More excitement than I wanted
10/03/24 00:58
Our son’s family live in a house that is more than 100 years old. Across the street from their property is another century house. One of the local stories is that the two houses were built as the beginning of what was intended to be a town in rural Whatcom County. The town of Custer, however, is not located near where the two old houses stand. It is over a mile to the east. It is a typical small town, with a church, a post office, an elementary school, and a couple of businesses on main street. It is clear that the town used to have a few more businesses, but those no longer are part of the community. Back over where the two historic houses stand, the land is beginning to be subdivided. Our son’s place is 10 acres. Some of the neighbors have similar sized plots. A few are bigger and a few are smaller. There don’t seem to be any places with less than five acres.
One story about the two old houses is that the town was originally going to be built at the corner of two roads where the houses stand. However, the owners of the first two houses could not get along. They argues and battled and fought with each other so much that others decided that it wasn’t a good place to have a town and so the townsite was never located on that corner, but rather moved. I don’t know the veracity of this story. It is also the case that the railroad doesn’t lie near those houses and it runs right through the townsite. It is possible that the reason for relocating the town was to be near the railroad when the tracks were laid.
It makes a good story, however, and I suppose that it could be at least partially true. More than a century later, none of the locals know for sure. The other old house has seen some big troubles in the time that we have lived near our son’s place. A couple of years ago, the house was abandoned, but there were squatters living in the place. During a cold spell, a water pipe burst in the space beneath the house, but it wasn’t reported or discovered until the water district came looking for the leak that was creating a shortage. Other houses in the area were placed on water use restrictions as utility mangers searched for the leak. Because our son’s place has a number of outbuildings and plenty of buried pipe, their place was suspect. We went around closing valves and turning off water to all of the outlying buildings, but that provided no solution and no leak was found at our son’s place. Finally, the leak in the abandoned house was discovered and the water shut off to the property.
In recent months, the owners of the property have been working on the place and it was listed for sale. They put a new roof on part of the house, applied some paint, cut back bushes and the squatters were evicted. We don’t know if the place was sold or not, but the signs came down and people moved into the place. Some neighbors believe that those who moved into the place had lived their previously, perhaps as squatters. No one seems to know the new people.
Yesterday, as I was heading to the house after giving a bit of sugar water to the bees, I came around a corner and was met by a bull dog with a mouth full of feathers. It was obvious that the dog had been into the chickens. I yelled at it and tried to chase it out of the yard, but it ran back toward the chicken coop, where I discovered another dog inside the coop. The coop has two sides and the fence between the two sides was closed to isolate one group of chickens from another. Now there was a dog in each side of the coop and the feathers were flying. I tried again to chase the dogs out of the yard and they came after me. I grabbed a shovel and avoided being bit, but was forced to retreat to the house. Our son came out and together we tried unsuccessfully to chase the dogs away. Finally he called the sheriff and animal control officers were dispatched. We watched in horror, believing that all of the chickens had been killed. After a while the dogs headed over to another neighbor and our son called them to warn them. Those neighbors don’t have any animals out in their yard and the dogs soon headed across the road toward yet another neighbor. This one has chickens and a lot of other domestic animals. Our son and their next door neighbor headed across the street to warn that neighbor and that is where they were when animal control officers arrived.
The officers captured the dogs and placed them in their vehicle. One of the dogs had on a collar from animal control and after a bit of checking the officers determined that the dogs had just been released from a hold the previous evening after having killed chickens at another place. They went to the owners, who live in the other old house, and found that the owners knew that the dogs were out, but hadn’t done anything about it.
It turned out that there were survivor chickens at our son’s place. After we cleaned up the mess in the chicken coop and buried the deceased chickens, we discovered a couple that were injured but surviving. A little later a few uninjured chickens emerged from hiding. All in all it appears that they lost about 15 birds. They also lost most of the family’s egg supply for at least a year until they can raise more chicks. All because pet owners were not responsible.
It is tempting to revive the animosity between the two houses. When I was forced indoors because the two dogs were coming after me, I was worried if our grandchildren would ever be safe in their own yard with those animals. However, it is likely that the dogs will not be coming back to their owners. Reports were taken, photos collected, evidence complied. The farm will put into place some defensive measures in case of a future attack. Before long the farm will recover and life will go back to normal, leaving behind only a story, which is good enough that it may grow as time passes and it is told over and over. Right now, the talk of the neighborhood is how the irresponsible neighbors caused havoc on the farm and what can be done about it.
