@mike808@werehatrack worst I get is maybe a county accesor when I contest my property taxes and they are supposed to schedule and I asked for it so. Meh.
I should pull a home owner permit and get them to sign off on some things when I get to them but again asking for it.
No one is going to just show up and pitch a fit. That would be highly annoying. Then again I don’t plan to violate county code. Home owners BS though… Eww. But you signed on. So idk
Why are you trying to convince the assessor that your property is really shittier than what they assessed it at? They don’t single people out. And when you (or your heirs) go to sell it, are you going to lower your asking price to match your lowered tax assessment base?
This is why municipalities don’t have funds to pay cips, firemen, have good schools, fix potholes in streets (@kidsandliz).
/image tax fraud much?
@mike808@werehatrack Where I live home owners contesting home value is NOT why we don’t have the potholes fixed. Recently (as in last year) the city got something like $32 million in money from the company who installed the screwed up water meters when they won a lawsuit. No one seems to know (admit to know) where that money went. Not on fixing the water meters that is for sure, but seriously, not one person can tell anyone how that money was spent or if is was still in the bank. Nepotism, kickbacks, embezzlement (a couple of years 4.3 million was embezzled from SNAP, TANF by about a 6 or 7 employees at the top administrative level)… that is where all our money goes.
And our tax base is in the toilet - all the state (it’s the capital) and city buildings, state university, state hospital and medical school… and then the majority of the ghetto for the surrounding area (eg technically other cities) is here too. Oh and businesses are moving out due to failure of the police to even respond to 911 calls and/or failure to even respond. They often don’t even pick up due to a shortage of employees.
@Kidsandliz@mike808@werehatrack because the county assessor is required by state law to use fair market resale value. And when they access your house they can’t do that. They use generic metrics. So when they access your home to have appreciated by 50% in two years after you already let another 50% slide and your home is easily not worth any where near what they guesstimated and you could never sell it for that and they massively hike your taxes you have the right to correct them. Tax fraud? Trump? Wtf?
I’m aware in some places home prices have soared but this is not that market. If someone wanted to offer me the accessed value id seriously consider it and they would be massively overpaying but again not that kind of market here.
That has nothing to do with funding that’s just balance and if they need more than raise the property tax rate across the board or raise the county income tax but that’s a whole nother thing. They aren’t short on cash we don’t have problems.
I don’t live in a city. We don’t have those issues. Or most of those services. We have a volunteer fire department. It’s county/schools/library/township and the taxes are fine. I know where it goes and yeah I never needed the sheriff and I don’t have kids but I’m well aware of the value of those things. I get cities are different and have way more issues but geez. Judgy much?
the county assessor is required by state law to use fair market resale value.
So you’re basically accusing the assessor of fraud or incompetence? Why do you keep electing such unqualified people to a position that requires some qualified notion of quantifying “fair market value”?
Is the assessor uniformly mis-calculating home values across the county or just singling your property out for “special” bonus valuation?
@mike808 you’re being extremely strange about this. The county accessor has general stats about homes they have to systematically apply a broad brush across the whole county as to what things are probably worth based on square footage and acerage and finish level. They can’t visit all those homes. And they don’t. They have a very specific manual and rules set by state laws.
They happened to have overvalued my home compared to others because of a number of reasons. It would not sell for what they access.
No one said anything about anyone being corrupt or targeting. Or… idk what your issue is? Maybe you have only ever lived in cities or…
I have a right to appeal the standard model and talk to them. They can set a visit to look at the house. If we don’t agree it can go to the county board and they can decide. I can provide proof. They by law have to provide evidence of their evaluation if it’s more than 5% over last year. It’s been 25% the last 2 years.
This is just standard practice with property taxes on an owner occupied home. No one’s sueing anyone it’s just a request for review so idk why you’re being an ass about me asking them to do something that is literally their job.
If your property taxes on you home jumped 50% for no reason I would hope you would look at why.
Already established you live in a city. Maybe you have cookie cutter homes in a subdivision and they should all be valued the same. That is not the the case in many places. The place a mile down the road might have similar specs on paper but be way nicer and worth way more and there might only be 10 houses in that mile.
@mike808 why the heck would @unksol want to pay too much in property taxes? The accessor doesn’t go into your home to see what it is like inside the way a realtor does to assess the appropriate selling value. If someone doesn’t have all the information, or information that would affect property values then why the heck shouldn’t it get re-assessed? To have it double if you haven’t done anything to the house, like add on, to justify that, at a minimum unksol needs to know why there was a sudden skyrocket in assessed value.
@zhicks1987 I’m in Florida and they do live here and I know there have been sightings of alligators in the lake but I personally haven’t seen any in the 35 years living in this state. I’m not too worried about them.
@tweezak but they’re so cute!! We have skunks here every night. And before you say it, my dog got sprayed in my back yard a week ago, but i still think theyre cute as hell.
@jnicholson0619@tweezak Skunks, with their cute Pepe LePew stripes, carry rabies. Be sure your dog stays up to date on his vaccinations. And stock up on tomato juice for post-spray baths. My daughter was sent home from work after her dog was sprayed. Lol
@dyounghbic@jnicholson0619 I’m so glad that we don’t have skunks in our neighborhood. There were plenty of them around our last house and they had several encounters with my dog (who never seemed to learn her lesson).
