Yikes. Gary told me I would never guess what was in the back yard, and boy was he right about that. Skinned out deer, stinking to high heaven. Someone is missing a pelt, but I have no clue who of my neighbors might be hunters, so we just took it out back for the coyotes.

Yikes, someone will be looking for that. I bet Frankie and the lab pup had fun with that, probably smells good to them.

Well, whoever it belongs to will have to fight the night creatures for it. It was a bit rank...

The neighbor dog found the head and dragged that home over the weekend. I didn't have the pleasure of seeing that, but neighbor Jake asked Gary if he was missing a deer head... I wish I knew where this was coming from - I assume whoever it is would like his handiwork back. Both dogs are rather pungent these days...

Hope they stop bring parts home soon. Deb, you think any of your locals would shoot the dogs for doing that? I hate hunting season. My old neighbor had a deer hanging outside his garage for days, I had to pull my blinds because it was my kitchen table window. Glad he moved.

Boy, hadn't even thought of that. I was wondering why they had this stuff where a dog could even get to it. We also have a healthy population of coyotes that I would think one would have to consider when hanging game. My dog is not a wanderer, so it must be someone fairly close by. Minimum lot size is 5 acres and most folks have at least 10, though, so close is rather a subjective term. There is a newish 5-acre development behind our back woodlot, that could very well be where these body parts are coming from. Our previous encounter with our closest neighbor in that subdivision was not the best however - shortly after the subdivision was established we asked if we could walk through his back woodlot to locate our shared far corner marker and he said no. That was a bit odd, it was pretty much a one-time request and our access road was flooded at the time (dang beavers). Per Gary, he was not a friendly guy. I'll have to keep a close eye on Frankie, although she usually is within my sight, if not directly below my feet.

Mystery solved! Our fairly new neighbor below us came up to explain. He went hunting for about a week on the dry side of the mountains with no luck. Came home to find a 4-point buck in his backyard, which he shot. He tacked the hide to a pallet next to his house, but it was at ground level, hence the dogs ripping it off and dragging it around. The head he had in his shop until some folks came by for an evening at his firepit. He took it out to show it off, then set it down and forgot to put it back in the shop, hence the dogs dragging that home. He did retrieve the head from our other neighbor and I told him he could go fight the coyotes for the hide if he was so inclined (we dumped it way out back in the bushes). He also reports the dogs are diligently digging where he buried the guts, and I know the neighbor pup was smelling pretty rank the other day, so she may have hit paydirt. Anyway, we had a beer and a chuckle over it all. He promises to bring us up some venison.

Yum

>> There is a newish 5-acre development behind our back woodlot,

Someone put up a tacky, 3-story block of condos that looms over my fence and house.

I call them The Borg.

So far our only interaction has been hearing loud music and drunken, frat-boy-like parties.

Developers keep adding condos and blocks of apartments, but no new roads or schools. The times of day during which walking is as fast as driving are increasing (but I don't see anyone walking).

Owie. Progress often isn't.

Well, I guess THEY like having their condos in what used to be a quieter neighborhood.

I guess I'm not really entitled to complain, since I'm not a Native American.

I am, at least in part, and I would be complaining to anyone in a position to act. Sorry you have to tolerate it, Rick.

Well, they get to do whatever they want with their land. No matter how crowded the roads and schools get.

It might not be a problem for me forever. Since they can charge huge amounts to sell or rent new condo and apartments, the over-55 manufactured home park that I live in might be sold to developers at any time.

The main protection is that many other developments have already popped up like mushrooms after a rain. SURELY there is some saturation point, like no one being willing to move into such an overcrowded town. but who knows, with The Borg?

That happened to the last park I lived in. Since you own your home but rent the land, the owners can always sell their park to developers and give you 12 months notice to tuck your home under your arm and move it to some other park. The only alternative was to pay around $7-12K to have your home crushed and trucked to a landfill. And if you had any asbestos in your house, the price went up like a rocket.

That is marginally possible except that it tends to destroy your plumbing, and also the rash of park closures means that there were far more old people looking for a place to move their homes (or places to live, at all), than there were parks with empty pads.

Many old folks had to move out of the county. My current park is a big one. If it closed all at once, there would be hundreds of people having to crush their homes, and some new ones are said to cost up to $100K (pure rumor, I don't really know - but very old ones on a nice rented space can easily cost $50-70K).

I got "lucky". I found a guy who was cruising around, offering to take people's homes for free since he had rigs to move them to where they could be housing for farm laborers. He didn't want my old place until he saw our big new washer-dryer set. That closed the deal!

It's hunting season already?? In Florida it starts around Thanksgiving...although bow and black powder have extra time both before and after. My dogs all sleep with me....VERY happy they can't get to "forgotten" body parts

Gingin, in the PNW hunting runs from September through mid-December, depending on the animal and the weapon used. I'm not a hunter, but I do notice certain weekends are much more populated with older campers* than others, particularly going over our Cascade Mountain passes. I got a laugh out the neighbor traipsing around for a week out in the wilderness, and then to get his buck literally off his back porch. What a hoot.

*Edited: I meant the camper/trailers are older, not (necessarily) the folks behind the wheel.

Rick, we have seen a lot of that kind of exploding mutant construction, here, and it does reach a saturation point--usually all at once. Hopefully, that point will occur before your place is endangered.

Thank you!

Guess I'm not done with that deer yet - looking out my den window, both my dog and the pup next door are gnawing on the backbone in the front yard. My guess is they have unearthed the neighbor's guts/bone pile -- hopefully since it was the weekend he has discovered this and will rebury it all (I imagine it is fairly fragrant and he does have a tractor). Meanwhile, I'll drag the spine down by the pond and hope they just chew on it down there. Or maybe the coyotes will take it away.

Oh YUCK....sure it's not a new kill??...might could be a long winter for you