The Oh-so neighbor!

[M.sue]

Quote:
Thank you and I respect your opinion on how the neighbor and I handled the situation. We do get along but my patience & politeness is starting to wear out. It gets so darn frustrating when they have to complain about every little cotton-picking thing!! So the rooster isn't crowing this morning but the dog decides to bark a few times at some geese flying over....please....don't they remember when their dog barked at something flying or at a raccoon up in the tree? I didn't complain!!

 

[LiLRedCV]

M.sue :

When we were building our home (on family land) he flatly stated that he wasn't crazy about having neighbors even though there is a lot of land between us.

If he didn't want neighbors, he should've bought the property himself. Since he didn't?

[edited to add: but, in retrospect, I guess if it was family land then he may not have been given that option then, huh? IMHO, doesn't matter. He can still

]

We moved to the country 'cuz we'd rather listen to and smell the farm noises and smells than city noises and smells any day of the week! If this includes roosters? Well, living out here, I'd expect that. I have 38 hens and two roosters myself (although one of the roosters is expected to make it to freezer camp someday and the other will only live 'cuz he's an Iowa Blue and they're considered a "rare" American breed). But neither of my roosters are crowing at 5am! LOL Heck, they don't even start in until they hear the door open at the house in the morning and then it's like a reminder for us to do our morning chores of filling feeders and waterers.

Ours are not the only chickens in the neighborhood... nor are our roosters the only roosters! (but again, I never hear any of the other roosters going off at 5am either!!) Several people out here have horses (lots of neighing to be heard) and in this dept I hope to join the ranks too. There are two donkeys who live 1/3 mile apart who "talk to each other" (bray several times a day). Several dogs (who bark night and day) and farm cats (who free-roam, but won't mess with any of the chickens). At least one person within a mile or so of us has a peacock. We're surrounded by cows that bawl almost all day long too - especially in the spring. There are many who shoot guns for target practice for when hunting season comes along. (When we first moved out here, I used to note date and time when I'd hear a gun shot in case a body every showed up! LOL) We have one neighbor who's in a band and since he lives out here in the boonies, they practice at his place.

Oh, and let's not forget the noises of just wild Mother Nature herself! There are eagles and hawks that cry out... a pack of at least 8 coyotes that yip almost all night long... There's a mountain lion in our neck of the woods and you can hear it scream at night... The deer and elk (think "mating season" - and they are a very noisy lot!).... etc, etc, etc.

I so much prefer all of these things over what city noises have to offer. It's all still very peaceful by comparison.​

 

[justbugged]

I wonder if what you hear from the neighbor as nit picking isn't so much that he is complaining, but that he just expresses himself in a very negative way. It's possible to change how you feel about what the neighbors says, by changing the way you interpret what he says. Just assume that he doesn't even know what he is saying can be considered as a complaint. He may just talk that way to everyone, and not even know that it is annoying to other people.

This is just a thought, and may not apply in your situation. But it sounds like the couple really like your animals. Because it seems that they keep coming to see the animals. It could be that the neighbors both a habit of always talking about things in a very negative way. Some people are totally clueless about how what they say comes across.

I do agree that I would smile, nod, and ignore them. You seem to do a good job of being a good neighbor.

 

[M.sue]

Quote:
This is a very good point I never thought of.

We have a relative who does exactly that....expresses themself in a negative way, not always but a good majority of the time. They do it so often that we don't think anything of it, just expect them to say or find the negative side of something. Maybe we should expect this out of the neighbor as we do the relative....then it wouldn't bother us so much!! Thank you for the insight.