@jnicholson0619@tweezak they are adorable. There was one with a litter at the mall of all places years ago for a bit so I was a little cautious opening doors and letting tenents in in the morning so I didn’t spook/corner them but they didn’t bother anyone. Just moved along back to wherever they were sleeping by morning. I have pics but they must be on the computer
A dog… I could see being an issue but they didn’t seem to mind me.
Not at the moment but occasionally when I am on walks in the subdivision I run across a family of skunk. Of course you don’t want to get close, but they are so adorable!!
One of my great joys in life is watching videos of raccoons getting water soluble treats and running to wash them, only to have them disappear. We have a long adversarial history.
@Kidsandliz@unksol I don’t necessarily seek it. It just pops up in my social media feeds, I like or upvote or whatever, and then the blursed algorithms find me more.
Sharks.
If I look outside and see sharks (or pretty much any fish), I know it’s going to be a rough day. Especially since my house is at about 400’ altitude.
@blaineg@endi1276 We have friends who have summer homes in the mountains of NC. General rule of thumb is if you don’t get between momma bear and baby bear you should be OK. In recent years, several momma bears have been popping out more than one cub. So now it’s making sure you don’t get between any cub and momma. And cubs are curious, and people are interesting. Definitely raises the bar.
My neighbor…as soon as he sees me outside he heads over…he’s a older guy and loves to gossip…that’s just not my thing…but I can’t be rude …so I quick get back inside or jump in my car. It’s ridiculous that I hide from an 80 year old man…lol
@sweetjoey@unksol If you are jumping in your car, maybe you could offer him a ride to a nearby assisted/independent living place or VFW hall for a day visit and pick him up an hour or two later or when you return from wherever you were going in your car.
Depends on where.
In my yard: the neighbor’s dogs that run around unsupervised and bark aggressively at everyone and shit in everyone’s yard.
In the woods: a bear with cubs
@dannybeans Peppermint oil in water with a spritz of dish soap - preferably in a sprayer with a long reach. Spray at night and coat the nest. (If you need to use a flashlight, place it somewhere away from where you are, as disturbed hornets will go directly to the beam of light.) The spray will leave a little pile of minty fresh vespid corpses.
@blaineg I had same thing happen. Learned that often pregnant females will look for a secure place like that to raise their « kits » I guess they are called. Asked some people and best was idea was let her be, they will move out once kits are weaned. Sure enough, that is what happened a few months later, and then I got the roof soffit repaired that had been removed for some other stuff and left open, which is how she got in in the first place.
@pmarin I accidentally did a Cask of Amontillado on ours. We hadn’t seen or heard him for several days, so I plugged the hole he was using. And he was still in there. Oops.
He wound up chewing a hole in the porch ceiling, prying a board loose, and falling to the ground. At least he couldn’t get back in that way.
When we redid the roof a couple of years later the only sign of him was his nest and his poop.
@pmarin There was a massive Catch 22 with the local agencies & racoons. Nobody wanted anything to do with it - DWR, police, animal control, etc.
Basically it boiled down to: We’ll loan you a live trap, but it’s your problem once you catch it. Nobody will take it, but you can’t kill it, and you can’t turn it loose.
And: You can go ahead and shoot it, but not in the city limits (Ok, I’ll just move my house). We won’t take a live one, but we will take a dead one - but you can’t kill it.
We’re from the government, we’re not here to help.
Cows. Since I don’t own any, it means they have broken through a neighbor’s fence again. And that means I have to start calling neighbors to see whose pasture lacks the proper number of bovines, as the cows are reticent to reveal their escape route. And they leave cow pies that I may not discover until I mow.
@rockblossom We had a similar problem with a neighbor’s cows a couple of years ago. Eventually, my wife was driving past his place on a dark, foggy, rainy night when his big black bull stepped out of the trees and onto the road and she hit it. Totalled the car, no humans injured, bull got up and walked away. After the neighbor’s insurance covered the damages, he got serious about fixing his fences and there have no more problems with rogue cattle (so far).
@rockblossom@tinamarie1974 The joys of country living. At least we are not on the east side of the state where it is “open range”. There, we would not only be responsible for the damages to our vehicle, but also for any damage to the wandering livestock.
@rockblossom I grew up in Queens NYC, but we lived near the last working farm in nyc. It was cow barns. The cows stayed in the barn (which was a city barn, nothing like in the country) their entire life. Somehow occasionally one would get out and walk down the street! We did know where she came from!
@rockblossom lol the neighbors pigs got out once and were roooting up my yard. I heard them and went out and was like what the f. I should get them their pigs back but… Idk how. They wandered on down the road while I went to try and get them. They were not home/on vacation. I think they got them back cause roaming pigs is abnormal up here but idk how.
@rockblossom sorry I have to correct this for the good of the fuck counter. It was what the fuck. Not what the f. Not sure what short circuited there. Something clearly fucking went fucking wrong. May @carl69 fucking forgive me.
@unksol Roaming pigs are not usual around here - now. In my childhood, razorbacks (the offspring of escaped Russian boars gone feral) were not that unusual in rural areas. We were taught to avoid them because they are big and attack for any reason. Or no reason other than catching your scent and being in a bad mood. There are still herds (passels?) of the Russians in the forests but they (thankfully) stay away from highways and houses. Hunters still occasionally get “treed” by a boar and have to spend the night in a hunters’ stand with a wild pig keeping vigil at the foot of the tree.
