I grew up in the county and my family's land had an old quarry on it. Our land backed up onto a large forrest. Right after we moved onto the land the owner of the forest came around to my parents and spent an hour welcoming them to the neighborhood. He told my parents that he had bought the forest with the idea that the neighborhood kids would have somewhere to play. He told them that we were absolutely welcome to play or camp out in the forest and fish in the lake as long as we didn't burn down the forest.
That by way of introduction. We were a fairly quiet family. Oh, we created firecracker mortars on the 4th of July and occasionally my father would take us down into the quarry and we'd shoot his Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 magnum pistol or one of our .22 rifles at targets. On one of those fore's we saw the sheriff walking down toward us so we put down the firearms and greeted him. He said, "Afternoon, guys? What are you shooting?" my dad unloaded and showed him the pistols. He said, "We've had a complaint, but it looks like you guys know what you are doing and your are on your own land, so have fun!" And he left.
A few months later one of our neighbors was doing something really annoying. Remembering the prior situation, I said to my dad, "Why don't we call the sheriff on them?" My father said, "Oh no, son. If we want our neighbors to ignore the things about us that bother them, we have to ignore the things about them that bother us."
Wisdom from a wise man.
Bob
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"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' "
Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring
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