Gilda

We have an acre of lakefront property. On one side is a lot that's been left purposely undeveloped, in betweeen our property and our neighbors, which is half theirs and half ours, and the other butts up against the common wooded area, which is much larger, maybe a few hundred acres, which in turn borders a state forest. If we walk down through our back yard, there's a path that runs along the edge of the lake through all of the properties there that the residents can use to walk along the lake and visit neighbors, and we have our own private dock and a little gazebo there.

We can't see our neighbors' house from our property, but if we walk through the woods in between, we're always withing sight of one house or another. In the common wooded area, it would be easy to lose sight of the homes, though the fence or the access road would both be easy to find with a little walking.

That's good to hear. I want to make it clear that this wasn't intended as an insult to all hunters, not to those who follow the rules, just to the jerks who hop fences and hunt illegally. It just makes no sense. Why endanger other people's lives so you can have a little fun?

The part that confounds me is the warning to wear bright clothing, and especially don't go walking wearing the brown leather jacket grace usually sports in cool weather. How could anyone be so stupid or blind that they can't see the difference between a grown woman over five feet tall, and a bird that's maybe a foot tall? You'd think that in the time it takes to line up a good shot, it would be easy to recognize the difference between a person and a bird, if only based on size.

I also find the "during hunting season" part strange. The jerks that are doing this are already breaking the law, and more importantly, endangering people's lives, by hunting on someone else's property. Are they really going to care about something like hunting out of season? This was one that the security guy answered, though with a non-answer, and that was that the trespassing incidents have always occurred during hunting season.

We do intend to be careful, and stay in our yard during hunting seasons (which seem to occur for various animals during maybe half the year here), so the bright colors won't come into play, and will call security to come take care of trespassers. We've already had to do that once. We came out to walk down to the gazebo and watch some ducks on the lake, and found some teenagers sitting on our dock fishing. Grace called security, and they showed up in less than five minutes and chased the boys off. We were warned to always call security, and never try to handle it ourselves, not because these particular kids were dangerous, but because then the kids will be pissed off at security and not at us, and others might be dangerous.

Yeah, we'll be careful, but it still pisses me off that we have to be, and that a small number of jerks can basically take over what is supposed to be something that is for our peaceful enjoyment, and we have to just accommodate them.

I thought living out of the city would be safer because there'd be no gangs.

Gilda