@rockblossom I just hear it’s a thing down south. States where they got out and bred and no hunting season. Kind of like your saying.
Northern indian. Not so much. There were some big ones but you know. Family raised pigs. Probably half a dozen. So they had to have been rounded up eventually. I just couldn’t shoo them back that way by myself. Too many/not fat enough to block the road.
Hunters still occasionally get “treed” by a boar and have to spend the night in a hunters’ stand with a wild pig keeping vigil at the foot of the tree.
Sounds like they are pretty bad at the whole “hunting” thing. We call people like that “Vegetarians”.
@mike808@rockblossom pretty sure he’s saying a boar got in under your stand and you can’t get a safe/ethical shot on him so. If you want to climb down and let him fuck you up go for it I guess.
@mike808@unksol Yeah. Hunters with permits for deer on public land. Boar can be killed on private land, but not in the national forest except during daylight hours in boar season, with a permit. So someone caught unexpectedly in a tree stand just has to wait for daylight to either kill the boar (assuming they have a permit) or wait for it to lose interest and leave. Confrontation is not a good choice because these piggies can easily knock over a human, and they are omnivores.
@rockblossom@unksol They could just call a cop. They shoot people whenever they fear for their lives at the drop of a pin. I don’t see them waiting for daylight or getting a permit, so don’t feel bad if you have to shoot a boar that is deserving of the Darwin award anyway.
Ranchers shoot endangered animals just for being on their property without a permit or any concern.
So don’t be too hard on hunters if they have to take out a boar being a dumbass with a human that can kill them. As a hunter, you should be able to find a delicious use for the wonderfully lean roasts, shoulder, and bacon from such an honorable foe in the woods.
@mike808@rockblossom not sure why you’re getting cops involved. Just a roungh day? I’m sure we and and DNR would agree not a big deal if you just shoot a boar in that instance and they are not protected more a nuisance.
Yes let’s have some pork. But If the fucker is directly under you though you may not be able to get a shot. And that would be… Embarrassing. And not something you would want to call the cops to for. Or your friends. Or you dropped your phone lol. I could see ways it could happen.
@yakkoTDI seems painful! I’m guessing its a big cactus and they just move around the thorns? I’m thinking of the little kind that are basically prickly everywhere.
Hmm lets see… of the things I have seen first hand - cool but scary was a Florida panther fishing off the end of our canoe - scary because I wasn’t sure if panthers run or attack when startled, the bear who got bear snot on my face sniffing me and the only thing between him and me was the screen of my backpacking tent (was at night and he woke me up), The gaitor who bit off the end of my canoe paddle and then went under the canoe bumping each and every notch in his back on the canoe keel - he was at least as long as the canoe and could have easily flipped it, the swarm of yellow jackets I got in when the person in front of me on the trail accidentally kicked up their nest, and - tah dah - the porcupine who was eating the outhouse at the rock climbing site the outward bound school I worked at used. If you forgot to kick the outside of it before you opened the door to get him to leave (through the hole he had chewed in the side of it, well sitting down would have not been a good idea as he generally was in there bridging the walls under the seat while chewing on the, apparently, salty wood.
Actually, thinking about it running into a scorpion (which I have never seen in real life yet) would be worse than running into rattle snakes, copperheads and water moccasins (seen all these multiple times up close while taking people camping for a living) since the snakes tend to not be aggressive even when coiled with their head swaying back and forth (an entire group of mine of 14 people once passed one doing that - I was at the end of the line and the only person who noticed the copperhead). You have to piss them off first. Scorpions I have heard attack with minimal provocation. Even bears tend not to attack unprovoked. Once when canoeing the Albany River in Canada near the James Bay we had a polar bear parallel us on the shore for ages watching us. That bear could have easily gotten into the water and swum out to eat once of us (they are the only animal in the world where we are considered prey).
@Kidsandliz Actually, I’d rather take my chances with a scorpion than any kind of venomous snake.
When I was stationed in the USAF in Abilene, Tx,
I was still getting acquainted with the place when I got stung by a scorpion that had taken up overnight residence in one of my issued chukkas. I didn’t realize it was inside until after I had stuck my foot in. Hurt a bunch, but I had no thoughts of needing to go to emergency care, which was not that far away. I did start looking inside my shoes every morning after that.
The open areas there had rattlers and copperheads; if one of those had got me, I would have definitely headed for the hospital there, ASAP! Kind of hard to have the attitude that, If I don’t bother it, it won’t bother me – because you can disturb one of those without even realizing it’s there.
you can disturb one of those without even realizing it’s there.
That is so true actually about snakes. I had students with me and we were stepping over log. Under that log was a rattler. I only knew it was there as I looked back to see how far back the end of the student line was. Oops.
When I got a zillion fire ants on me I ran into the swamp, gaitors and water moccasins be dammed (had seen the snake swimming around the boats when we got out) as I needed to drown the ants to get them off of me since I was getting a zillion bites. I figured my splashing would scare them away. I hoped anyway.
@phendrick Seriously on the fire ants. They hurt as much as bee stings and you usually don’t get just one, rather bunches at once since they swarm (this info for the uninformed). In undisturbed areas the ant hill can be several feet high. The one that got me in the swamp was probably close to 3’ tall, on the opposite side of a big huge tree so I didn’t see it, I sat down on the ground and got swarmed.
