We've Got A Neighbor!

Most of the properties around us are hunting camps surrounded by the state forest. In the beginning when we moved here in 1999, the owners of the camps came here every hunting season. Especially in the fall for deer hunting season. But in recent years, most of the camps stand there empty. Closest to us is a hunting lodge that is owned by a Binghamton lawyer and is frequented by the members who are mostly state troopers and the Binghamton police force. They come up here to practice target shooting.

One summer day, my friend and her new boyfriend came up to spend the day. We had never met her boyfriend before and she brought him up to meet us. He was a Viet Nam era veteran and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I did not know this at the time though as we had just met him. We went for a walk and crossed our bridge and was heading toward the woods, when all of a sudden out of the clear blue, someone started firing a gun rapid fire like! Her boyfriend hit the ground so fast! It scared me too as we didn't even know anyone was there. And we just happened to be going for a walk at that moment. I have never had anything ever happen like that again and wonder if they saw us and did it on purpose. Now, nobody hardly ever goes there. I think they all got old.

Anyway, a number of years ago, maybe in 2001 or 2002, someone knocks on our door and introduces himself and his girlfriend and says he bought the property up the road on top of the hill. He wanted to tell us that if we wanted to graze our horses there he was going to fence it in and we could take them up there anytime. So we took them up there a few times. It is a big property and the fenced in area is big and they had room to run. Which them being Thoroughbreds...........they certainly ran! For about an hour, they then stood at the gate wanting to go home. No grazing, no more running. Just looking toward home. We'd put one halter on one horse and then just lead her and the other two would just follow along. Right over the bridge with no problem. When we left once the halter broke and that horse just took off running down that hill and over the bridge with the other two following close behind! Thank God there were no vehicles coming down the road!!!

When we moved here that property had a rental trailer on it and one guy who became our friend lived there with his dog. He moved out in 2006. Now the man who owns it has moved in up there. The decent trailer on his land he had put in for the renter when he first bought the land. The other two trailers were junks and that was what the renter was living in at that time.  Now our neighbor has someone working on taking the junks apart  and removing them for him. I am sure he will fix it up real nice. He has brought his two horses with him and is living there now. Of course, I haven't seen much of him, only when he drives by on his way to town.

I am sure he will love living up there full time as it is certainly beautiful out here. We wake up to the birds singing and neon green grass and trees. So peaceful and quiet..........wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole