The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[LHF2019]

I don't understand people thinking it's OK to ride on the property with their off road vehicles without the fence being there. The way I was raised, you didn't go on someone else's property without permission, with or without a fence. Especially with something like an ATV or UTV that could cause damage.

Just the way it is anymore. we would like to allow some people the opportunity to ride on our property BUT if somebody sees tracks then it must be alright. So we shut it all down and make it well known. Have amish trespassing for archery. Trying to control that. Wife and I went through all our woods and reestablished the timber company markings on the trees. Making our presence known. Even thinking of putting up boundary barb wire were it used to run a century ago? for 2 purposes, boundary line and future silvopasturing.

 

[Hay Dude]

A "T" post inserted behind a few posts and wired on would prop up the fence and wouldn't interfere much with the rustic look.

That’s been done a few times already lol.
The overgrowth put a lot of weight on the fence and made it lean over badly. They used whatever they had for posts. Pipes, RR ties, T-posts, logs….lol

 

[Dryland Farmer]

Making some progress on the fence line. All hand to hand combat. 30’ deep swath of brush and cars on a blind curve.
I have a “WORK AREA AHEAD” sign down the road and cones. Yet people still miss me by 1-2’ and I see them looking down & texting.
Have about 1000’ done and about 500’ to go.

View attachment 1870455

That job looks to be no harder than sitting in mine den.

 

[Hay Dude]

That job looks to be no harder than sitting in mine den.

You forgot it’s “sitting in my den watching tv”

That’s way harder than just “sitting in my den”

 

[Hay Dude]

Just the way it is anymore. we would like to allow some people the opportunity to ride on our property BUT if somebody sees tracks then it must be alright. So we shut it all down and make it well known. Have amish trespassing for archery. Trying to control that. Wife and I went through all our woods and reestablished the timber company markings on the trees. Making our presence known. Even thinking of putting up boundary barb wire were it used to run a century ago? for 2 purposes, boundary line and future silvopasturing.

One of the people I farm for has an extensive chunk 500+ acres. Shes an elderly millionaire, but in great shape and very with-it.
After her husband passed, she found herself inundated with hunters, trappers, fishermen, 4-wheelers, night spotters, motorcycles, etc.

She had to hire a pretty prickly tough guy and let him live in a guest house on the property to get rid of them. He’s a friend of mine. I farm the property. He explained to me it took him close to 5 years to get rid of all of them. Some went on first encounter. Some involved fights and threats. He spent a lot of hours sneaking up on them, chasing them in a 4-wheeler, etc. Some were wealthy neighbor’s kids and it caused some uncomfortable times for them.

Growing up on my parents land, my father, brother and I had some confrontations with trespassers, too.

 

[Molalla1]

One of the people I farm for has an extensive chunk 500+ acres. Shes an elderly millionaire, but in great shape and very with-it.
After her husband passed, she found herself inundated with hunters, trappers, fishermen, 4-wheelers, night spotters, motorcycles, etc.

She had to hire a pretty prickly tough guy and let him live in a guest house on the property to get rid of them. He’s a friend of mine. I farm the property. He explained to me it took him close to 5 years to get rid of all of them. Some went on first encounter. Some involved fights and threats. He spent a lot of hours sneaking up on them, chasing them in a 4-wheeler, etc. Some were wealthy neighbor’s kids and it caused some uncomfortable times for them.

Growing up on my parents land, my father, brother and I had some confrontations with trespassers, too.

Yep, we also had the same (4-wheelers etc.) my boy took care of that very quickly . . . although you always get some new ones from time to time . . .

 

[Hay Dude]

It’s pretty amazing to see the “addy-tudes” some of these punks have.

 

[Molalla1]

It’s pretty amazing to see the “addy-tudes” some of these punks have.

My boy (47) has the attitude of take no prisoners, I have to calm him down from time to time.

 

[LHF2019]

One of the people I farm for has an extensive chunk 500+ acres. Shes an elderly millionaire, but in great shape and very with-it.
After her husband passed, she found herself inundated with hunters, trappers, fishermen, 4-wheelers, night spotters, motorcycles, etc.

She had to hire a pretty prickly tough guy and let him live in a guest house on the property to get rid of them. He’s a friend of mine. I farm the property. He explained to me it took him close to 5 years to get rid of all of them. Some went on first encounter. Some involved fights and threats. He spent a lot of hours sneaking up on them, chasing them in a 4-wheeler, etc. Some were wealthy neighbor’s kids and it caused some uncomfortable times for them.

Growing up on my parents land, my father, brother and I had some confrontations with trespassers, too.

After mom divorced the guy she married after dad passed(he doesn't deserve the step title) She gave me control of who is allowed permission on 2 of the 3 parcels of the farm. The one parcel that is a little out of the we would keep seeing wheeler tracks in. The neighbor had approached us on a couple occasions about hunting but at that time we didn't have the control of giving permission. I always suspected he was the riding on the ground. After the divorce I was working and saw him outside and told him about the tracks and told him if he ever sees anybody riding on the property he can run them off because if we catch them we keep the state police on speed dial and will be calling for property damage to crops . Haven't seen tracks since. Was a much better way than just confronting and accusing him as we have never actually seen anybody ride.

In some ways you feel like somebody in the movies patrolling your property because nobody has any respect anymore.


Just had another occurrence just recently. Brush hogging property that I was hired to do. Was just recently bought and overgrown field. Guy comes at me on wheeler demanding why I'm brush hogging it. "has permission to hunt" I ask who gave him permission. Tells me and I say he doesn't own it anymore. Tells me to shut off my tractor so he can talk to me. Just look at him. "I don't own it." tell him who does and he hytails it out of there. Come to find out he is a convicted felon not allowed to own guns(archery) and has permission from nobody to hunt on any ground and is not well received in the community. Owner of ground says he doubts he has any hunting friends.

Owner will probably have us start using this for hay. We already use his fields beside this one.

This is the first time on his other ground I spent time with the bucket cleaning. Pushed in the edges and condensed the brush around the rock piles. No compensation, just for my satisfaction and of course the owner is much appreciative. Quality wise the fields are very rough. We didn't take 2nd off and this is what it looked like. Needs lots of help that only comes from time and money. His wife is not a fan of spraying so we are limited. If 2,4d didn't smell so strong he would have me spray when she's gone for a while. lol

 

[Hay Dude]

Looks like he has a goldenrod problem.. ..
I can’t believe how similar, in some ways, our lives are.
So many large property owners are land rich, money poor.