Fire ants, while a bit reddish brown are, size wise, the same as the tiny black ants. You have to learn to look for them. Nasty critters. I usually get cellulitis each time I get a fire ant bite as well.
Click the link to see photo (warning…may cause nightmares)
The palo Verde beetle because:
It flies
Comes out in the evening or daytime
Can be 5 inches long
Antennae are as long as the body
The body is like a flying purple pepper
They stick to things they land on…
Found in Arizona, comes out of ground during the monsoon rains
I’m very glad we don’t have coyotes yet. There was one about 5 miles from here. I guess he walked across the bridge to Long Island from the mainland. They eat dogs and other animals and aren’t safe for humans either.
@smilingjack There was one in my sister’s neighborhood a few years ago, well within city limits - she saw it while walking her dog and was telling her housemate about it as she got to the door, and her housemate said “IT’S BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW!” It was right there on the sidewalk!
@TheCO2 Yeah definitely hornets.
Bears are normal neighbors in Asheville NC. My outdoor camera got an image this evening of a bear cub running through the front yard. Usually there is a mother and two cubs. Last time about a week ago the cubs were trying to climb a big tree trunk but couldn’t do it, then the two cubs started wrestling with each other as kids will do, then the mother had to come back and tell them to knock it off. The bears in the neighborhood are not violent animals unless provoked, and are used to living within city limits with humans. Their main prey is garbage cans. I actually think they may know the weekly schedule for garbage pickup when people put out their cans.
@pmarin It sounds like you’re getting your moneys worth out of that camera.
When I was growing up, my grandma had a log cabin in Moose WY. (Not far from Jackson) We always had to keep the trash can lids strapped down so the bears would stay out. I never saw one in the yard, but I saw evidence a couple times.
I never saw one in the yard, but I saw evidence a couple times.
Same here - a plum tree, loaded with plums one day, stripped the next, and a big pile of bear scat in my yard. I did cross paths with a bear down the street two different times but they were just as wary of me and ran off.
Dang woodchuck! I’m pretty sure I smoked out the last one that dug out under my shed, but they’re vicious about protecting their territory, and I have two little kids to worry about. The skunks run and hide when we go outside, though they’re nasty little diggers. They’re also why I don’t TNR the cats in the neighborhood.
@fuzzmanmatt my ground hogs are just about. Not vicious? That is a new one. They run back to their den at the door opening. Not thrilled about the one that dug under the garage and cracked the cement. But eh. I’ll fill that back in.
Usually I would use a haveahart live trap if I thought they were a problem. But it they are vicious/a real problem… And you can’t relocate. Just shoot them.
We tried a bunch to get a big old wood chuch out of my friends dad’s shed. Smoking out etc. Sometimes it takes a 12 gauge
Homeowner’s Association yard inspector.
@werehatrack hmm… Never seen one of those
@werehatrack Or their friend, the public works municipal code enforcement officer. Or their other friend, the Architectural Review Board member.
@mike808 @werehatrack worst I get is maybe a county accesor when I contest my property taxes and they are supposed to schedule and I asked for it so. Meh.
I should pull a home owner permit and get them to sign off on some things when I get to them but again asking for it.
No one is going to just show up and pitch a fit. That would be highly annoying. Then again I don’t plan to violate county code. Home owners BS though… Eww. But you signed on. So idk
@werehatrack Got threatening letters saying our gutters were too full. Fuckers.
@werehatrack
Why are you trying to convince the assessor that your property is really shittier than what they assessed it at? They don’t single people out. And when you (or your heirs) go to sell it, are you going to lower your asking price to match your lowered tax assessment base?
This is why municipalities don’t have funds to pay cips, firemen, have good schools, fix potholes in streets (@kidsandliz).
/image tax fraud much?
@mike808 @werehatrack Where I live home owners contesting home value is NOT why we don’t have the potholes fixed. Recently (as in last year) the city got something like $32 million in money from the company who installed the screwed up water meters when they won a lawsuit. No one seems to know (admit to know) where that money went. Not on fixing the water meters that is for sure, but seriously, not one person can tell anyone how that money was spent or if is was still in the bank. Nepotism, kickbacks, embezzlement (a couple of years 4.3 million was embezzled from SNAP, TANF by about a 6 or 7 employees at the top administrative level)… that is where all our money goes.
And our tax base is in the toilet - all the state (it’s the capital) and city buildings, state university, state hospital and medical school… and then the majority of the ghetto for the surrounding area (eg technically other cities) is here too. Oh and businesses are moving out due to failure of the police to even respond to 911 calls and/or failure to even respond. They often don’t even pick up due to a shortage of employees.
@Kidsandliz @mike808 @werehatrack because the county assessor is required by state law to use fair market resale value. And when they access your house they can’t do that. They use generic metrics. So when they access your home to have appreciated by 50% in two years after you already let another 50% slide and your home is easily not worth any where near what they guesstimated and you could never sell it for that and they massively hike your taxes you have the right to correct them. Tax fraud? Trump? Wtf?
I’m aware in some places home prices have soared but this is not that market. If someone wanted to offer me the accessed value id seriously consider it and they would be massively overpaying but again not that kind of market here.
