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What did you do to make your neighbors think you are crazy?

Tj Simpson

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Location: Central Texas

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posted 3 years ago

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What have you done that might seem rational to the people here but may have made your neighbors think you have some screws loose? (aside from planting a forest in your backyard) XD

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Miriam Johnson

Posts: 27

Location: GA Piedmont

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Wandered into their yard to photograph cool looking mushrooms, that's a fairly common one for me though.

I am the mulch queen!

thomas rubino

rocket scientist

Posts: 6190

Location: latitude 47 N.W. montana zone 6A

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posted 3 years ago

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Disconnected the power lines and put up solar panels 35 years ago.

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Robert Ray

gardener

Posts: 3220

Location: Cascades of Oregon

804

posted 3 years ago

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I had an annoying rooster that could not tell time, sometimes he broke out in song all night long. 5 am I'm chasing that rooster down in my underwear and muck boots with a shotgun.... I reset his clock

Our inability to change everything should not stop us from changing what we can.

Keith Odell

pollinator

Posts: 146

Location: Indiana

posted 3 years ago

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I'm not going to be able to top Robert's clock setting.

My neighbors caught me flinging coffee grounds on my lawn like a monkey flinging poo.
After that, pretty much anything I do causes them to smile and give a small head shake.

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Carla Burke

Rusticator

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Location: Missouri Ozarks

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I put the top down on my convertible, to turn it into a mini pick-up, then brought home tons of pallets in the back seat, then using the pallets, turned a perfectly good garage into a barn. Then we rented a minivan to drive from the middle of Missouri to the middle of Nebraska, to pick up 3 fluffy goats and drive them home, for milk & fiber - not meat, to live in the pallet-stalled garage-barn.

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John F Dean

master steward

Posts: 6885

Location: southern Illinois, USA

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In MN I deliberately built a cabin that didn’t have squared corners. The more extreme angles allowed me to take better advantage of solar given the tree placement with respect to the cabin.

At my age, Happy Hour is a nap.

Heather Sharpe

gardener

Posts: 828

Location: Central Indiana, zone 6a, clay loam

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My current neighbors mostly can't see into the yard through all the plants. So I think they mostly just imagine the crazy. We used to have a sign that said, "Never mind dog, beware of owner" that might have contributed. Though we took that down after seeing too many delivery people run scared out of the place after dropping off packages. And me hearing a neighbor kid say that he really wanted to check out our yard, but had been told we had lots of guns. Not really the kind of crazy I'd like to be perceived as.
The neighbors sometimes see us hauling in massive amounts of other people's "waste" organic materials, like leaves and logs and seem confused. One neighbor knows we're on rainwater and has been very kind in letting us use his city water during droughts and such. But I reckon he probably thinks trying to live off rainwater is crazy. Is it weird that this thread makes me feel like I'm not being outwardly strange enough?
The fellow that lived here before us would climb the 100+ foot tall spruce trees at night and howl. He did this when he was 70, apparently. He would also throw buckets of pee at trespassers. He had his name legally changed to "The Human Survivor" (as in he survived the humans). So by comparison, it'll probably be pretty hard to get the neighbors to think I'm crazy. Guess I'll have to work on my tree climbing skills or something...
When I lived with my mom in a neighborhood of cookie cutter houses and HOAs, I succeeded in making the neighbor think I was crazy by skinning a roadkilled raccoon in the backyard. He saw me and called over to ask if I was filleting a fish. I told him what I was doing and he just kind of nodded and said if it was a fish, I was using the wrong kind of knife. Then he disappeared.

All makes me think of this song...

“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

Douglas Alpenstock

master pollinator

Posts: 4842

Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b

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posted 3 years ago

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T Simpson wrote:What have you done that might seem rational to the people here but may have made your neighbors think you have some screws loose?

Do you mean today? Or yesterday? ;-)

Morfydd St. Clair

pollinator

Posts: 361

Location: Hamburg, Germany

117

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Heather Sharpe wrote:I told him what I was doing and he just kind of nodded and said if it was a fish, I was using the wrong kind of knife. Then he disappeared.

The helpful advice then fleeing for his life made me giggle. And then I thought about the person who can't tell a raccoon from a fish but can tell the knife type from that distance and think you should have been worrying about him. :D

I also love that you can't really top the previous owner.

Judith Browning

Posts: 8837

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

2362

posted 3 years ago

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Scything at dawn.

A woman mowing!

with no loud machine!

edit...to add a bit of perspective, one of our first interactions with a neighbor across the street was to refuse his offer to mow for us. He had mowed this for years and couldn't understand why we wouldn't let him...he was hurt for quite awhile and still brings it up occasionally. His mower of choice is a very loud riding mower with the blades set on the ground...with an attitude that that green stuff is the enemy.

