Dear Mad.

I dunno, maybe I am just in the process of becoming an old fart, lol.
Maybe I should just put an ice pick through my eardrums and be done with
it BG. I guess I am expecting too much out of people...after all , I
AM in New Jersey.

Rich
****************************************

madgardener wrote:

"Rich" wrote in message
...

This may not be the right group to ask this question in but I am hoping
some other gardeners have had this problem and found a solution.

a valid question and rant snipped for

space..............................

I love the sounds of nature myself, but had this problem when I lived in the
city on a normal street with neighbors all around me. But the shoe was on
the other foot. It was ME who dragged my speaked outside of the house to aim
them towards the back of my house while I played music to garden by. Nothing
like your neighbors hearing Janis Joplin,Moody Blues, Pink Floyd or Allen
Parsons Project(among others) on a bright, perfect gardening day.

But having said that, and knowing that I cranked it up loud enough to hear
it in the back of the yard where all my raised veggie beds were, I will say
that I lived about a mile from the Cumberland River and across that was
Opryland. And every hour and a half the General Jackson steamboat came down
at the ferry road to turn around in the river.........lots of steamboat
whistles (I did love those, and knowing John Hartford was the Captain made
it special) but the ruckus from Opryland including the fireworks on the 4th
and at season's end, and on humid nights the various sounds were crystal
clear made sleeping hard if you went to bed before the park closed at 11
during peak season.

All around me people owned lawnmowers. The ones with no mufflers. And
weedeaters were just coming into the scene. Gardening and yard maintenance
wasn't the quiet whirrl or a push mower or constant snip snip snip of
pruning shears anymore. I respected my older neighbors and didn't crank my
music up until I was sure everyone was awake. and anyone offended by the
music, I obliged and turned it down. The surrounding city noises usually
made it easier to tolerate. When the neighbor was that rare quiet that
you'd not expect in suburbs, I didn't disrupt it with my music. But that was
just me. And I still cranked it up when it was sunny and nice outside and I
was doing serious garden stuff.


I have talked with the other neighbors and while they HEAR it and find
it annoying they don't want to say anything (are most people deaf or
just sheep?).


People are sheep. That the neighbor near you asked YOU to say something says
people are reluctant to have confrontations anymore. There is no common
decency in a lot of people now. I sat in our truck last night at a light, in
a rural but populated town just 14 miles north of us and due to my cold, had
the window up. From somewhere, the THROB of rap music was apparent, and
despite that I realize I don't live in the city anymore and aren't used to
this, my sensitivity to noise became apparent when I started looking for the
offending vehicle. This town by the way is a college town, but not like
Knoxville with UT, but a smaller, liberal arts college. The throbbing was
audible thru our closed windows and we have a good sound insulation in our
1999 Ford truck. I heard myself repeating my mother. the words came right
out of my mouth and I was appalled............"they're going to be deaf
blasting that crap in their ears"

There has been a gap in politeness Rich. My mother allowed me to listen to
my music, and it was the 60's and early 70's music, and it was disturbing to
her. But I was not allowed to crank it up so loudly that it was broadcast to
the neighbor's next door. It had to be contained within my own room, and my
dad was quick to buy me headphones once he found out they were basically
safe for me to use. And mom would check on me occaisonally to make sure the
volumn level wasn't all the way up. I heard way louder when I went to
concerts later on.g The one time I had my music up loud enough for my
parent's neighbors to hear it and something was said, my dad took my stereo
away from me for a week. It taught me if I abused the privilege of having my
own stereo and right to listen to anything I wanted, I would be punished for
disrespecting other people's similar rights.

Perhaps its because they spend most of the winter shut up

tight (though the music comes through MY windows) and spend the summer
in central air and still keep those windows shut tight. I guess I am
weird, I LIKE fresh air........but now its polluted with noise that is
so unnecessary.


I like fresh air too, and I love my music, but living up here in the country
with nature all around me, and having a 74 year old neighbor up the driveway
reminds me that I can't be disrespectful of her. She doesn't always like my
music and I shouldn't impose my tastes on her. she only hears it when I have
it on outside when she comes down the long driveway and closer to my yard.
And that's not all the time. BTW, I now listen to modern folk, Celtic,
World, some rock, blues, bluegrass,Cajun zydecoe,and a bit of Reggae. I have
a 30 year old son who likes Reggae, and even that gets on my nerves
sometimes..........it's only occaisonally that I listen to Janis. I like
more compilation now. That neighbor hopefully will grow up and mature in his
musical likes.