That has nothing to do with funding that’s just balance and if they need more than raise the property tax rate across the board or raise the county income tax but that’s a whole nother thing. They aren’t short on cash we don’t have problems.
I don’t live in a city. We don’t have those issues. Or most of those services. We have a volunteer fire department. It’s county/schools/library/township and the taxes are fine. I know where it goes and yeah I never needed the sheriff and I don’t have kids but I’m well aware of the value of those things. I get cities are different and have way more issues but geez. Judgy much?
@Kidsandliz @unksol @werehatrack
So you’re basically accusing the assessor of fraud or incompetence? Why do you keep electing such unqualified people to a position that requires some qualified notion of quantifying “fair market value”?
Is the assessor uniformly mis-calculating home values across the county or just singling your property out for “special” bonus valuation?
@mike808 you’re being extremely strange about this. The county accessor has general stats about homes they have to systematically apply a broad brush across the whole county as to what things are probably worth based on square footage and acerage and finish level. They can’t visit all those homes. And they don’t. They have a very specific manual and rules set by state laws.
They happened to have overvalued my home compared to others because of a number of reasons. It would not sell for what they access.
No one said anything about anyone being corrupt or targeting. Or… idk what your issue is? Maybe you have only ever lived in cities or…
I have a right to appeal the standard model and talk to them. They can set a visit to look at the house. If we don’t agree it can go to the county board and they can decide. I can provide proof. They by law have to provide evidence of their evaluation if it’s more than 5% over last year. It’s been 25% the last 2 years.
This is just standard practice with property taxes on an owner occupied home. No one’s sueing anyone it’s just a request for review so idk why you’re being an ass about me asking them to do something that is literally their job.
If your property taxes on you home jumped 50% for no reason I would hope you would look at why.
Already established you live in a city. Maybe you have cookie cutter homes in a subdivision and they should all be valued the same. That is not the the case in many places. The place a mile down the road might have similar specs on paper but be way nicer and worth way more and there might only be 10 houses in that mile.
@mike808 @unksol
Maybe he’s an assessor…
@mike808 why the heck would @unksol want to pay too much in property taxes? The accessor doesn’t go into your home to see what it is like inside the way a realtor does to assess the appropriate selling value. If someone doesn’t have all the information, or information that would affect property values then why the heck shouldn’t it get re-assessed? To have it double if you haven’t done anything to the house, like add on, to justify that, at a minimum unksol needs to know why there was a sudden skyrocket in assessed value.
The garden crews who come with their ultra loud mowers, blowers and weedwackers to do my rich neighbors’ yards.
@Kyeh
At 7:01AM. On a Monday. On a three-day-weekend Monday. (And they blow the neighbor’s leaves under your car, too.)
@werehatrack
DO YOU LIVE ON MY STREET?!!!
My neighbor.
Alligators. They don’t even live around here, but they still scare me.
@zhicks1987 I’m in Florida and they do live here and I know there have been sightings of alligators in the lake but I personally haven’t seen any in the 35 years living in this state. I’m not too worried about them.
@cengland0 @zhicks1987
https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/alligator-caught-in-whitley-county-lake/
Older
https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/hancock-county/three-foot-long-crocodile-found-in-brandywine-creek-in-hancock-county
Mosquitoes. I can avoid bears. Everything else is fine.
All mosquitoes can die.
Hornets were actually pretty cool.
Methew, the local dumpster diving, garage-breaking-into tweaker.
The ones you can’t see coming from any direction in 3D space.
So many things, but I’ll go with the door to door religious people. Because they want to talk. At least animals and bugs are usually quiet.
Skunk. But lately I can’t tell if it’s that or my neighbors smoking.
@tweezak but they’re so cute!! We have skunks here every night. And before you say it, my dog got sprayed in my back yard a week ago, but i still think theyre cute as hell.
@jnicholson0619 @tweezak Skunks, with their cute Pepe LePew stripes, carry rabies. Be sure your dog stays up to date on his vaccinations. And stock up on tomato juice for post-spray baths. My daughter was sent home from work after her dog was sprayed. Lol
@dyounghbic @jnicholson0619 I’m so glad that we don’t have skunks in our neighborhood. There were plenty of them around our last house and they had several encounters with my dog (who never seemed to learn her lesson).
@jnicholson0619 @tweezak they are adorable. There was one with a litter at the mall of all places years ago for a bit so I was a little cautious opening doors and letting tenents in in the morning so I didn’t spook/corner them but they didn’t bother anyone. Just moved along back to wherever they were sleeping by morning. I have pics but they must be on the computer
A dog… I could see being an issue but they didn’t seem to mind me.
@jnicholson0619 @tweezak
@jnicholson0619 @tweezak @unksol oh my gosh they are sooooooo cute!!!
Not at the moment but occasionally when I am on walks in the subdivision I run across a family of skunk. Of course you don’t want to get close, but they are so adorable!!
@jnicholson0619 @tinamarie1974 @tweezak they are cuter if you crank the brightness up at least on mine. I usually am in dark mode and 20% brightness
And those were somewhere in 2010-2013 before phones did low light but they pop.
One of my great joys in life is watching videos of raccoons getting water soluble treats and running to wash them, only to have them disappear. We have a long adversarial history.