The first time I mowed out front with the scythe a few days later another neighbor came and mowed for us while we were gone and very very short. Apparently he thought we were poor and something was wrong with the husband that the wife was out there at dawn with such a tool.

Of all of the things that we thought might happen when we moved to this small town we did not expect that not letting others mow our area would be an issue. We've since fenced, mainly because loose dogs loved our gardens and were leaving deposits and frolicking, breaking plants and shrubs, but also to keep out stray riding mowers

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Greg Martin

steward

Posts: 3406

Location: Maine, zone 5

1930

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Yup, nothing crazy so far!

Reminds me of this scene from the Tick:

"You've got to hug it....hug your destiny!"

Permaculture...picking the lock back to Eden since 1978.
Pics of my Forest Garden

Jake Esselstyn

pollinator

Posts: 120

Location: South Louisiana, 9a

posted 3 years ago

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Collecting the neighborhood yard waste. I gather straw bales after Halloween, bagged leaves in the winter, and small logs after any storms. They see me moving all this carbon into the backyard, but no one knows what for. Neighbors do see the garden spilling over the fence, so they probably suspect a connection. This is pretty tame compared to other posts here, but relative to my neighbors, it is deeply weird.

John F Dean

master steward

Posts: 6885

Location: southern Illinois, USA

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This thread dredged up some memories. Not an instance of a neighbor, but well worth the mention. I once had a regional company take several hundred dollars of mine, and then failed to deliver the product. They also refused to return the money .... with the clear attitude of “what are you going to do about it?”

I have a good background in mental health. As a nurse, counselor, and administrator I have worked with many run of the mill problem solving cases as well as a few that were pretty extreme. Late one night I called up the owner of the chain and in my best stuttering and sobbing voice begged him not to make me be bad. I had promised my counselor never to be bad again. And it honestly wasn’t my fault what happened to that family in Texas.

The next morning I went to milk the goats. There was an envelope under my trucks windshield wiper. It was all there ... in cash.

At my age, Happy Hour is a nap.

Greg Martin

steward

Posts: 3406

Location: Maine, zone 5

1930

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I can't tell anymore with my direct neighbors, but when I go drop off my recycling and then fill my car up with leaves, pine needles, logs, etc. so that there's just enough room for me to get back in and drive away I've gotten some great head shakes (What? I put them in sacks?). I remember one time when I was filling my car with pine needles and a guy just couldn't understand why someone could possibly want those so he came over and asked. I very excitedly said some things about mulching my blueberries and real world wealth or some other sane thing....yup....his eyes said "CRAZZZY!"

Permaculture...picking the lock back to Eden since 1978.
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Greg Martin

steward

Posts: 3406

Location: Maine, zone 5

1930

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John F Dean wrote:I had promised my counselor never to be bad again.

Haha....you went all literal with this post John!
Well done sir.

Permaculture...picking the lock back to Eden since 1978.
Pics of my Forest Garden

Olga Booker

pollinator

Posts: 634

Location: South West France

254

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Here in rural, conformist France, everything we do seems to label us as crazy. No dig is a big one for the local farmers, as for growing potatoes under hay/straw is positively cuckoo. Don't even mention all that cardboard!! Being off-grid is seen as radical and the most frequent question is: " But what do you do without a TV?"

Removing a perfectly functional toilet to put in a sawdust/composting one is out there with the loonies, while using my weeds for food - well now, that takes the biscuit! Nursing an injured chicken by the stove instead of wringing its neck is considered rather daft while not using pesticide is positively sinful. And that's just for starters.

They say that there is a fine line between genius and insanity - well, I know which side of the line I am!

Love is the only resource that grows the more you use it.
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Marc Dube

pollinator

Posts: 239

Location: Saskatchewan

posted 3 years ago

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My neighbors stick to themselves which I'm alright with so they don't really see much of what I do. Growing the majority of my meat is seen as strange. Which I find is really strange being in a rural setting where it is easy to do so.

I have also been seen running down the road with a rifle at 1 am dressed only in underwear and rubber boots while it was close to freezing. I was chasing a coyote which was in the front yard, that vehicle sped up fast and left. (They were probably booze cruising anyway because there is no other reason to be on my road at that time of the day.

It is also seen as strange to be planting so many trees (in a Prairie where their needed most).

I bbq with wood I harvest myself.
I dont go to the city.
I cut cattails for pig bedding.

I'm just different but I like it like that.

John Weiland

pollinator

Posts: 2502

Location: RRV of da Nort, USA

704

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Fenced the immediate yard for ourselves and gave the rest of the animals many fenced acres on which to freely roam.....

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

Joshua Bertram

Posts: 672

Location: St. George, UT. Zone 8a Dry/arid. 8" of rain in a good year.

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Turning a $30k in ground swimming pool with built in rock like waterfall into a gigantic chicken coop/compost pile filled with wood chips.