I am uninjured and glad I picked up a shovel. Our son and grandchildren are uninjured. Death is a part of raising farm animals and the farm will recover. And we all have a story to tell.
One story about the two old houses is that the town was originally going to be built at the corner of two roads where the houses stand. However, the owners of the first two houses could not get along. They argues and battled and fought with each other so much that others decided that it wasn’t a good place to have a town and so the townsite was never located on that corner, but rather moved. I don’t know the veracity of this story. It is also the case that the railroad doesn’t lie near those houses and it runs right through the townsite. It is possible that the reason for relocating the town was to be near the railroad when the tracks were laid.
It makes a good story, however, and I suppose that it could be at least partially true. More than a century later, none of the locals know for sure. The other old house has seen some big troubles in the time that we have lived near our son’s place. A couple of years ago, the house was abandoned, but there were squatters living in the place. During a cold spell, a water pipe burst in the space beneath the house, but it wasn’t reported or discovered until the water district came looking for the leak that was creating a shortage. Other houses in the area were placed on water use restrictions as utility mangers searched for the leak. Because our son’s place has a number of outbuildings and plenty of buried pipe, their place was suspect. We went around closing valves and turning off water to all of the outlying buildings, but that provided no solution and no leak was found at our son’s place. Finally, the leak in the abandoned house was discovered and the water shut off to the property.
In recent months, the owners of the property have been working on the place and it was listed for sale. They put a new roof on part of the house, applied some paint, cut back bushes and the squatters were evicted. We don’t know if the place was sold or not, but the signs came down and people moved into the place. Some neighbors believe that those who moved into the place had lived their previously, perhaps as squatters. No one seems to know the new people.
Yesterday, as I was heading to the house after giving a bit of sugar water to the bees, I came around a corner and was met by a bull dog with a mouth full of feathers. It was obvious that the dog had been into the chickens. I yelled at it and tried to chase it out of the yard, but it ran back toward the chicken coop, where I discovered another dog inside the coop. The coop has two sides and the fence between the two sides was closed to isolate one group of chickens from another. Now there was a dog in each side of the coop and the feathers were flying. I tried again to chase the dogs out of the yard and they came after me. I grabbed a shovel and avoided being bit, but was forced to retreat to the house. Our son came out and together we tried unsuccessfully to chase the dogs away. Finally he called the sheriff and animal control officers were dispatched. We watched in horror, believing that all of the chickens had been killed. After a while the dogs headed over to another neighbor and our son called them to warn them. Those neighbors don’t have any animals out in their yard and the dogs soon headed across the road toward yet another neighbor. This one has chickens and a lot of other domestic animals. Our son and their next door neighbor headed across the street to warn that neighbor and that is where they were when animal control officers arrived.
The officers captured the dogs and placed them in their vehicle. One of the dogs had on a collar from animal control and after a bit of checking the officers determined that the dogs had just been released from a hold the previous evening after having killed chickens at another place. They went to the owners, who live in the other old house, and found that the owners knew that the dogs were out, but hadn’t done anything about it.
It turned out that there were survivor chickens at our son’s place. After we cleaned up the mess in the chicken coop and buried the deceased chickens, we discovered a couple that were injured but surviving. A little later a few uninjured chickens emerged from hiding. All in all it appears that they lost about 15 birds. They also lost most of the family’s egg supply for at least a year until they can raise more chicks. All because pet owners were not responsible.
It is tempting to revive the animosity between the two houses. When I was forced indoors because the two dogs were coming after me, I was worried if our grandchildren would ever be safe in their own yard with those animals. However, it is likely that the dogs will not be coming back to their owners. Reports were taken, photos collected, evidence complied. The farm will put into place some defensive measures in case of a future attack. Before long the farm will recover and life will go back to normal, leaving behind only a story, which is good enough that it may grow as time passes and it is told over and over. Right now, the talk of the neighborhood is how the irresponsible neighbors caused havoc on the farm and what can be done about it.
I am uninjured and glad I picked up a shovel. Our son and grandchildren are uninjured. Death is a part of raising farm animals and the farm will recover. And we all have a story to tell.
