4th of July NIGHTMARE!

[luvs2ride1979]

Okay, so yes, I live in Arkansas... I should have expected this kind of thing, but I didn't think I lived in "THAT" redneck of an area...

Background: I just moved to this area last September. We're RIGHT outside Little Rock city limits (like 1/2 mile from the sign) in a pretty well developed little neighborhood. The homes are on 1/4 to 8 acre parcels, most on the smaller of that end. We're on 1.2 acres with houses all around us, and two neighbors on each side on 3-4 acre parcels. We have two horses in a small front pasture (about 0.75 acre) and our neighbors to the west also have two horses, in a larger 2-2.5 acre pasture. Our neighbors all seemed nice, no cars on blocks or dixie flags waving ;-). All of the homes are well kept up, no blaring "skinnard" on the weekends, so we thought we were "safe"...

Apparently NOT!

So, we heard that our neighbors with the horses (and 6,000 sqft house :rolleyes:) put on a big fireworks display every year. Cool! We drugged up the horses starting around 4pm, with another shot of Ace at 8pm, when the fireworks started going. They were okay, just wobbly trotting around when a big/loud one went off. No panicking though, they'd even graze when it was only a roman candle going up.

Then, two other neighbors start firing it up. Shortly after, someone set up in the church (yes CHURCH) parking lot across the street with a BULLHORN and proceeded to have a "fireworks war" with our neighbor. Out came the big guns... They started letting off BIG professional grade fireworks starting around 9:30, with other "normal" fireworks mixed in.

At about 10pm, the other folks quit, but the two drunken redneck groups continued (the ones in the church lot and our neighbors). Now my neighbor's guests are yelling back at the guy with the bull horn. Even the "ladies" are chiming in. Some guy yelled something about someone's vagina at one point, about 4 times in a row... Yeah, Bush Light is a flowin' now! :cheers:

At midnight, we consider calling the sheriff. But, it's quite likely that one or more of the drunken revelers is from the sheriff's department, so we scrap that idea. FINALLY, at around 1am, they quit. Thunder and lightening are not far off and rain moves in around 2 am. THANK GOD! Of course, then I was up for another hour or two worrying about this BAD storm. :eek:

My poor horses had a nervous breakdown at some point. They won't even go under the shelter (I put hay in there) because it's on the side of the pasture nearest the fireworks display. This morning they look very worn out and my mare is limping slightly (our pasture is really rocky). My neighbors horses look even worse; many of the fireworks went right over their pasture...

My husband is off today to go buy a new 12 gauge and plenty of shells. He's thinking of doing some target practice tonight at around midnight, lol. Either that or we're going to sit in front of their house with our 3/4 ton Diesel and rev it for about 20 minutes at 1 am :D.

I swear, if the housing market didn't suck so bad right now, I'd have this place up for sale on Monday. If things pick back up in the Spring, I may reconsider and try to find something else before next July. I will NOT put up with this again... It's just PATHETIC. :rant:

[cheval]

Wow, that's scary. Too bad you didn't have a stall to keep the tucked away in. :(

The fireworks finally stopped about 2:30 a.m. here. They get crazy wild. Luckily Solon is 2 miles away from here and away from any craziness.

I agree with hubby! Do some target practice tonight!

[allie0]

Target practice is a MUST!
Hmm, target practice, and revving the engine, with the radio blaring as loud as you can :D
Sorry it was a bit of a rough night :( Glad they stopped though :)

[lisakaye]

Just be careful cause you really don't want to start a neighbor war and end up hurting the horses or yourself. have fun though and i love the target practice idea. hopefully it was just a one night thing for them abd tonight they will be quiet.

[PoniesRock101]

sorry such a rough night, we had fireworks till 2am, and there was lighting all night. people are crazy.....

Hope next year is better.

[Gypsy Rose]

That's absolutely insane! It's hard to believe that it's to the point that you feel you can't complain.

Target practice in the middle of the night? Sounds like fun!:D

If the neighbor's complain about that, and law enforcement gets called out on you, then you know the whole area is corrupt, and it would definitely be time to think about moving.

[WashingtonBay]

I really sympathize... I really hate the 4th of July.

[Pi and Tofu]

I would join any hate 4th of July club.

If I ever move again, I have told my husband that we will knock on all the neighbor's doors and ask if they feel it's necessary to shoot off their own fireworks, or if they are normal people and keep the money in their pockets and go watch the fireworks at the beach.

Was lucky this year that only two of the direct neighbors did their displays. The neighbor that takes up the whole side of the pasture was gone for the holiday; the horses did much better-did great actually without being surrounded on all sides. The dog, on the other hand, is still wobbly this morning.