@simplersimon Meanie LOL
@simplersimon Second that LOL
@Kidsandliz @simplersimon I mean he didn’t say he did it. He just… Seekes out that weird thing and watches… Thin line though
@Kidsandliz @unksol I don’t necessarily seek it. It just pops up in my social media feeds, I like or upvote or whatever, and then the blursed algorithms find me more.
@Kidsandliz @simplersimon so your “friends” are meanies and you are “into” it?
Not going to lie I want to Google for it but I just shouldn’t
Sharks.
If I look outside and see sharks (or pretty much any fish), I know it’s going to be a rough day. Especially since my house is at about 400’ altitude.
@mehcuda67 Imagine the shark problem I’d have at 4500’.
@mehcuda67
/giphy land-shark
@mehcuda67
/giphy sharknado
@mehcuda67
/giphy Sharknado2
@mehcuda67 @unksol
/giphy sharknado3 Oh hell no!
I have seen every one of these outside and bears were definitely the most concerning.
@endi1276 Seeing a baby bear would be most concerning. Where’s momma?
@blaineg @endi1276 We have friends who have summer homes in the mountains of NC. General rule of thumb is if you don’t get between momma bear and baby bear you should be OK. In recent years, several momma bears have been popping out more than one cub. So now it’s making sure you don’t get between any cub and momma. And cubs are curious, and people are interesting. Definitely raises the bar.
Fart squirrel
My neighbor…as soon as he sees me outside he heads over…he’s a older guy and loves to gossip…that’s just not my thing…but I can’t be rude …so I quick get back inside or jump in my car. It’s ridiculous that I hide from an 80 year old man…lol
@sweetjoey maybe he’s lonely?
@sweetjoey @unksol If you are jumping in your car, maybe you could offer him a ride to a nearby assisted/independent living place or VFW hall for a day visit and pick him up an hour or two later or when you return from wherever you were going in your car.
Red velvet ant.
Which isn’t an ant, but is a wingless wasp with a powerfully painful sting.
/image red velvet ant
@Euniceandrich eek thats scary. but kind-of cute.
@Euniceandrich @pmarin
They’re about an inch long, and have no sense of humor. We have them here. Fortunately, they are mostly solitary.
@Euniceandrich @pmarin @werehatrack Actually, with a name like that, it sounds kind of tasty. Maybe that’s why they don’t have a sense of humor.
Depends on where.
In my yard: the neighbor’s dogs that run around unsupervised and bark aggressively at everyone and shit in everyone’s yard.
In the woods: a bear with cubs
@kittykat9180 maybe the dog will meet the bear
I found a hornets’ nest the hard way a couple days ago. I got my revenge with enough Spectracide to start my own Superfund site.
@dannybeans Peppermint oil in water with a spritz of dish soap - preferably in a sprayer with a long reach. Spray at night and coat the nest. (If you need to use a flashlight, place it somewhere away from where you are, as disturbed hornets will go directly to the beam of light.) The spray will leave a little pile of minty fresh vespid corpses.
I had a racoon take up residence inside my roof. He was exceptionally hard to get rid of, and I don’t see much that’s cute about trash pandas anymore.
@blaineg I had same thing happen. Learned that often pregnant females will look for a secure place like that to raise their « kits » I guess they are called. Asked some people and best was idea was let her be, they will move out once kits are weaned. Sure enough, that is what happened a few months later, and then I got the roof soffit repaired that had been removed for some other stuff and left open, which is how she got in in the first place.
@pmarin I accidentally did a Cask of Amontillado on ours. We hadn’t seen or heard him for several days, so I plugged the hole he was using. And he was still in there. Oops.
He wound up chewing a hole in the porch ceiling, prying a board loose, and falling to the ground. At least he couldn’t get back in that way.
When we redid the roof a couple of years later the only sign of him was his nest and his poop.
@pmarin There was a massive Catch 22 with the local agencies & racoons. Nobody wanted anything to do with it - DWR, police, animal control, etc.
Basically it boiled down to: We’ll loan you a live trap, but it’s your problem once you catch it. Nobody will take it, but you can’t kill it, and you can’t turn it loose.
And: You can go ahead and shoot it, but not in the city limits (Ok, I’ll just move my house). We won’t take a live one, but we will take a dead one - but you can’t kill it.
We’re from the government, we’re not here to help.
Cows. Since I don’t own any, it means they have broken through a neighbor’s fence again. And that means I have to start calling neighbors to see whose pasture lacks the proper number of bovines, as the cows are reticent to reveal their escape route. And they leave cow pies that I may not discover until I mow.
@rockblossom We had a similar problem with a neighbor’s cows a couple of years ago. Eventually, my wife was driving past his place on a dark, foggy, rainy night when his big black bull stepped out of the trees and onto the road and she hit it. Totalled the car, no humans injured, bull got up and walked away. After the neighbor’s insurance covered the damages, he got serious about fixing his fences and there have no more problems with rogue cattle (so far).
@macromeh @rockblossom
@rockblossom @tinamarie1974 The joys of country living. At least we are not on the east side of the state where it is “open range”. There, we would not only be responsible for the damages to our vehicle, but also for any damage to the wandering livestock.
@rockblossom I grew up in Queens NYC, but we lived near the last working farm in nyc. It was cow barns. The cows stayed in the barn (which was a city barn, nothing like in the country) their entire life. Somehow occasionally one would get out and walk down the street! We did know where she came from!
