Well....I got you beat.

I bought this house in 1988 not knowing that the previous owner couldn't stand the neighbors. I have had only two good neighbors and they moved because of the neighbors.

One neighbor would be seen with two white poodle dogs, and three poodle dogs the next time. And of course, they did their business in my yard. I told him twice to keep the dogs out of my yard. Nope...so I call the Animal Control.

You would have thought that I killed one of his dogs. Him and his wife call over and I thought he was going to throw a punch. He had five dogs and a dozen cats or so according to the Animal Control. He had to downsize to two animals or move. The Animal Control said the basement smelled bad.

Next the side yard was a neighborhood playground and trash left in the yard, etc. So I sent certified letters to the parents and only one showed up to find out what was going on and they kept their two boys at home from then on.

I landscaped the yard, fruit trees, azaleas, rhododendrons, iris, dogwoods, etc and a water garden. They poisoned $17K worth of plants and poisoned the fish and plants in the water garden.

They broke into one car and must have put something in the oil since the engine lost power. Next they hit a second vehicle.

At the lot, they stopped me from building my house, trespassing, stealing, hunting, dogs run loose, and poisoned two of my best trees which tells me they were trespassing on me all along.

The only thing left is a letter to the County Executive with a copy to the VA Supreme Court.

41,
From your description about the long term problems with criminal damage/destruction of/at your properties, I would recommend some cellular trail cameras.
Cuddeback trail cameras in particular. https://www.cuddeback.com/ The CuddeLink Cell cameras is the version with the "Mesh WiFi" system.
They have a system/setup where you can have multiple cameras disbursed outside, and they create their own personal/private Mesh WiFi network for moving images between the cameras.
The most outlying camera sends it's images to the next closest camera, and up the "chain" of cameras to the "Home" camera which can be installed inside your home.

With the "Home" camera being inside your home, even if the shitbags steal one or more of the outdoors cameras, the images taken while the theft(s) or damage(es) occur, are still
sent "upstream" to the "Home" camera inside your home.

Also a cellular connection (cell plan) is not required for the "Home" camera. You can get and pay for a cell plan if you want one, but in your case, it would not be required.
With a cell plan, thumbnail images are sent to phone numbers/email addresses that you input during setup.
Full sized images (the hi-resolution photos) would be stored on an SD card in the "Home" camera inside your house, regardless of whether you had the system connected to a cell plan, or not.

Cuddeback also sells steel camera enclosures, so theft of a camera is much more labor intensive for a camera thief.

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The Ultimate Food Plot Tree: Dunstan Chestnut

Dunstan Chestnut History

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Dr. Robert Dunstan

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 41,

Here in upstate NY, I wouldn't expect to need to mow grass before early May. I still have several piles of snow in the yard from winter driveway snow clearing.
Several days ago, in preparation for hauling the new-to-me Kubota BX 2370 to the recreational property for lawn mowing, I installed two "D" rings on the front of the machine.
With a clevis on the rear of the tractor, and the pair of new "D" rings on the front, it will be easy to strap/chain the machine down on a trailer for transport.

IMG_20250310_143158629_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

When I completed the "D" rings installation, I had my first chance to drive the new-to-me machine around the driveway for 45 minutes and really get all the fluids up to full operating temperature.
I parked it in my building after testing function on all mechanical and hydraulic systems. When I tested the machine at the selling dealership for 25 or 30 minutes, it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit and a
nice packed snow/ice covering on the parking lot. As a used machine, NO warranty, so you need to look it over carefully. It all looked good at the selling dealership. Even underneath.

After parking it in my building and it sat for 30 minutes or so after shutting it off, a small puddle of hydraulic oil appeared on the floor under the machine on the right rear corner.
Damn, I missed something on my initial dealership tractor inspection! Likely the reason for the machine being traded in.

All of the diesel sub-compact tractors are packed with equipment under the rear fender deck and foot board deck. John Deere, Kubota, Mahindra, Case, Massey Ferguson, it doesn't matter which brand.
Let's see, hydraulic transmission (HST), PTO, three point hitch, differential, hydraulic pumps, four wheel drive output shaft, rear axle shafts and locking differential and more.
And it's all packed very efficiently in the rear half of the machine, and most of it, you can't see or touch due to the frame rails of the tractor, and the orange, green, or red sheet metal fender deck.