Drunken yahoos bring out the worst in me.

[ImaBronsonBear]

Man, that does not sound like fun.:( Fortunately, around here, not many people do their own fireworks display because the fire hazard is so incredibly high. All our hills are brown with tall, dead grass. If a fire were to start and if the wind backed it, we'd all be evacuating. People set off little fireworks sometimes, but nothing more than that.

[lovesfortune]

wow, that sounds horrible. thank goodness it's only a once a year thing. that's what itry to tell myself anyways!

[elevenelevenxo]

I worried about how things went with Rebel. Unfortunately my barn is in the middle of a town....I just hope he wasn't too frightened. :(

[starr]

sorry you had to go thru that, i live in benton, not to far, live 3 or 4 miles on congo in the country we didn't have anything like that, but the neighbor kids was shooting fire crackers horses wouldn't eat, so i just made sure they had penty of hay, then check on them on and off. it didn't bother the goat at all.

[luvs2ride1979]

Thanks everyone for your sympathies! More fireworks tonight, but nothing major. Just some roman candles and bottle rockets. The horses barely notice ;).

No, we don't want to start a neighborhood war... I was just pissed when I wrote my first message, lol. Next 4th, if we're still here, we'll take the horses and the dogs and go camping for the weekend, in a state park where they don't allow fireworks! ;)

[cheval]

Going camping is a good idea. Hope they weather through it tonight!

[Remali]

Oh man......that's terrible. I'm all for calling the cops.....you'd hope there are some decent cops, but then if cops were in on all that racket....it's always the good ol' boys clubs with those kinda cops..... Dang. Camping sounds like a plan, take all the animals with too!

[vicklynn]

Wow, sorry you had such a bad 4th. Sounds like people need to be respectful.

My neighbors had fireworks everywhere too, but my horses dont really care much. So Im lucky that way.

[WashingtonBay]

Next 4th, if we're still here, we'll take the horses and the dogs and go camping for the weekend, in a state park where they don't allow fireworks! ;)

I thought about that too, but I heard there were still people who brought them. It probably depends on how well patrolled your campgrounds are.

[offgridgirl]

Very sorry to hear your 4th was NOT a good celebration!! All is quiet here;)!!
There is a place for sale around the corner!!:cowboy: Big hay fields and barn. House needs work:doh:!!
I'd love to have you as a neighbor!!!:)

[luvs2ride1979]

Very sorry to hear your 4th was NOT a good celebration!! All is quiet here;)!!
There is a place for sale around the corner!!:cowboy: Big hay fields and barn. House needs work:doh:!!
I'd love to have you as a neighbor!!!:)

lol, Canada is a bit far North for me. I do NOT like snow or cold :huh:. I grew up in San Diego, so even Arkansas' winters are a bit much for me. I'm slowly working on the DH to move to New Mexico or northern Arizona :cool:.

[luvs2ride1979]

Wow, sorry you had such a bad 4th. Sounds like people need to be respectful.

My neighbors had fireworks everywhere too, but my horses dont really care much. So Im lucky that way.

If they were normal fireworks, I probably wouldn't have cared. But these things were honkin' professional fireworks, not fired from big cannons, so they BARELY cleared the trees... Plus they were going off just 50-100 feet from my pasture... My poor ponies! lol Thankfully, we had a lot of rain tonight, so not so many fireworks :cool:.

[JackieB]

I'm really sorry. That would be absolutely awful.

[Steelhorserider]

I am sorry to hear about your horrible 4th. Target practice is okay but don't shoot the neighbors!

[Diane of Buck's Hollow]

That sounds awful!!! I really don't look forward to the 4th of July now...Our horses were a little nervous, but it didn't get too bad here. We went to check on them at one point and Sunday's Man shined a light out in the pasture...that spooked them and they went flying!!!

Let's pray the market gets better for you.

[WashingtonBay]

You know what I'd like? I'd like it if those who do feel compelled to shoot off fireworks would at least restrict it to the 4th, and not drag it on for weeks. I can be ready for the fourth.... with dogs tranquilized well ahead of time. I can't prepare for your occasional whiz bangs every night for two weeks that wake us up and get the dogs barking till 11 - on a work night! :banghead:

[Mountain Creek]

What a horrible night!!!! I feel so bad for you guys and your ponies.

