We have a farm that borders a neighborhood. About 150 acres are posted but we readily give hunting permission. About 50 acres are not posted because they abut a neighborhood and it seems so very unneighborly to have those yellow signs facing peoples homes. We've always been very generous with use of the land but the attitude of people has really changed. 50 years ago, everyone asked for permission and were very respectful of only using the parts of the property that we okayed (essentially hugging the tree line and not crossing through our yard). They were extraordinarily gracious in offering to help bring in the hay, maintain trails, bringing my grandparents Christmas cookies, etc. Now, no one asks permission and people, literally, cross country ski so close to my house that they can see in the windows.
When people *do* ask for permission, I'm always happy to say yes! When they don't ask, it makes me want to spit nails. I've confronted a few of the more egregious privacy invaders and have had some whoppers of responses: "I have permission from your grandfather!" (he died 35 years ago--I think that permission slip expired), "I'm not doing any harm and my dogs are friendly" (ummm, your dogs may be friendly but you don't know if mine are AND this is not an off-leash dog park. Who do you think picks up the poop???), "I only cut the fence so that I wouldn't scratch my skis on the wires" (I mean, come on. How do you even respond to someone rationalizing CUTTING your electric cow fence???), etc etc etc
Why do people feel entitled to use what isn't theirs? Is it so hard to just be polite and ask permission? It's not like it's a big secret who owns the land.
rawdaddykrawdaddy t1_j21anzb wrote
My dog was killed on my property by dogs whose owner had permission from the previous to walk his dog there. We made it very, very clear his dogs weren't welcome on our property anymore. It was almost 10 years ago, and I'm still upset about it