The only way to see, repair, or diagnose leaks is to "explode" the machine so you can see, touch, identify leaks and perform repairs.
So I tore the back half mostly apart so I could actually see what was leaking. The front of the tractor was still fully together so I was able to start the diesel engine and actually see the leaks.
Once apart, the leaking hydraulic fluid was from several seals/O-rings/fittings where the (hard) steel lines route hydraulic fluid from the HST transaxle up to the front end loader control valve under the steering wheel. Most tractor manufacturers have online parts lookup on their website. The total cost for the parts for repairing the hydraulic fluid leaks is less than $30.
With a factory hydraulic system pressure set point of +/- 2900 psi, all the seals/gaskets/O-rings/fittings have to be perfect for containing that hydraulic system pressure.

Once the machine was gutted, I also identified several other items that I will address while it's all apart. The rubber boots that cover the universal joints on the propeller shaft between the engine and the transaxle are dried out and weather checked. 12 years old and the rubber is somewhat dried out. It's easy to replace them with the machine exploded. I have parts ordered at the local Kubota dealership
and the grand total is under $75. The owner/mechanic is a machinery perfectionist, so fixing everything not at 100% now is all relatively easy while it's exploded for the hydraulic leakage repair.
I still need to get the 60" mower deck up on a pair of metal sawhorses, some very light surface rust on the mower deck shell needs wire brushing, sanding, painting, but so far the weather hasn't cooperated with suitable paint drying/curing outdoors temperatures.
I do consider myself to be very fortunate with having the knowledge, skills, tools, time, and facilities to do work like this myself.
This would be a "whopper" repair bill if the dealership did it instead of doing it myself.

IMG_20250226_123554979_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250311_151421284_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250311_151431604_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250311_151436536_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250311_151446326_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250311_151457240_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250311_151537132_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

The "diamond" shaped, silver colored block that bolts onto the grey painted surface with two bolts, those fittings and 90 degree elbows is the hydraulic oil leakage location.
Once apart, and cleaned completely, start the diesel and the hydraulic oil started seeping/dripping.
It is unfortunate on a new-to-me used machine, however the repair is inexpensive.
I'm off to the dealership for some of the parts this afternoon, (the propeller shaft boots) and the hydraulic leakage repair parts will arrive around the middle of next week.

IMG_20250311_151513759_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

The task today was two new boots on the propeller shaft couplings connecting the diesel engine to the hydrostat transmission.
Much easier job with the sheet metal already removed!
The couplings are somewhat similar to a automotive CV joint, just a lot less complex, and have a much smaller angular power transmission capability compared to an automotive CV joint.
Even though the old boots were in poor condition, the couplings still had grease inside them.

Front.

IMG_20250314_150521997_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Rear.

IMG_20250314_150550182_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

This is a separate bitch inside a Pitch your Bitch Thread!

I didn't want to derail another thread about DOGE and 10,000 USPS workers getting fired/retiring/laid off.
Hopefully, they will segregate useful, helpful, honest, actual working Post Office employees from the useless, helpless, and incompetent slackers, BUT I'm not holding my breath on that.

Here in New York State, if you own fifty or more contiguous acres of forested land, you can reach out to the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC)
and get it enrolled in the NYS 480a Forestry Tax Law Program. Initial enrollment takes some significant time and paperwork. The result is about 94% break in property taxes.
When you schedule a timber harvest, (logging) your private contracted Forester and a NYS DEC Forester pre-schedule bidding on the standing timber, and a contract is written up prior to logging,
you get fully paid prior to logging, and 6% of the total value of the scheduled timber harvest is paid to the local Town, and County Municipalities in lieu of the tax breaks the owner has received
since the last timber harvest. The government will always get their "share" and due to the government having their fingers in the "pie" there is always paperwork.