All our horses came down from their pasture safe and sound. I think they were too tired to be freaked out about the fireworks. We did 134 riders on the 4th! :jawdrop:

My apartment is a minute up the road from Mount Airy Casino and they have fireworks every year. It only lasted an hour (9PM-10PM). Then our neighbors have their show which is so much better than Mt. Airy's and they only go about 20 minutes. The only thing obnoxious this year was the motel across the street there were some kids in the parking lot setting off cherry bombs or something. I don't mind noise but there better be something pretty to go with it! Everything was done and over with by 11PM and the dogs handled every thing in stride.

[Stalknndashadows]

That sucks.

I don't drug mine and they are left open...in fact I shoot the mortars and other big ones from my pasture with them standing about 30ft away watching. No worries for me.

[luvs2ride1979]

You know what I'd like? I'd like it if those who do feel compelled to shoot off fireworks would at least restrict it to the 4th, and not drag it on for weeks. I can be ready for the fourth.... with dogs tranquilized well ahead of time. I can't prepare for your occasional whiz bangs every night for two weeks that wake us up and get the dogs barking till 11 - on a work night! :banghead:

Oh yeah, tell me about it! We had some "practice runs" go off at 2 am one morning... Raymond went outside and yelled at them, and front doors slammed quickly, lol. These were the "big guns" too, not just bottle rockets...

[WashingtonBay]

Last night I wanted to go out into my pasture and scream ENOUGH!

Tonight, I just may ;)

[cheval]

On one hand I agree about the pets but on the other it is a celebration of Independence. So I'm stuck between liking and hating the holiday.

Same thing happens New Year's with all the fireworks. They do it a couple days before and a couple after. I'm all for keeping it on the day of the holiday!

[WashingtonBay]

No other holiday gives us permission to piss off all the neighbors. If I want to have a party with loud music on any other holiday, I bet the neighbors would complain!

;)

Grrr - Bah humbug.

New Years is not quite as bad... true, we usually hear a few, but for ten minutes, at midnight, it's both predictable and over quickly, in my experience.

[cheval]

Really? Not here. Fireworks go off FOREVER. It's a repeat of the 4th.

[WashingtonBay]

Well, I guess that kind of thing is pretty variable... depends on the neighbors. It only takes one ;)

My particular neighbors, only one or two might get a few rockets for New Years, they don't make a night of it... On the 4th... everyone's got them... and more.

[luvs2ride1979]

On one hand I agree about the pets but on the other it is a celebration of Independence. So I'm stuck between liking and hating the holiday.

Same thing happens New Year's with all the fireworks. They do it a couple days before and a couple after. I'm all for keeping it on the day of the holiday!

I am all for a party and fireworks... But we had OVER 4 HOURS of BIG fireworks, NON-STOP! These weren't the side-of-the-road fireworks either... About 60-70% of what was going off just 50-100 feet from my pasture were bigh professional grade fireworks, with barely 30-60 second lulls between vollies, for FOUR HOURS! Until after 1 AM! And we're in a neighborhood, with many other people and homes, NOT in the middle of the country... We're only 1 mile from the city limits.

I heard from the people behind us that this year was a LOT worse than previous years' displays. I'm hoping it's a one-time thing. If not, we will be calling out some cops.

[cheval]

They don't allow those type of fireworks here so we are lucky!

[WashingtonBay]

The big ones aren't sold in the official stands here... but it's only about 5 miles to the nearest indian reservation where you can buy pretty much whatever you want. It's 'illegal', in plain site, and with little enforcement, at least on the fourth.

Now I will say that in past years, we've called the sheriff to report those who continue to shoot them off night after night, and the response has been good. They've always come out. But they need to catch them doing it, so it's hard to catch the occasional - run out, fire, go back in kind of guy. Hard to tell even which house it's coming from sometimes, through the trees.

[PoniesRock101]

They don't allow those type of fireworks here so we are lucky!
They're not allowed here either, but people have them. :rolleyes:They just cross the Indiana line where they're legal and sneak back into IL. My one neighbors always shoot them off all night. They finally stopped last night. hopefully not tonight! normally the cops wait and watch the firewrok shops for people with IL plates, than stop them at the Indiana/Illinois line. But... people get around that. My neigbors who always shoot off alot have Indiana plates :rolleyes:

[twofingers]

bummer. I have a 200 gpm portable fire pump I could lend you fill the pool with colored water and shoot it into the air it should cover about 300 feet or so on it's drop.

[luvs2ride1979]

bummer. I have a 200 gpm portable fire pump I could lend you fill the pool with colored water and shoot it into the air it should cover about 300 feet or so on it's drop.

HAHA! Now THAT sounds like a lot more fun, lol.