The Naysayers Busy Bodies. People who feel they have to stop other people doing something harmless, or even fun, or know what you ought to do where you have no moral obligation to do anything.

Oh just stop.

You know who you are.  That person is doing that thing, something you probably don't do, and they're having fun doing it.  It isn't immoral, it isn't dangerous, it just bugs you.

Well, sir or madam, you have a problem and should knock it off.

Over the last several years I've been confronted with Naysayers and Busy Bodies. Indeed, I think I've written on one of these encounters before, but I'm not quite sure where that entry is, so I'm repeating the topic and adding to it.  In part because I am, quite frankly, irritated.

Now, first I have to note something.

I own some land.

That doesn't make me a massive land owners. By some, I mean a little.  I don't often note this, but one of these small parcels was recently noted here in the context of a garden that's on it.  And I own a little more than that. Not so much that I could make a living off of it or anything.

Now, I don't publicize this much on purpose. Say anything, and unless a person already knows you well, in which case they already know that you own some land, they make assumptions that are wildly inaccurate.  A person can be dirt poor and be a landowner, for example, but people will not assume that.

Now, one of these small plots of land is quite near an area which is itself now quite near the city.  When my family acquired it, this was not true.  So that means that we're likely the people with the oldest continual title to the land in the area, or nearly so.  As we also don't feel compelled to put up a house on something simply because we have it, so over time its become one of the few undeveloped parcels where it is.  This means, apparently, that people observe it. I'm fine with that, to a degree.  But I'm amazed by how people react to things in regards to that.

For example, there used to be a couple of teenage girls who lived about a mile away who had horses.  They'd ride them around the area and, as this lot is on the river, they'd ride down to the river on their horses.  I knew that somebody did that, as I could see their shod prints, but I like horses and riding and so it never bothered me.  

Apparently it bothered a neighbor, however, as the girls went riding by one day.  Knowing that they'd never asked permission to come on, they rode on by, but not before a neighbor came out and chewed them out as the horses deposited horse flop in the road.

Now, I find it exceedingly difficult to care about that, but the neighbor in question was so offended by horse flop in the road that after she chewed the teenager out she came over to inform me of just her doing that, and that they rode on my place.  I told her that was okay with me.  The girls then rode back by, on their way home, and entered the place, probably having witnessed the lady speaking to me and feeling they'd been caught.  They confessed their trespass.  I simply gave them permission to come on.

I guess I appreciate that my neighbor (now passed on) watched my place so carefully, but why the offense over the horses?

At the same location, about a decade ago, I stopped by on the way home from duck hunting, with my then young son, to see if there might be some ducks in the river.  I did get a passing shot.  Another extremely reclusive neighbor (I saw him for the first time today) called the sheriffs out as I'd shot.  They came on, thinking I must have been a trespasser, and they were sheepish when they found out that I owned the place.  Shooting is legal in the county and the neighbor had no business calling the sheriffs out on me on my own place, even if he didn't know who I was.  Today, if the sheriffs showed up that way, I'd read them the riot act. At the time I was pretty polite about it.

Well, just this past week my son was out on the place and fired a couple of shots from a pistol. The neighbor came out and yelled at him.  He hung around, probably recalling a decade ago, in case the sheriffs came out, but they didn't come.

It turns out they were called, which I now know, as I was burning dead timber, very carefully, when the neighbor came out and called over the fence to ask if I had a fire going. Well, of course I did, and I appreciate the concern over fire, but then asked about the pistol shots.  After learning they were ours, he went on about how you couldn't shoot there etc., he'd called the sheriff, until I did something I rarely do, which is to say "I'm a lawyer and I know you can shoot here". The grimace on his face told the story, he knew that he'd blown it.  I was polite about it.  He, and his wife, then went on a long conversation detailing other complaints of a minor variety he had in the area with other people.  The ultimate irony was that he was wearing a National Rifle Association hat.

Well, I don't appreciate being told that I can't do something that I know I can.  One real advantage of being a lawyer is knowing the rules.  I also don't appreciate the enforcement of a self declared set of rules by a guy who is, from my prospective, a new comer even if he's been there for years.  I further don't appreciate instructions on this score from somebody who isn't even from this country.  If he doesn't like life in the county, he can move to the city, or better yet back to his native country.

Well, on another piece of land that I have there are a set of building associated with it. They aren't on ours, but they're close.  I know on that land a person called up the owner to complain about the cows getting in, some of which are mind.  The buildings are indeed very old, but hey, they're not some remote persons and the cows are part of our livelihood.  Geez, man, give us a break, we're not tearing the old buildings down or anything.

Again, I know that this is whining, but I'm amazed by the degree to which people choose to police the harmless conduct of others.  The fellow who gets upset about our shooting has a yard that looks terrible in comparison to the prior owners.  We're not stopping him from doing anything, why is he trying to stop us.  People have a right to ride horses in rural areas here, why harass teenagers who are doing that?  And were the horses going down to the river that big of deal?  And why are you watching the old buildings on a place you don't own?