Every five years, the landowner hires the contract Forester for a Five Year Plan update, and the contract Forester evaluates the timber growth and health since the previous Five Year Plan.
They file the new Five year Plan with the NYS DEC Forester, and if the Senior NYS Forester likes the plan update, they sign off on it and mail you a copy for your records.
So every Five Years, that's the high effort/expensive update.

Being the government and all that, on an annual basis you are required to fill out a simple one page form, stating that you still own the land, have completed any required work (if any is required)
such as thinning trees, killing invasive plants that impact tree seedlings (such as ferns) and mailing a copy of the document to the Town Assessor where the property is located, and a second copy to the NYS DEC Forester.

I have always mailed the two documents using USPS Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested, so I have proof they were received by the appropriate date.
The documents are due by March 1st every year.
I mailed both copies out on February 20th this year.
Let's see here eight days for semi-local mailings, even the Post Office can't fuck that up.
The NYS DEC Lands & Forests Office is about 15 miles away, while the Town Assessor is less than 5 miles.
I received the green USPS Return Receipt card back from the Assessor in three/four days.
Around the 6th of March, I remembered the green Return Receipt card had not showed up yet from the NYS DEC Lands & Forests Office.

So I emailed my NYS DEC Forester if he had received the document yet. (done with email, instead of phone call for paper trail)
Then I checked the USPS website, input the tracking number, and surprise, there is a hold on the mailing, and it's still at the small Post Office in the village where DEC Lands & Forests is located.
After I thought about it for a minute, I wasn't certain if it was the original mailing, or the green Return Receipt card that was "stuck" at the little rural Post Office.

Then I looked up the USPS Office phone number, and the AI generated response noted that they were closed from Noon to 2 PM for lunch.
After lunch break (1/12 of a 24 hour day) was over, I called and asked to speak with the Postmaster.
She came on the phone, we spoke, and she went and checked, and surprise, my mailing had actually gone to the NYS DEC Lands & Forests Office on February 22, but they close at 4PM and
nobody was there to sign for the mailing. Then my mailing went back to the local Post Office, and they give the Addressee a card on two separate occasions that states they have a mailing at the Post Office that somebody now has to go sign for and pick up.

I told the Postmaster, how about taking a shorter lunch two hours, and have the Mail carrier get the mailing to the destination before 4PM closing time.
She spit & sputtered a bit and said she would try the next day.

I emailed my NYS DEC Forester a second time, and told him my mailing was at the Post Office, they had attempted delivery on February 22nd, and that they had received two reminder cards that the mailing was at the Post Office and they needed to send someone over there and pick it up.

About a half hour after my second email to my NYS DEC Forester, I received a email back from him, and he had the document in his possession.

Thank goodness for the paper trail.

FUCK THAT ENTIRE USPS SYSTEM! Fire every single one of those useless lazy fuckers! Hire a private entity that hires non union workers that actually want a job!

May or may not be a bad thing. What happens when you sell or stop the Forest Plan? Do you owe back taxes for a certain time period?

Once a property is enrolled in the 480a plan, it is in the 480a plan until the end of time.
The only way to legitimately remove a property from the 480a program, is to pay back all the tax breaks the property has received from the time it was originally enrolled.
In my case, it was enrolled ~ 25 years prior to my purchase, which was ~ 20 some years ago.
In addition, there are some penalties involved besides the paying back of all the tax breaks accumulated over time.
So about ~ 45 years of tax breaks would need to be paid back "IF" I was choosing to do so.
I'm not going to pursue that action plan. It's an astronomical dollar figure.

With ~ 61 acres enrolled in the plan out of ~ 68 to 69 acres in total, there is plenty of land not enrolled in the 480a plan at the road frontage location which would allow building a massive home and shop building. Where I am at in my life today, that is possible, but unlikely.
The property is also extremely marketable as a rural piece of property, due to the acreage available for a home/garage/shop building/barn right next to the town road, while the tax bill in total is extremely low. It takes a while to learn and understand all the nuances of the 480a plan/program, but once learned/understood, it's relatively straight forward process.

