm equipment unless their is an environmental problem.

I've had problems with zoning too, just have to hide things better. I could point out dozens of houses far, far worse than mine in my town (but their neighbors don't complain), and when I point this out to the inspector, his response is "do you want to make a complaint against them", no, I just want some leeway or common sense. Amazing how much power the complainer has and how little you have.

It's looking like I'm going to have to get one of those big metal buildings to work out of and store stuff in before they zone them out OR make them manditory and the price goes through the roof. Have thought of getting two of those steel shipping containers, spacing them apart and setting trusses on top for a roof. Close in the back of the "breezeway" and you would have 3 sides covered which is allowed. We modified on of those containers for our Repair and Recovery crew and it was easy to cut and weld things in place. Still think the big ones go for about 1500-2000 a piece and usually delivered where you want them(even on top of a polititian...who would complain?).
Thinking about all of this crap though, could it be that the American farmer has become such an afterthought nowdays that they carry no influence any more? When I was a kid the farmers had respect and influence in the community. I guess that we can go to to a big box store and buy stuff in gallon cans that the farmers out in the country aren't needed anymore. Good open pasture land or tillable fields become ony good for planting houses so close together that a push mower scrapes both walls. The old farmers that I knew threw nothing away, repaired and built their own stuff from what they had laying around. Nowdays they call that green and recyling. Geeze folks isn't that what we do, recycle? Only the people selling our scrap to the Chinese could get mad at that. Seems that we should get some sort of government rebate or tax credit in stead of being persicuted and prosicuted.
Dang.....there I go again......shut up Terry

Sonny....post your stuff on here, maybe one of us can use it!
Terry

Sorry Bob for the post earlier saying we were the cats.....I know how you feel about the critters. It was just a metaphor.....Honest!!!
Terry

here is just a small sample of what went out!
one of the 3 AC graders

crane truck

grader #2

our good dump truck

the 57 chevy semi and dump trailer


These are sample pics of the inventory that was destroyed and now gone forever, but it was get rid of it or go to prison.

Sorry to hear about your situation Sonny. It has gotten absolutely ridiculous about what they can tell you to do with your property. Anytime the epa is involved there's going to be trouble. We did a road job several years ago and had to hang surveyors ribbon over the ditches stating they were federal waterways, put up silt fence to protect a stream 600ft across a cornfield, fence off maple trees and put up signs declaring them protected historic trees (I wonder why the other six of the same group we had to cut to widen the road weren't also historic?) and the topper of them all, we had to move a swamp 1/4 mile across a 4 lane divided highway at the cost of 1.2 million, when we had all kinds of ROW right next to where we went through it, that we could have dug a new swamp in a couple days for 20 or 30 thousand dollars.
I also had a good friend who had a garage and antique car junkyard business since 1946 and his father had it before him. A guy bought the house across the road whose boyfriend happened to be a judge in another county. They somehow got jurisdiction transfered to the other county and ordered all the cars removed within a short time. Although everyone that had a rollback was hauling cars for free to alternate storage sites, they couldn't get them all out in time, so they jailed my friend (in his 70's) and crushed all remaining cars.
It's a free country isn't it??? Well maybe, if your an illegal alien, you can get free medical, housing, schooling, food, legal help, etc, etc, etc.!!! As others have said here, it's time to vote out anyone that shows a hint of taking OUR rights or giving away OUR country.

Yep, looks like my friend Don. I've gotta ask though, did the driver of the dump truck survive?
It got so bad that for a while the guys that had race cars couldn't leave them outside overnight after they came home from the races. Funny though that you could have the trailer out but not the car. If trailers became an issue the horse people couldn't have theirs so that couldn't fly.
Don't get me wrong about the rich horse people, I love that they are willing to come down here and spread around their cash in our economy. I can't handle the obnoxious, arrogant SOB's that move down here and look down on us because it's not like where they came from and want to change it to be like back home. And no, they aren't all horse people and I gotta be kinda nice a bit here because I have some real good friends here that own horses and are good, kind, decent folk that accept you for who you are.
I grew up in western Ohio deep in farm country, but have lived in the south since I was 14. I won't be a hypocrite and bust on yankees because I am one by birth, nor will I bust on all horse people or horses. It's just the folks that want to superimpose their old turf on us just because this area is just so darned unlivable. Too bad. I'm just ordinary country boy that learned to stand on my own two feet and respect others even if they were different from me.
The playing field needs to be leveled. Whoever makes the complaint should have to give their name and address and have the inspector come out to them and take the complaint in person. If the complaint is just bullcrap it should be treated like making crank 911 calls. If there is a valid complaint such as sewage, dead animals, garbage, deadly toxins or such deal with it accordingly and the people responsible. Forget the tit-for -tat, in my opinion bull that takes time away from the people trying to really do the miserable job of cleaning up. Maybe that's where it should start. Have people you trust that have the same values as you run for city or county council. Heck, get all of your friends and people you know that have a brain to run. Wouldn't it be great to have to choose between 200 good people than 3 lousy ones? I heard the statement that because "they" didn't like who was running "they" wern't going to bother to vote. Yepper buddy, by that time it's almost too late. I may be wrong here, I need to follow my advice and get educated, but I belive you can write in somebody if you don't feel that the ones on the ballot can do the job. Gotta check on that. Now if that was the case and you could there would be the chance that whoever was written in wouldn't do it but after given that vote of confidence didn't they probably weren't a good choice after all.
It boils down to that we all have been lax. We are the only ones that can change it because we are the only ones who care about our businesses, property and pastimes.
MAINAH.....Your'e welcome. It was my honor.
Terry

Folks tell me to shut up and I will.....Terry