Depressing Day

[mike7mm08]

Been on kind of a low stretch last six months or so since my dad passed. Today was a depressing one.

My dad was my hunting and fishing partner. For about a decade we had permission to hunt a rather large property. Shot lots of deer and turkeys and just in general enjoyed a lot of good times. Unfortunately things went sideways due to owners family fighting and we lost our permission few years back.
Was in the area today and reminiscing and drove around the property. Even thought about saying to heck with it and driving in a few spots as no one lives on the property.

Well property has been divided and sold off. Roads are going in woods are being cut down. Old farmhouses that me and dad had done work on are leveled. Just a real kick in the gut. Granted we got the boot but knowing that what was basically paradise for a lot of years was gone really pushed me down even lower.

Just wanted to sit in the truck and watch a wooded hillside above a field before dark. Deer always come down it right before dark into the field. Dad shot a lot of deer there. Today that hillside has a driveway running through it and some bulldozers parked on it.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Know exactly what you mean.

My dad has been gone for near twenty years. After reading your post, just for grins,
I went and looked at where we built a house, in 1960. - - - That one cost us $11K,
for the land, the house, a well, and the septic system.

We were a quarter mile away from anyone else. Now, the "city" sewage processing
plant is a few hundred feet North and across the street. Next door was an open lot,
one acre, that sold a very few years back for $100K. - - - The total number of
houses has far more than tripled.

The total number of houses for sale in the entire valley is two. One, on what is
called the Mesa, is up for $850K, and the other is across the river and was known
as the Osgood Mansion (Osgood built it in 1900 - It is 15 bed [YES fifteen], 19
bath and over twenty five thousand square feet) for sixteen point nine million.

When I was a kid there (one of about a dozen) I could grab my .22 and go for a
walk. You would get many a wave and how is it going Pat, from the neighbors.
I get the impression that dozens of the current residents would go into cardiac
arrest, were you to try that now.

Still BEAUTIFUL country, but it has become WAY over run with people I would
not want to live near.
(did spend a day in the area, on foot, looking at the mess, about a decade ago)

 

[Gator89]

The Pillagers have destroyed my ancestral homeland.

https://www.thevillages.com

 

[Mobuck]

It's that way everywhere. Yesterday afternoon, Son drove Grouch Attack and myself to one of her distant relative's cemetery plot to make sure it was cleaned up before Memorial Day. Granted, I hadn't been on that road for 20 years or so but the changes were a big surprise. The homestead that was one of the nicest in that area had a pile of rubble in the front yard(appeared to be the clean out after a scruffy renter had left) and was a run down derelict place. Just up the road was a newish place and a hunting cabin that none of us even knew was there. Later we stopped at another cemetery and GA commented on the "XYZ" house. Well that wasn't the XYZ house, it was a newer homestead that had sprung up since the last time we'd been on that road. When I'm allowed to drive for work I notice the new residences which have popped up literally overnight and this is disturbing since that spot is no longer productive land or even hunting land. I was talking to a total stranger last week and he had some very well phrased comments about how the MidWest is being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of "live in the country" commuters. I commented here recently about a "new neighbor" who's planning to build a house within 250 yards of mine. I've lived here 41 years and appreciate not having another house within a mile and now I'm going to have "city folks" within hearing distance. They've already "landscaped" and planted bushes in the county road right of way, made comments about our livestock guard dogs threatening their puffball city pooches, and even though I've made attempts to be friendly they turn their backs as we drive past. It's not good.

 

[contender]

That same sad story has been happening across this whole country for a long time. As the population grows, more people want homes. Plus, many folks have "disposable income" and desire a second home. (Or a 3rd, 4th etc.)
Try living in a very beautiful area, desired by many, and watch property sizes shrink as the prices increase. I see it daily & have all my life.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Yeah; Ashley and I bought our place in 2007 near Zephyrhills, FL; Now the area is being over run with housing developments going in, trees cut down and land graded flat; prices on signs START at the "low" $200K and go up from there. One area which was open pasture land and trees now has State Road 56 through it and an article in the local cat box liner said the area on both sides of the road was scheduled for 3415 homes. Traffic on the local roads has gotten terrible and most of it is due to "Snowbirds" from up North and the upper midwest fleeing the leftist politicians and socialist laws they voted for over the years. This area will slowly go down the drain. Only reason I stay is the mortgage on my home and the near access to the Haley VA Hospital.
Ashley would have been wanting to move to ??? but obviously all the good areas are sinking.

 

[powder smoke]

The only thing that stays the same is Things Change! ps

 

[Uncle Howie]

My father in law comments on this, constantly. He “can’t understand where all the people come from!”

After a few years, I had enough of his harping on the subject, and politely TOLD him where all the people come from... they come from folks like him, who had five kids.

His own family growing up had either 10 or 12 kids, but that was a farm family, in a very different time...

My wife and I have no kids, and have had three (spayed/neutered) dogs, two of which were rescues from the pound. :mrgreen:

As per the recently posted “Pogo” quote, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

 

[Bob Wright]

Do not remain depressed, by all means. Preserve, cherish fond memories. Memories are our teachers, instructors, mentors.

As for me, being a Christian, I live with the truth that I will be united with loved ones who have gone before me. God will wipe away every tear, every pain, every sorrow. All things will be made new. Thank God that you have those precious memories.

Bob Wright

 

[bogus bill]

I was raised in central Wisconsin in 40`s to early 60`s. In late 80`s I flew home and took my dad
up for a ride over land we had hunted. Now there were houses all over hidden by trees between them
and the county roads. It just made him mad.
On the other side of the coin I imagine the area Indians said there go`s the neighborhood in the1840`s.