Growing trees for marketable timber is an extremely slow process, 10,000 times worse than watching paint dry. Also, like most any other form of investment, "risk" is involved.
Some years back, a tornado passed through some State Forest land nearby my rural property location. Only about five miles North of me. Multiple hundreds of acres of State Forest destroyed.
The State hired a "specialty" logger, whose expertise was in logging properties that had been previously damaged by natural disasters. At least they tried to salvage some marketable timber
from the tornado damaged property, rather than allowing the giant piles of twisted/snapped/destroyed trees to just rot where they fell.
Forest fires are almost unheard of here, but a large brush fire could do extensive tree damage/destruction.
And the usual invasive insects and various tree blights are in play additionally.

It's my understanding that the reason the 480a system was designed/implemented was to reduce/eliminate rural timber property turnover and constant Tax Assessor valuation challenges on rural timber properties.
As an example, let's say someone was to buy 100 acres of raw hardwoods timber land and the property was at, or near the time timber could be harvested.
The 100 acres would be rather expensive for purchasing due to the inherent value of the standing timber.
The annual tax bill on that 100 acre property (if it wasn't in the 480a plan) would also be substantial.

So now the property owner gets the hardwoods timber harvested, pockets the big money, and promptly files an appeal for a significant property tax reduction, due to the timber being gone now.
The local Tax Assessor really has no other choice, as a physical "walkabout" inspection of the property will show that marketable trees are indeed gone.

With no marketable trees on the property for perhaps 15 to 25 years, the landowner is tempted to sell the property, as it is now an annual expense due to the property taxes.
The property might change ownership several times during the extensive number of years the timber is regenerating until it is ready for another timber harvest.

Having a forested property enrolled in the 480a plan/program gives the landowner a really good financial incentive for holding on to a property for the long haul.
It totally eliminates the "merry go round" in sales of rural forested properties, and endless appeals of forested property "worth" with the local Tax Assessor.
Many properties in my County are enrolled in the 480a plan, and are owned by Family and other private entity Trusts due to the favorable tax structure.

Five miles or less distance from ground zero for a Tornado touchdown back in 2011 to my rural property location.
I heard about it on the news and dragged my ATV up to the property for a detailed roving tree inspection.
Sometimes near a Tornado, you can get straight line winds, and sustain significant tree damage.
I didn't receive any, and when done I drove around until I located the 1/4 mile wide "stripe" which was several miles in length.
After locating the ancient photos, I was thinking how great it would be today to stop in at the local Chevrolet Dealer, and be able to purchase a brand new S-10 ZR2.
Of all the vehicles I have owned over the years, that Yellow ZR2 was one of my favorites!

Tornados are somewhat infrequent in upstate NY, but they do occur.
I recall reading at the National Weather Service website last year that the frequency/number of Tornados has seriously increased in New York State, 2024 alone with around 75 occurring.

Tornado1 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Tornado2 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Tornado3 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

The American Chestnut Foundation has seed for sale:

https://support.tacf.org/2025-wild-type-seed-sale



https://youtu.be/BGPhrkJYSv4

Chestnut Chat: How to Grow American Chestnuts

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 41,

I spent most of the day out in my barn building.
The new-to-me BX 2370 is back together.
The hydraulic fluid leakage issue is repaired.
I have less than $100 in parts, and discounting several skinned knuckles, $0 labor charge.

Tomorrow I'm going to replace some tired inner and outer
tie rod ends boots/seals. The rubber is simply baked from the sun.
Kubota no longer sells the rubber boots/seals for the inner & outer tie rod ends.
They only sell new inner and outer tie rod ends complete.
Well over $200 for both sides/all four.

I found an aftermarket company selling plastic boots/seals in North Carolina.
$23 including shipping. I'm going to grease the inner and outer tie rod ends
while the deteriorated rubber boots are removed, and reassemble with the new plastic boots/seals.

After the tie rod job is done, all that remains is some cosmetic attention for the 60" mower deck.

IMG_20250322_145706416_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250322_145718585_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Let's see here... $200 + for all four inner and outer tie rod ends new from Kubota, or $23 for an aftermarket boots/seals kit with replacement polymer boots for all four tie rod ends.
The OEM boots/seals were deteriorated from sun/weather, and individual boots/seals are not available from OEM, only complete replacement inner/outer tie rod ends.
While apart, all four tie rod ends were lubricated with grease before reassembly. The included directions said measure the existing length of exposed threads before disassembly which I did,
and set the same length of exposed threads when reassembling. But when I was finished, using the factory workshop manual, I adjusted the toe-in.