The original Silicon Valley hillbilly.

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greg mosser

gardener

Posts: 1649

Location: the mountains of western nc

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probably when i erected a crow-feeding platform that i stock with mice we caught in the house.

Tj Simpson

pollinator

Posts: 396

Location: Central Texas

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greg mosser wrote:probably when i erected a crow-feeding platform that i stock with mice we caught in the house.

That's pretty weird dude..

Carla Burke

Rusticator

Posts: 8430

Location: Missouri Ozarks

4435

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T Simpson wrote:

greg mosser wrote:probably when i erected a crow-feeding platform that i stock with mice we caught in the house.

That's pretty weird dude..

Yup! But, this is a fantastic idea! Crows are not interested in eating your poultry, but are a deterrent to raptors, which are VERY interested in eating domestic poultry. It's a means of attracting LGBs! (Livestock Guardian Birds!)

Jane Mulberry

master pollinator

Posts: 992

Location: East of England/ Northeast Bulgaria

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Wow, I am positively tame. Makes me a bit sad. Craziest things we've done, besides having the messiest but most productive yard on the street (in fact, apart from one other, the ONLY productive yard on the very long street!) is me asking the neighbors if I could go their side of the boundary to dig up some self-seeded hazelnut plants to transplant them our side, and hubby asking the same neighbors a year later if he could have the perfectly good ornamental plants they were throwing out.

Memo to self: Must. Get. Crazier!

I'm only 64! That's not to old to learn to be a permie, right?

Carla Burke

Rusticator

Posts: 8430

Location: Missouri Ozarks

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I forgot to throw this one out there - I've begun asking my neighbors for their banana peels. I make a tea with them, that almost always knocks me out, and for months now, has been helping me sleep MUCH better.

Pearl Sutton

steward & bricolagier

Posts: 14565

Location: SW Missouri

9944

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I had a hard time thinking of what would be the most interesting reactions from the neighbors, I get a lot of them, I'm not a normal person.

This fall I turned my lawn mower into a leaf picker upper device ( https://permies.com/t/150879/Bricolage-projects#1179978 ) and asked my neighbors if I could have their leaves. They were stunned, people around here charge a lot of money to clean up your leaves, all I wanted was permission to take all the leaves I could eat! I got a LOT!!! Whoo!! Realistically, I need to get a better system, and charge people for letting me have their leaves.

And from this post ( https://permies.com/t/85976/Clothing-suggestions-hot-humid-sunny#740189 ) comes the infamous "Phantom of the Opera runs the Brush Cutter" outfit... In a an area full of guys in jeans and overalls and ball caps on tractors.... there's me. My property is on a fairly busy road, the stunned looks are quite fun to see :) Oh, and this tractor has a weird paint job on it too, my last tractor was stolen, I went for painting this one to keep anyone normal from wanting it.

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Tj Simpson

pollinator

Posts: 396

Location: Central Texas

102

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These are all pretty crazy, still waiting for the "put heads of predators on spikes to denture X critter" crazy but I think we are getting there.

Building regenerative Christian villages @
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John F Dean

master steward

Posts: 6885

Location: southern Illinois, USA

2496

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Hi Carla,

Mellow Yellow?

At my age, Happy Hour is a nap.

Douglas Alpenstock

master pollinator

Posts: 4842

Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b

1326

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John F Dean wrote: I had promised my counselor never to be bad again.

I was pretty sure you were a 'killer' poker player before. Now I know it for a fact. :-)

Carla Burke

Rusticator

Posts: 8430

Location: Missouri Ozarks

4435

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John F Dean wrote:Hi Carla,

Mellow Yellow?

LOL! Calm-down brown!

Flora Eerschay

gardener

Posts: 650

Location: Poland

332

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Just the things I put in my compost bin might make my neighbours think I'm crazy... I hope they don't see all of it!

And the fences I build are so "artistic" that even other permies think I'm weird...

My book arts: https://biblioarty.wordpress.com/

Robert Ray

gardener

Posts: 3220

Location: Cascades of Oregon

804

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Ok, not me and not a neighbor but still a funny crazy true story. I have a customer who has a double, at the knee, amputation from a motorcycle accident. He has told me he was 6'11" prior to losing his legs, so he is still tall. He has prosthetic legs but chooses to wear these thick leather cups for mobility. Wild grey beard and long grey hair, always in bib overalls. 3:00 am he is driving a secondary highway and comes across a doe that has been struck by a car and her back is broken and her hind quarters are paralyzed. The doe is in pain and he decides to dispatch her. He has no firearm a small pen knife and a splitting maul. Sorry, gruesome I know but he pulls the maul from the back of his truck. 3:00 am starless night wisps of fog. A mini van with a family coming up from behind the scene sees the truck and slows probably to offer help. The kids and female parental unit all are looking out the side windows as they get into view. All mouths drop open eyes get wide and an out of tune high note erupts from the van. My friend who had brought the maul up to dispatch the deer is startled and has to take a step forward to keep his balance towards the mini van. The husband has now taken his eyes off the road and leans forward to look around his wife. He sees what at first blush is a character that belongs in a Tolkein tale killing a deer and lunging towards his family. The squealing tires almost drown out the squealing family. I wish I could hear their side.