@rockblossom lol the neighbors pigs got out once and were roooting up my yard. I heard them and went out and was like what the f. I should get them their pigs back but… Idk how. They wandered on down the road while I went to try and get them. They were not home/on vacation. I think they got them back cause roaming pigs is abnormal up here but idk how.
@rockblossom sorry I have to correct this for the good of the fuck counter. It was what the fuck. Not what the f. Not sure what short circuited there. Something clearly fucking went fucking wrong. May @carl69 fucking forgive me.
@unksol Roaming pigs are not usual around here - now. In my childhood, razorbacks (the offspring of escaped Russian boars gone feral) were not that unusual in rural areas. We were taught to avoid them because they are big and attack for any reason. Or no reason other than catching your scent and being in a bad mood. There are still herds (passels?) of the Russians in the forests but they (thankfully) stay away from highways and houses. Hunters still occasionally get “treed” by a boar and have to spend the night in a hunters’ stand with a wild pig keeping vigil at the foot of the tree.
@rockblossom I just hear it’s a thing down south. States where they got out and bred and no hunting season. Kind of like your saying.
Northern indian. Not so much. There were some big ones but you know. Family raised pigs. Probably half a dozen. So they had to have been rounded up eventually. I just couldn’t shoo them back that way by myself. Too many/not fat enough to block the road.
@rockblossom @unksol
Sounds like they are pretty bad at the whole “hunting” thing. We call people like that “Vegetarians”.
@mike808 @rockblossom pretty sure he’s saying a boar got in under your stand and you can’t get a safe/ethical shot on him so. If you want to climb down and let him fuck you up go for it I guess.
@mike808 @unksol Yeah. Hunters with permits for deer on public land. Boar can be killed on private land, but not in the national forest except during daylight hours in boar season, with a permit. So someone caught unexpectedly in a tree stand just has to wait for daylight to either kill the boar (assuming they have a permit) or wait for it to lose interest and leave. Confrontation is not a good choice because these piggies can easily knock over a human, and they are omnivores.
@mike808 @rockblossom feed em to the pigs ain’t a joke
@rockblossom @unksol They could just call a cop. They shoot people whenever they fear for their lives at the drop of a pin. I don’t see them waiting for daylight or getting a permit, so don’t feel bad if you have to shoot a boar that is deserving of the Darwin award anyway.
Ranchers shoot endangered animals just for being on their property without a permit or any concern.
So don’t be too hard on hunters if they have to take out a boar being a dumbass with a human that can kill them. As a hunter, you should be able to find a delicious use for the wonderfully lean roasts, shoulder, and bacon from such an honorable foe in the woods.
@mike808 @rockblossom not sure why you’re getting cops involved. Just a roungh day? I’m sure we and and DNR would agree not a big deal if you just shoot a boar in that instance and they are not protected more a nuisance.
Yes let’s have some pork. But If the fucker is directly under you though you may not be able to get a shot. And that would be… Embarrassing. And not something you would want to call the cops to for. Or your friends. Or you dropped your phone lol. I could see ways it could happen.
I hate raccoons, the flea-ridden, disease-carrying little jerks. But hornets are evil.
Cane toads. Toxic to pets
/image cane toad
A skunk those are what I hate to come across, especially when I out with my dog.
The snails that keep trying to eat my cactus.
And lately all the rain that keeps trying to drown my cactus.
@yakkoTDI seems painful! I’m guessing its a big cactus and they just move around the thorns? I’m thinking of the little kind that are basically prickly everywhere.
Hmm lets see… of the things I have seen first hand - cool but scary was a Florida panther fishing off the end of our canoe - scary because I wasn’t sure if panthers run or attack when startled, the bear who got bear snot on my face sniffing me and the only thing between him and me was the screen of my backpacking tent (was at night and he woke me up), The gaitor who bit off the end of my canoe paddle and then went under the canoe bumping each and every notch in his back on the canoe keel - he was at least as long as the canoe and could have easily flipped it, the swarm of yellow jackets I got in when the person in front of me on the trail accidentally kicked up their nest, and - tah dah - the porcupine who was eating the outhouse at the rock climbing site the outward bound school I worked at used. If you forgot to kick the outside of it before you opened the door to get him to leave (through the hole he had chewed in the side of it, well sitting down would have not been a good idea as he generally was in there bridging the walls under the seat while chewing on the, apparently, salty wood.
Actually, thinking about it running into a scorpion (which I have never seen in real life yet) would be worse than running into rattle snakes, copperheads and water moccasins (seen all these multiple times up close while taking people camping for a living) since the snakes tend to not be aggressive even when coiled with their head swaying back and forth (an entire group of mine of 14 people once passed one doing that - I was at the end of the line and the only person who noticed the copperhead). You have to piss them off first. Scorpions I have heard attack with minimal provocation. Even bears tend not to attack unprovoked. Once when canoeing the Albany River in Canada near the James Bay we had a polar bear parallel us on the shore for ages watching us. That bear could have easily gotten into the water and swum out to eat once of us (they are the only animal in the world where we are considered prey).
@Kidsandliz Actually, I’d rather take my chances with a scorpion than any kind of venomous snake.