When I was doing the hydraulic leaks repairs, all the rear/middle Orange painted sheet metal required removal.
One of the bolts that attaches the rear fender assembly to the tractor additionally fastens a right side plastic component to the top surface of the fender.
It's the right side operator "grab handle" and separator for three of the operator control handles.

When the plastic component is manufactured, several steel "nuts" are placed in the mold, and then molten plastic is injected into the mold.
If the steel nut is pulled out of the plastic component, generally it's time to buy a new plastic part.
This particular plastic part however had plenty of space for a JB Weld epoxy repair and the steel nut is back where it belongs in the plastic part, and securely fastened in place.

IMG_20250323_150353080_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250323_150403481 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Once the plastic part is bolted back onto the tractor, everything I wanted completed on the tractor before the start of mowing season will be complete.
May 1st should be the start of mowing season here in upstate NY, so I have around five weeks for getting the front grill guard and the 60" mower deck de-rusted and painted.
Between the house and the recreational property/cabin, and also dependent on rainfall/weather, I average somewhere between 80 to 100 hours of mowing seat time per season in total.

Here are a few photos of the completed Kubota BX 2370 tractor.
Having the hydraulic leakage issue was unfortunate, but I know a guy and all the repairs/maintenance was at ~ $100.

IMG_20250324_163806582_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250324_163536163_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250324_163446267_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250324_163515867_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Now, we have Beech Leaf Disease.



https://www.fs.usda.gov/forest...LeafDisease-2023.pdf

I did something I've never done before.
I used a tractor to fix/refurbish/upgrade another tractor.
The 60" deck off of the recently purchased Kubota apparently spent some excessive time outside by the previous owner.
The deck had some surface rust and peeling paint.

I used my other Kubota, the loader/backhoe unit for lifting the 250 + pound deck up off the floor, and placed it on steel sawhorses.
No point of crawling around on the floor like an animal when scraping, sanding, wire brushing and painting.
Rust-Oleum sells a brush type implement paint in Kubota Orange.
I disassembled the deck enough to do my work, and painted the first coat yesterday.
Today, I got the second/final coat finished.

I will let the paint cure for a week or so, then reassemble the deck and install it under the Kubota.
All that remains now is get the grill guard de-rusted and painted.

IMG_20250328_173204901_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250328_173221535_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

This photo is after the first coat, and the paint is still somewhat wet when the photo was taken.

IMG_20250329_183514512_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

I made a significant infrastructure investment for the recreational property today.
I bought a Cuddeback (brand) Cuddelink (model) trail camera system.
The Cuddelink system generates a private Wi-Fi network for moving trail camera images from the furthest away camera, to the next closest, and finally, up the camera "chain" to the "Home" Camera.
The "Home" camera isn't even equipped with a lens for taking a photo. It's sole purpose is for being a central image collection point for up to 23 remote (in the woods) cameras. (big SD card)

If a cell phone plan is purchased for the "Home" camera, it can transmit lower resolution thumbnail photos to email addresses and/or cell phone numbers. (emails and/or text message images)
One Cuddeback/Cuddelink system can support up to 23 linked cameras, but at $150 per remote camera, that is over my pain threshold. For now...
I purchased one "Home" camera, and six "remote" cameras. One of the "remote" cameras will be set up to look at the cabin and entrance/exit gate.
Without a cell phone plan for the "Home" camera, all "remote" camera images will end up on the big SD card in the "Home" camera, inside the cabin.

I'm certain it all comes with a steep learning curve!
The "remote" cameras use "D" size batteries, so longer run times than "AA" batteries. The "remote" cameras can also be set up with larger external battery packs and solar panels.
The "Home" camera uses a small 120 vac power pack, and/or "D" batteries.
Camera adjustments/settings can be changed from a remote location, without having to take one step into the woods. (bi-directional private Wi-Fi/control)