I have spoken with the police and while there is a town ordinance again
noise above certain decibles, I was told it was rarely
enforced....besides I hate the though of having to call the police on a
neighbor....not only does it go against my principles (though I have to
admit I am ready to throw them out the window in return for some garden
serenty) but it may open a bigger can of worms...a ****ed off neighbor.


You're right about that. If the neighbor insists his rights are being
infringed upon, he won't understand that he's infringing on other's.
Oblivious. Buy the guy some headphones with a 100 foot
jack.........................

now, after a long winded post, my question.........

Have any other gardeners run into a problem like this and how did they
resolve it (besides moving)?


Now regarding this part.........my immediate neighbor next door was a
saxaphone player. And his son played drums. And despite that I love music,
the jams and practices were enough to cause homicide. I made a deal with
them (they liked my music, and across the driveway the other neighbors
didn't mind my music either, but I lothed and hated their country
music.......grew up in Nashville, over it, but because I dragged my speakers
outside to garden sometimes, I felt it wasn't right to ask them to turn
their music down) and they complied most of the time. When they moved, I
talked with the new neighbors and we made a pact of sorts. When Alex was
sleeping, I didn't bring my speakers outside. He'd call out to me to let me
know he was up, and I was free to carry on. When we had parties was another
story all together....GBSEG But most of the time we contained our ruckus
inside. Not too often did the police come by because of music cranked
loudly.

Of course there was the party for Squire and Spider out in Aurora, Colorado
that was called in for loudness, back in 1978 and when they pounded on the
door, I answered it and they stood there with their mouths open looking
confused. This was the era back then of Sidewalk commando's. Aurora was
growing at a rate of 150,000 a year and the cops had attitudes. I lived
with bikers, being a little hippie mama myself...you get my drift. They
were dumbfounded. Apparently the neighbor's next door had called in to
report an extremely raucous and loud party going on at the corner of 16th
and Lima. It was our house. But when I opened up the door to them, they
could barely even hear music, let alone what had been called in.

I told them we did have a party going on, but it was downstairs in the
basement. Because the basement door was closed, and the basement was
underground with just ground level windows, you didn't hear the 40+ bikers
and assorted people partying their asses off below. What the neighbors
heard was the true party when Moose opened one casement window to let out
the smoky air. After that, we kept the windows closed. The police
apologized to me for coming by because obciously it wasn't disturbing the
peace and they went their merry way. Downstairs 40+ bikers drinking two kegs
of beer, rowdying, yelling, stereo cranked up to unbelievable levels of
music, laughter, and basic pandemonium (lots of wasted people that night)
went without a hitch. Had the police heard something louder, they would have
had quite a bust on their hands.................................nothing
major in illegals as much as just that it was a serious biker party. I had
a quad stereo which was unexpected out of a chick in those days, and over
3000 albums so I was always the dj............g

The next morning by the way, there was 3 inches of beer on the floor, and a
trashcan of broken beer bottles once we trashed and cleaned the basement
party room up. It took a long box for the clean up.....And I have pictures
of everyone soaked in beer during that party, too. Everyone's hair looked
wonderful for a few days GBSEG (my boys slept thru the whole thing once
I was able to get them to GO to sleep, parties always wired them up)


(and a last minute thought though it should be saved for a different
post).........I noted this am a whole row of 10' Leyland cypress are
turing light green a brittle.........what is going ON this winter?


My husband pointed out pits in our truck windshield yesterday and told me it
was volcanic acid rain that was pitting the windshield. Apparently there's
been quite a bit of it lately. And windshield glass isn't totally glass so
it pits with volcanic acid rain. If you're in the city, you're also getting
problems in the moisture from the emmisions from our cars, factories and
such. Sad to think we're polluting this planet faster than it can heal. I
won't soapbox on this one...........

What

the deer don't eat, the wet soggy/frozen ground is rotting
roots...anyone having this problem?


Up in the Smokies, because there are so many more tourists and cars, they're
seeing more effects in the trees and such from the pollution. (the area has
no car emissions control). Add to that, that anthrachnose has decimated a
large portion of the dogwood population, pine beetles are killing the Jack
pines at alarming rates, and the devistation of the trees from gypsy
moths.........well Nature goes marching on....................

Thus far I have lost a 20' weeping

nootkantensis and the deer have eaten over 10 hemlocks, 16 arborvitae
and utterly destroyed every euonymous I own (owned)...


sounds like time to have some deer in the freezer..................if we
don't thin the herds down (there are no preditors in the city except for us,
and that responsibility falls to us to maintain a balance) you'll suffer
from the excess and overfed states of them by more incidents of lime disease
and accidents.
nuff said.
madgardener

rich haynes