When I was stationed in the USAF in Abilene, Tx,
I was still getting acquainted with the place when I got stung by a scorpion that had taken up overnight residence in one of my issued chukkas. I didn’t realize it was inside until after I had stuck my foot in. Hurt a bunch, but I had no thoughts of needing to go to emergency care, which was not that far away. I did start looking inside my shoes every morning after that.
The open areas there had rattlers and copperheads; if one of those had got me, I would have definitely headed for the hospital there, ASAP! Kind of hard to have the attitude that, If I don’t bother it, it won’t bother me – because you can disturb one of those without even realizing it’s there.
@phendrick
That is so true actually about snakes. I had students with me and we were stepping over log. Under that log was a rattler. I only knew it was there as I looked back to see how far back the end of the student line was. Oops.
When I got a zillion fire ants on me I ran into the swamp, gaitors and water moccasins be dammed (had seen the snake swimming around the boats when we got out) as I needed to drown the ants to get them off of me since I was getting a zillion bites. I figured my splashing would scare them away. I hoped anyway.
@Kidsandliz How’d fire ants not make it onto this list?
Damned YankeesOur northern neighbors don’t know what they are missing.@phendrick Seriously on the fire ants. They hurt as much as bee stings and you usually don’t get just one, rather bunches at once since they swarm (this info for the uninformed). In undisturbed areas the ant hill can be several feet high. The one that got me in the swamp was probably close to 3’ tall, on the opposite side of a big huge tree so I didn’t see it, I sat down on the ground and got swarmed.
Fire ants, while a bit reddish brown are, size wise, the same as the tiny black ants. You have to learn to look for them. Nasty critters. I usually get cellulitis each time I get a fire ant bite as well.
https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TfINigvT0kxYPQSLEjMyVcoSy1KSVVISk0tyUkFAJzECmA&q=palo+verde+beetle&oq=palo+verde+&aqs=chrome.1.69i59j46i39j69i57j46i433i512j0i20i263i512.5292j0j9&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Click the link to see photo (warning…may cause nightmares)
The palo Verde beetle because:
It flies
Comes out in the evening or daytime
Can be 5 inches long
Antennae are as long as the body
The body is like a flying purple pepper
They stick to things they land on…
Found in Arizona, comes out of ground during the monsoon rains
<just freaking gross>
@Colbyone21
/giphy just-freaking-gross
I’m very glad we don’t have coyotes yet. There was one about 5 miles from here. I guess he walked across the bridge to Long Island from the mainland. They eat dogs and other animals and aren’t safe for humans either.
@smilingjack There was one in my sister’s neighborhood a few years ago, well within city limits - she saw it while walking her dog and was telling her housemate about it as she got to the door, and her housemate said “IT’S BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW!” It was right there on the sidewalk!
/giphy Shia LaBeouf
Tax collectors
I have been stung by hornets 8 times between this summer and last (3 different occasions). I don’t think Bears are the problem.
@TheCO2 Yeah definitely hornets.
Bears are normal neighbors in Asheville NC. My outdoor camera got an image this evening of a bear cub running through the front yard. Usually there is a mother and two cubs. Last time about a week ago the cubs were trying to climb a big tree trunk but couldn’t do it, then the two cubs started wrestling with each other as kids will do, then the mother had to come back and tell them to knock it off. The bears in the neighborhood are not violent animals unless provoked, and are used to living within city limits with humans. Their main prey is garbage cans. I actually think they may know the weekly schedule for garbage pickup when people put out their cans.
@pmarin It sounds like you’re getting your moneys worth out of that camera.
When I was growing up, my grandma had a log cabin in Moose WY. (Not far from Jackson) We always had to keep the trash can lids strapped down so the bears would stay out. I never saw one in the yard, but I saw evidence a couple times.
@pmarin @TheCO2 so are you gonna share the videos? They sound pretty cute!!
@pmarin @TheCO2 @tinamarie1974
Same here - a plum tree, loaded with plums one day, stripped the next, and a big pile of bear scat in my yard. I did cross paths with a bear down the street two different times but they were just as wary of me and ran off.
@TheCO2 @tinamarie1974 couldn’t find a way to post a video. but got a screen image.
@pmarin @TheCO2 @tinamarie1974
Oh, they’re tiny!
@Kyeh @pmarin @tinamarie1974 A plum tree sounds like a feast. I can just picture them bringing in bags to take them with.
@pmarin @TheCO2 @tinamarie1974
I kind of think they devoured them all on the spot!
@pmarin @TheCO2 aww thank you, they are adorable and so tiny!!!
Dang woodchuck! I’m pretty sure I smoked out the last one that dug out under my shed, but they’re vicious about protecting their territory, and I have two little kids to worry about. The skunks run and hide when we go outside, though they’re nasty little diggers. They’re also why I don’t TNR the cats in the neighborhood.
@fuzzmanmatt my ground hogs are just about. Not vicious? That is a new one. They run back to their den at the door opening. Not thrilled about the one that dug under the garage and cracked the cement. But eh. I’ll fill that back in.
Usually I would use a haveahart live trap if I thought they were a problem. But it they are vicious/a real problem… And you can’t relocate. Just shoot them.
We tried a bunch to get a big old wood chuch out of my friends dad’s shed. Smoking out etc. Sometimes it takes a 12 gauge
I’ve woken to this sound once in a while…