How prevalent is this?

[cowman]

It would be nice if rural AB still had the sense of community that was prevalent back in the 60's. Now, neighbours change like the wind and very few folks even are involved in any structured community association if there is one.
When we moved to this farm one neighbour after another dropped in to welcome us to the community, nowdays if you dropped in to do that folks would likely think you were some sort of coconut !!!

When my new neighbour moved in down the road they did drop by to let me know they had three teenagers and four dogs and wanted me to let them know if any of those caused me any problems !!! I thought it was pretty classy of them.

When we moved here in '74' there were 10 cattle operations in the six miles from the county boundary and the hamlet south of me, now there are three cattle operations, one of which is a feedlot that owns a lot of the land previously owned by other livestock operations. The feedlot east of my home has bought up several of the other smaller operations so even if the land isn't individually owned by producers it is still in agricultural production, not subdivided into small country residential parcels.

[cakadu]

Never said we had to move back to some sort of simpler life - just take a look at what is happening. I personally do not want to be riding the wave of increasing social problems and having to come up with solutions.

I believe the point being made was one of two sides to the "good life" being provided by the oil patch. You can't take the good without the bad coming along. PureCountry is right - I doubt many will be on their deathbeds worrying about having spudded in that last hole. If they are, then that would have been a very poor life indeed, no matter how much money was made.

[cowman]

Well I don't believe these problems are much worse here than anywhere else? I think it is just the times we live in?
Kids and dogs and extra traffic are just something we have to live with out in the country.
Some of these kids really need some parents to keep them off the roads on their quads and motorbikes....or at the very least teach them to use some common sense? Some of these kids are riding machines that are way to powerful for their age and size? Now I don't mind kids having some fun but they really can be a hazard on the country roads...for themselves and others.

[sagewood]

Well folks, we do digress sometimes on thesse topics, but yes, the kids/dogs & loud machines are universal problems--friends in Sask. complain about the same thing--especially skidoos in the winter running through private property at all hours. But to suggest that their parents need to teach them manners etc., seems to be the entire problem...the parents have no manners and no respect for private property..so how are they supposed to teach the kids. At a hockey game recently (my 9 year old gransson's game), one young guy from the other team scored their 6th goal (our team was scoreless) and this kid came over to the area where five motheres (and a grandmother) were sitting and made a completely rude gesture and skated back to the bench. These women were cheering their kids on--had not once said or done anything when the other team scored...just trying to keep their kids spirits alive in an obvious one-sided game. The kid came over at the end of the game and apologized for his actions, but I had to ask his mother where he learned to do something like that and what type of parent would think it was appropriate. I refused to accept his apology--his gesture was way beyond just a raised finger type of gesture. Society has accepted that 'anything goes', and in fact we have laws stating 'personal rights' are protected, so until society reigns in the rudeness and teaches respect for property and others, we are going to have to raise more fences and be more vigilant as to who is on and near our land, and further to have those bylaws enforced that are in place to protect us. The times indeed are changing, and I really don't see it getting any easier for agriculture especially agrticulture that happens near urban centres and their ever-expanding base. As someone stated to me, that if I did not like what was happening then I should sell and get out--there is no sympathy for farmers/ranchers out there at all. There is no sympathy when we say our prices are too low to keep going and there is no sympathy when we say we are being restricted in what we do because of high land values around us--to most the case is obvious--take the bid from the highest bidder and move on. They do not understand a life-time committment to a particular piece of land. Then they hear the report (last week on QR77) about a farmer letting his pigs eat the dead cows, and then him saying 'we' in the ag. community all do that sort of thing and 'we' can't understand the rules even if they were explained to us--and the urban society paints all of us with the same brush and think we are all a bunch of bumbkins, polluting not only the environment, but their food as well...after a few announcements like that, most urbanites are convinced that we should all be run off the land.....but again, I digress...

[sagewood]

I don't mind neighbour kids having a good time out with their quads, snow machines etc., but when they roar around most of the night and disturb everyone else in the community then it is beyond having a bit of fun. Never mind, that some of these kids are only 10 or so, and have no business operating one of these machines on the road at any time.
Calling the county constable to complain is one thing but I am reluctant to do so in case some of these kids decide to ' get even' with me for doing so because they would know damn well it was me that turned them in.
I have already had issues with the parents of two of the kids because their dog was over here chasing cows, eating my dog's food and generally making a nuisance of himself. I called the folks half a dozen times, then one day the dog went missing, and they blamed me in so many words for it. The damn thing came back home a couple of days later so of course they likely think I had it tied up somewhere.
It is doubtful if they would take kindly to me complaining about their little darlings making noise half the night !
Lack of respect is certainly the root of many of the problems, and parents don't set an example in many cases.

