Gunshots and chaos next door

The sound of gunshots are not all that unusual in these parts. Everyone's has guns and it's fun to shoot them. What bothered me was that fact that it was almost dark. Either something really needed shooting or someone was being irresponsible. Judging from the party that went on down by the lake last night I'm guessing irresponsible. Could be wrong, but that's how I'd bet.

Normally the cottage down by the lake does not have late night parties. They are normally loud people, but not late at night. Siblings inherited the property when their parents passed on. Everything they do around the property requires loud discussions. They aren't even arguing, they just have to talk loud about everything. Outside of being loud they aren't really bad neighbors. Our buildings are far enough away that the sound is normally muffled quite a bit. Besides, they don't live there full time and only use the place occasionally.

Last night, however, the really pulled out the stops. The leaves are off the trees so sound carries better than it does in the summer. My lovely wife asked if I was playing music downstairs. Wasn't me, it was the neighbors. Pretty impressive as the house has 6 inch thick insulated walls which normally keeps things quiet.

I happened to wake up at 3:30 a. m. and they were still going at it. An hour later they finally seemed to be winding down. The weather is turning cold. Yesterday was probably the last time they could use the place until spring. Their water line will soon freeze. As soon as it snows the driveway will be impassable. It's so steep that vehicles get stuck when the weather's nice. Last night was probably an end of the season blow out party. Now they will be quiet for at least 6 months.

Other people near enough to be considered neighbors are still doing a lot of heavy equipment work. A guy bought the land down the road from me and his daughter has the place across the street. They seriously altered the land. I've property lots across the street. They excavated right up to the line. What they don't realize is that it had been an unusually dry year for here. During wet years that area has many small surface streams. Their excavation is going to turn into a vernal pool.

My lovely wife's been concerned about our shallow well. We dropped off water samples at a testing lab to see if their excavations caused any contamination. I will be very put out if it did. As it is I upgraded to a better whole house water filter. There seems to be more silt in the water, shortening filter life. I'm hoping the cold snap will put an end to their excessive heavy equipment use.

Most of my land doesn't even directly border these people. I'm just glad I didn't sell the vacant lots across the street from me. No doubt they would have bulldozed everything flat there too.

The place across the street used to be owned by one of my uncles. Unfortunately when he died it the property moved out of the family. Too bad my budget was always too tight to buy more land. I got used to it almost always being quiet here. This past weekend it was everything but.

-Sixbears