The Old Folks Home

[The Yakima Kid]

Back in 2006 when we were looking for a bigger house, we were shown a house on some nice property but it had a lagoon. ChickenCanoe, you know what that is right?

I was born and raised in Tucson AZ. Always had city water and sewer. The first house we bought out here had city water and sewer. This house has it's own well and a septic tank. Neither one of those are a problem but that house above, I would have loved to had it. My husband put the nix on it when we realized the kids just might go down to the lagoon to play. They were old enough to know better but you know kids.

I had never heard of a lagoon in this sense before. We even though about putting in a septic tank but decided it was just too risky.

Those "lagoons" were known as "cess pits" where I grew up.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Are you talking about a settling pond for waste from sewage?

They do that here on a large scale to treat city sewage. Woodland has one that sends the purified water into the river.

No, she's talking about an old style cesspit or cesspool.

The fancy kind was lined with brick or stone; the common kind might be just a sewage pond. The idea was that the waste gradually sank into the ground. Apparently some people covered them; but the kind I grew up with were just open on top.

They can be quite fragrant.

 

[hennible]

"My 'freedom' ends at the tip of your nose?"  

I agree, a lot of it is way overboard, but some stuff is a necessity of community living. An outhouse may be a perfectly viable option out in the middle of nowhere, but when you have neighbors only a few feet away in every direction, there can be an awful lot of "sharing" going on. Even if you don't happen to live in a place where rainfall may wash the contents into a neighbor's yard (or throughout the local watershed), there are still vectors like flies and rats that can carry potential pathogens well beyond your own property lines. 

Some, admittedly, is the "community" protecting what are pretty much its own interests. Most people don't want to live beside a dump; by insisting that all housing meets a certain minimum standard, the community protects property values and its tax base. A landlord can be held accountable for the condition of the house he rents.. And while I may be perfectly happy depending on a rain barrel for my water supply, does it follow that I should also be content if the fire department limits themselves to the contents of my rain barrel if my house catches fire?

Regulations to keep a community functioning are a must I think, but I'd rather live away from that system of many rules and if others would like that too, I hope they can always have the option.
I live outside of the fire district, thus my insurance is higher and if my house catches fire no one is coming. The closest fire hydrant is 14 km away lol
And that's the trade off I guess, I can do more of what I want, but public amenities are not here even if I need them.
One neighbours place is a dumping ground for you name it, he's animals ( cows, horses etc) are always getting in my yard, the other cuts his grass so often it dies, and my last neighbour runs a legal grow op. I don't mind because they don't mind my craziness, chickens and ducks, dogs and cats... every where.
There have, and hopefully, will always be "in town" types and "outta town types" because diversity is great, and makes conversation better.

 

[Sylviaanne]

That sort of stuff makes me want to

If people want to kill themselves by drinking poop water, you should let them drink poop water. The government should NOT be our parents! We should be treated as rational intelligent ADULTS capable of making whatever stupid and insane choices we want, with the only limit being that we don't get to mess up anyone except ourselves.

I don't understand why the windmill was taken away? What did I miss?

And what are these "basic safety laws"??? As long as my neighbors poop isn't ending up in my yard, I don't care if they are sleeping in a tent, or an un-inspected and unsafe house, and using an outhouse and drinking well water, rainwater, or even their own pee.

The entire "can't live in the house unless it has been certified habitable" I think is stupid too.

I am so happy that none of that craziness has made it up here. Here you get to live in a pile of tires, a bus, a car, a tent, or whatever mountain of junk you want to toss together.

We even have people living in the middle of town with no running water. RAH! I love the craziness of people getting to do their own thing. Like planting whatever kind and size of tree they want to plant in their very own front yard.

I'm with you too but I can see where busybodies want to make sure the young and elderly are properly taken care of. I don't think they need to interfere as much as they do but sometimes it's needed. They just don't know when to stop. Back in the pioneer days, the neighbors were to busy tending to their own problems to bother much with other peoples business but it was left up to their families to make sure kids were take care of. I didn't say elderly because the elderly didn't usually live that long after their hard lives.

 

[perchie.girl]

for what its worth

Residential Sewage Lagoon Systems

http://extension.missouri.edu/p/WQ402

 

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
So if someones improperly wired electrical system caused a fire that burned down your chicken coop or your home then you wouldn't have a problem with that ? Or if it happened on a windy day and it burned down a whole block of homes that would be fine also ?
How many people have seen posts on here where the electric has burned down someones chicken coop, killing all the chickens ? But you don't want to ask people to have proper electric.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Those "lagoons" were known as "cess pits" where I grew up.

Back in Tucson in the first home I remember we had a cess pool but I thought it was lined. Had to be lined some how. My mother raised dachshunds and I can not remember it clearly at all there was a time a puppy fell in and drowned. I hate them.

 

[Sylviaanne]

No, she's talking about an old style cesspit or cesspool.

The fancy kind was lined with brick or stone; the common kind might be just a sewage pond. The idea was that the waste gradually sank into the ground. Apparently some people covered them; but the kind I grew up with were just open on top.

They can be quite fragrant.

This house had a pcv pipe underground running downhill and it just poured out on the ground at the base of the hill. In all fairness, it did have a fence around it. (Short and looked like someone had been leaning over it for years.)

 

[hennible]

So if someones improperly wired electrical system caused a fire that burned down your chicken coop or your home then you wouldn't have a problem with that ? Or if it happened on a windy day and it burned down a whole block of homes that would be fine also ?
How many people have seen posts on here where the electric has burned down someones chicken coop, killing all the chickens ? But you don't want to ask people to have proper electric.

It's a risk you take, not to say I wouldn't have a problem if my neighbours caused my home or coop to burn down... But it would likely be from their insisting on burning the grass in the spring.
It's a toss up, I get to do what I want and so do they. If I really felt my neighbours where endangering me I would speak to them, and they would listen. And visa versa. I know my neighbours I know they look out for me and I do for them.... No one of them would cause anything intentionally. Different types choose to live where they do for their own reasons, if you like zoning laws, by laws, what have you that's great, I don't so much... and we all live according to where we live, if we don't like it we can move. Just my thoughts

 

[Sylviaanne]

So if someones improperly wired electrical system caused a fire that burned down your chicken coop or your home then you wouldn't have a problem with that ? Or if it happened on a windy day and it burned down a whole block of homes that would be fine also ?
How many people have seen posts on here where the electric has burned down someones chicken coop, killing all the chickens ? But you don't want to ask people to have proper electric.

I don't live by what I believe but I believe everyone should try to be self sufficient. Learn how to do your own plumbing, electric, carpentry - all that. My husband has worked as a plumber, in a former life before me, his brother is an electrician, I have 2 sons who do carpentry in a passible manner.

I would be devastated to lose my chickens, ducks and guineas but in my naivety I choose to trust whoever built this house and that the VA did a good job of inspecting it. If I were 30 years younger, had no kids or a lot fewer than I have, I would choose to learn more about building a house, all aspects of it.

And no, in no way, shape or form would I want anything from my property affecting a neighbor's property but at the same time I don't want to be close enough for my chicken coop to go up in flames and have it leap into my neighbors yard.