Our inability to change everything should not stop us from changing what we can.

greg mosser

gardener

Posts: 1649

Location: the mountains of western nc

500

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Carla Burke wrote:

T Simpson wrote:

greg mosser wrote:probably when i erected a crow-feeding platform that i stock with mice we caught in the house.

That's pretty weird dude..

Yup! But, this is a fantastic idea! Crows are not interested in eating your poultry, but are a deterrent to raptors, which are VERY interested in eating domestic poultry. It's a means of attracting LGBs! (Livestock Guardian Birds!)

last year we had several crow nests and a cooper’s hawk nest on the wooded hillside opposite the feeding platform. they made raucous and pretty rude-to-each-other neighbors, but it apparently wasn’t bad enough that either was willing to give up the space. the crows did harry any hawk that was bold enough to hunt right there in our little holler (which is indeed where our chickens are) so i guess it does work to some extent.

we weren’t really thinking about that when i put it up though. my wife’s a crow person. she just wants them around in general.

i am proud that even some permies think i’m a weirdo, though!

Carla Burke

Rusticator

Posts: 8430

Location: Missouri Ozarks

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greg mosser wrote:
last year we had several crow nests and a cooper’s hawk nest on the wooded hillside opposite the feeding platform. they made raucous and pretty rude-to-each-other neighbors, but it apparently wasn’t bad enough that either was willing to give up the space. the crows did harry any hawk that was bold enough to hunt right there in our little holler (which is indeed where our chickens are) so i guess it does work to some extent.

we weren’t really thinking about that when i put it up though. my wife’s a crow person. she just wants them around in general.

i am proud that even some permies think i’m a weirdo, though!

When I read your post to my husband (he was doing something else), he stopped what he was doing, and, as I was reading my response to it, yelled, "BRILLIANT!! We need to do that!"

Tj Simpson

pollinator

Posts: 396

Location: Central Texas

102

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This one time my family got locked out of the house so we had to shim open a window and crawl through single file into the house. We have had a broken front door for a few weeks now but someone has always been home to open it from the inside...the back porch door broke today so now there is no way in unless somebody is home to open the doors from inside. Might have to go back to crawling through windows. XD

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C Mouse

Posts: 121

Location: Ohio

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Picking dandelions from an abandoned lot with an overgrown lawn for my bunnies. XD Which I eat. I don't think they know that part.

Splitting wood in the front yard. People thought I was a teenage being punished for being bad. I was 22. I owned the house.

Also keeping a rooster.

Hello, please call me Mouse. Talk to me about rabbits, chickens, and gardens. Starting an intentional community in Ohio.
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Carla Burke

Rusticator

Posts: 8430

Location: Missouri Ozarks

4435

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Post by request, lol!

Carla's Banana Peel Tea (inspired by Heather at mommypotomus)
Yield: 7 servings (I make it weekly)

7 banana peels, filling, stickers & stems removed
1 whole nutmeg, grated (or 2T ground)
3 cinnamon sticks
1T vanilla extract (optional)
Sweetener of choice, to taste (optional)
Place peels & nutmeg in a blender, and fill to fill line (I think mine holds 4C) with water. Cap & blend on high, until it's dark brown. Pour into a 2qt (or larger) sauce pot, add cinnamon sticks, and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down, and simmer for at least 30-45 minutes, don't let the liquid get low - just add more, as needed. Remove from heat, and allow to cool, until you can safely handle it. Strain- I use a reusable coffee filter or tightly woven cloth. Press as much liquid out as possible, leaving the solids in a clump, and toss the solids in the compost (my chickens and worms love them!). Add vanilla &/or sweetener, if using, stir well. Measure, and add enough water to make 3.5Cups.
To use: Just before bed, pour 1/2Cup into a mug, and fill the rest of the way with boiling water.

John Weiland

pollinator

Posts: 2502

Location: RRV of da Nort, USA

704

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Told them they could get a fresh cup of coffee from "Janice" in the kitchen...... :-)

JanInKitchenJune06.JPG

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

Nicole Alderman

steward

Posts: 21508

Location: Pacific Northwest

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My neighbors think I'm weird because

(1) I use a wheel barrow for things they use tractor or truck

(2) I don't own a truck. We have a Honda Fit.

(3) I eat nettles...and miners lettuce, and sheep sorrel.

(4) I offer them "weird" perennial edibles, like lovage and sorrel and sweet cicily and babbington leeks.

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