[cakadu]

That is our exact dilemma here too emrald. The parents have no respect for anyone else and will not pay any heed when you talk to them. In fact one time one of the parents actually said to me that they don't want to have to worry about dogs, cars etc. when their kids are on the road. Wouldn't you think that is more than just a bit backward? Yet you can rest assured that if one of the little darlings got hit while on the road you would end up being sued so fast it would make your head spin.

Kids need to be kids and having fun is part and parcel of being one. When it becomes a safety issue for them and for others using the road, or an issue of making noise until late at night then it is an entirely different matter.

I remember one time when they had several cows on their place - bear in mind this is 4 acres - and the cows got out into the neighbors pasture. Instead of taking steps to make sure their cows didn't get out, they opened their gate because "fair is fair." How do you deal with that type of mentality?

The best role models for kids are their parents and if they won't model decent behavior then what hope do future generations have?

[cakadu]

I had an acreage owner call me and demand that the county put a stop to his neighbour hauling silage past his place because the trucks were going so fast his grandkids were going to get run over.
The trucks had to make a left turn 100 feet past his house so unless they were going to turn on two wheels with a load of silage on there was no way they could have been going very fast.
The sight distance was at least 1 mile from his house and when I suggested that perhaps it wasn't a good idea for his grandkids to be playing on the road he advised me that they were 13 and 14 and could damn well be on the road whenever they wanted to!!
I told him that if kids that age wanted to play on the road and couldn't get out of the way of a silage truck that they could see coming for a mile then there wasn't much I was prepared to do about it, because just as his kids had the right to be on the road so did the owner of the operation across from him have the right to haul silage !!! Needless to say I lost a couple of votes the next election !!

[grassfarmer]

Sadly some of these bright country living kids won't survive to adulthood. Was driving through Eckville recently and saw a kid on a large quad coming down a very steep roadside embankment above me, diagonally at high speed, standing up while pulling a wheelie! where were the parents?

[grassfarmer]

grassfarmer, all too many parents think that giving the kids quads, snow machines, vehicles etc. equate to being a 'cool' parent.
A parent I know put his foot down and would not allow his 15 year old daughter to spend weekends with friends when he found out that the parents went away and allowed the kids allowed to quad and snowmobile unsupervised. He and his wife are separated and she alleged that his actions were cruelty to their daughter when she was applying for sole custody !!!

My neighbours leave their kids alone when they go away for weekends. They have been doing this since the kids were 13 and 10. It's none of my business but I worry that one of these days or nights the kids will either roll their quad or get hit by a vehicle.
One March another neighbour kid went through my fence and onto the ice on the creek. Another time the same kid came roaring out of their driveway on a dirtbike just as I was driving down the road, he rolled the bike on top of himself, got a few scratches and was out doing the same damn thing the next day.
I called his mother and told her what he was doing and explained that because they had a tree lined driveway it was impossible to see him until he was almost in front of a vehicle. Her answer was that people in the community should be aware that teenaged kids are out on motorbikes etc. and drive accordingly !!!!!!

[cowman]

Well kids will be kids! I guess none of us ever did stupid things when we were young, right?
A quad can be a very dangerous thing if you don't know what you are doing...and sometimes even if you think you do! I cracked a couple of ribs this fall when I rolled one on myself...that sure puts a crimp in your style for about 6 weeks!
Still they can be a very useful machine although I sure wouldn't ride one for pleasure...sort of like a horse!

[cowman]

sad to say that there was a fatality over the weekend involving a quad. At least this winter the snow maching fatalities are a lot less thanks to no snow !!

[cswilson]

I just thank god every day that the neighbor kids aren't as bad as I was at their age-I get mad at the plow jockeys turning our gridroad into a racetrack during harvest and they aren't impressed when there's some Angus speed bumps out there lol but we manage to get along. My neighbors across the road raised three boys that liked to quad was there some contoversy but it all came out in the wash. Remember when bitching about your neighbors what goes around comes around-my closest farming neighbor has two boys getting into cows-I can't imagine the celebration we'll have wnen their cows finally get out onto my place.