 

[Carrij]

Yeah; Ashley and I bought our place in 2007 near Zephyrhills, FL; Now the area is being over run with housing developments going in, trees cut down and land graded flat; prices on signs START at the "low" $200K and go up from there. One area which was open pasture land and trees now has State Road 56 through it and an article in the local cat box liner said the area on both sides of the road was scheduled for 3415 homes. Traffic on the local roads has gotten terrible and most of it is due to "Snowbirds" from up North and the upper midwest fleeing the leftist politicians and socialist laws they voted for over the years. This area will slowly go down the drain. Only reason I stay is the mortgage on my home and the near access to the Haley VA Hospital.
Ashley would have been wanting to move to ??? but obviously all the good areas are sinking.

I hear that! Went up to Dade City last Wednesday to put a high toilet in for some friends, Charlie is wheelchair bound, and could not believe how much road construction and new housing was going on. Just getting to and from Lowe’s was a nightmare and this was mid week. I live near Fort Myers/Cape Coral and find it hard to believe how much it has changed in the last eighteen years.

 

[GA Cracker]

Mobuck city folk don't know how to be country neighbors and what that lifestyle is about.

Sunday, yesterday the 23rd, was my dad's birthday gone now 4 years. He would have been 86. He was my hero that beat my butt and taught me how to work and made me work and gave me the common sense and skills to be successful in life. He set an example of honesty and integrity and doing the right thing and he worked HARD 6 days a week until he was 68 and was just worn completely out. He ached and hurt and his body was pitiful but he never ever complained. He would not ask you to get him more tea or anything he needed and would start getting up to do for himself until I jumped up to get it for him. I bathed him daily the last ten months and the 3 weeks at the hospital and hospice I would go every evening at 8 pm and leave at lunch the next day. I never slept one minute during that time and we had great talks when he was able. I told him he would not die alone and I meant it.
You have honored your father spending time with him this day. Your dad would thank you and tell you son when things get tough my blood flows in your veins. We had each other and I love you and I don't want you to be depressed for me but honor the fact we had such a nice place to spend time together and made memories you can keep until death. We can't help people spoiled our special place but you can remember it just as we shared it in our times together. Enjoy those memories and honor me and our life together and please try not to let it depress you.

 

[turd]

You have honored your father spending time with him this day. Your dad would thank you and tell you son when things get tough my blood flows in your veins. We had each other and I love you and I don't want you to be depressed for me but honor the fact we had such a nice place to spend time together and made memories you can keep until death. We can't help people spoiled our special place but you can remember it just as we shared it in our times together. Enjoy those memories and honor me and our life together and please try not to let it depress you.

Thank you, GA Cracker, I needed that. My dad died just about 6 weeks ago and I think of him every day, remembering the things we built, places we went and hunting and fishing lessons from the best. Thank you.

 

[GA Cracker]

Turd,
You will always think of him and enjoy those memories. My dad built a 40x90 sheet metal building cabinet shop 100 yards from our home when I was 10 turning 11 in June. That summer he made me work 10 hours a day 6 days a week drinking a RC Cola at 10AM and 3 PM each day. After school 4 Ritz crackers and a glass of milk when we got off the school bus before going to work. I am sure as a kid I said things and I cussed to myself and griped about working. We had to garden and pick up about 25 pecan trees and take turn cutting grass 45 minutes at a time with a 22 inch push mower in our Bahia grass yard.
But you know now when I go in my fully equipped shop to work I get overwhelmed when I wonder how many drops of sweat he left in that concrete floor and I am thankful he made me work. At first I wanted to cry after his death but now I remember and celebrate his life and I am so thankful he worked so hard to provide for his family.
It will hurt and it will be tender in your heart and times it will overwhelm you but just remember him and be thankful his blood flows in your veins. You know if he was alive just what he would say to you. Meditate on that and say the words you believe he would tell you so you can hear yourself speak them out loud and then act on what you believe he would say!

 

[OVERLOADDED]

It is not, just the subdivision of the sections, it is the greed of the local landowners, who sign 30 year leases with green energy companies. These companies level the ground build roads across the sections, clear cut the ground for turbines and powerlines. Then plant these Industrial Wind Turbines 575 yards from my back door, and another one 1,006 yards from my back door, with a total of 19 within a radius of 3 miles! Lots of noise, day and night, shadow f!icker, and red flashing lights at night!
The local and remote landowners traded their rights to their own land for shiny beads and a few dollars, with no thought for their neighbors comfort! Overloadded

 

[Mobuck]

"The local and remote landowners traded their rights to their own land for shiny beads and a few dollars, with no thought for their neighbors comfort! Overloadded"

And that's a FACT. A "wind farm" just went in 50 miles away(another is slated to extend into 2 more counties) and I saw the damage done during the construction. It was terrible and the local folks had to tolerate the torn up roads, inconsiderate construction company employees, and detours. Those who received the "shiny beads" just chuckled and drove around the mess while the other folks cussed and fumed. The county and even state roads were a mess but both entities allowed the damage w/o any effort to control it. Once the construction company moved in, it was THEIR county.

 

[mike7mm08]

Yep comes down to money. Those that have it can never get enough. The property I hunted was owned by a retired dentist. Nine kids all are either lawyers or doctors. They got the property after the old man died. For what they sold it for or are asking for what is still for sale they are each going to pocket at least a million.

I am just getting sick of this world some days. Those that don't need money are always getting more. Those that struggle just seem to struggle harder for the same or less reward.

And getting to the point were development and "progress" is happening just because we can.

I am too damn young to feel this damn old.