A few questions.../Which baby monitor?

[Livinwright Farm]

Animal does not include farm livestock or other
animals kept for the purpose of productive agriculture.

IMHO, Your LGD IS an animal kept for the purpose of productive agriculture. Just because other farms do not protect their animals or property does not mean that you can't.

As for the barking ordinance: This LGD is not "a dog", your LGD is your farm's security system, and therefore is an exception to this ordinance. Your neighbor can help you put up a sound barrier along the section of pasture that is closest to their house if they don't like the noise. However, you have every legal right to have the BEST security for your farm as possible.
Oh, and you can set up something(motion activated cam) to record overnight to verify if in fact your LGD is barking like your neighbor says. If the camera doesn't pick up any barking, and she reports you again, you have proof of her lying.

 

[Squirrelgirl88]

I just bought a Graco Baby Monitor that has a range of 2000 feet - works great from the barn to the house. I just haven't figured out how to protect it from the usual barn dust and such. A ziploc bag distorted the signal and sound. DH thinks I'm nut's for worring about the baby goats.

 

[PJisaMom]

Animal does not include farm livestock or other
animals kept for the purpose of productive agriculture.

IMHO, Your LGD IS an animal kept for the purpose of productive agriculture. Just because other farms do not protect their animals or property does not mean that you can't.

As for the barking ordinance: This LGD is not "a dog", your LGD is your farm's security system, and therefore is an exception to this ordinance. Your neighbor can help you put up a sound barrier along the section of pasture that is closest to their house if they don't like the noise. However, you have every legal right to have the BEST security for your farm as possible.
Oh, and you can set up something(motion activated cam) to record overnight to verify if in fact your LGD is barking like your neighbor says. If the camera doesn't pick up any barking, and she reports you again, you have proof of her lying.

I share your "IMHO"... at this point, no one is pursuing me, so I'm just doing my homework and getting my ducks in a row. I am afraid to point out the flaws in their ordinance that actually HELP me, lest they begin the proceedings to revise the ordinance. I just want to have the information in my back pocket should the need ever arise to pull it out again.

(And... back in the days when I was working, I was a part of a team that did leasing and zoning for the erection of cell towers... it was in this very township that we fought for over a year to get approved by the zoning board... it's sort of a famous "site" for the sheer difficulty they impose on everyone for everything. Two years ago, they arbitrarily raised our SEV by $40,000... and didn't care. Oh, and get this... when you look at a zoning map, our parcel of land is zoned two different ways -- Lake Residential and Rural Residential. Thankfully, the pastures are all on the Rural side, or I'm sure I'd have EVEN MORE problems!)

I've been so.... just upset over all this it's to the point of ridiculousness. I was clearing out the yard between our private drive and the electric fence when she drove by... and I just let myself look busy. A few minutes later she was walking over to me and actually thanked me for dealing with the problem. She said it had been better, and that she can deal with a five minute barking jag here and there, but the constant all-night long barking she couldn't do. Told her I understood, that I've been really upset about this all, but we've been neighbors for 7 years, and just a shame it came to this. She has my number and is supposed to call ME if she's being bothered (and this makes her uncomfortable, but I'd rather she call me than the township or the sheriff...)...

I certainly didn't feel like being an adult about all this, and behind closed doors, I certainly am not. Flaming bags of poo on her porch comes to mind...

I just bought a Graco Baby Monitor that has a range of 2000 feet - works great from the barn to the house. I just haven't figured out how to protect it from the usual barn dust and such. A ziploc bag distorted the signal and sound. DH thinks I'm nut's for worring about the baby goats.

I have an old Graco monitor from *gulp*... 10 years ago(!) but it has a lovely hum and won't reach the barn about 200 feet away. I do have it set up in a front window facing the pasture, so it does catch a sound, but not like I'd like it to... and it hums something horrible. Did I mention the hum? I wondered about how to protect the receiver on the new one I just ordered (went with a Philips Avent... probably a mistake, but we'll see how it goes). I am going to have to work on that one...llet me know if you figure something cool out... and don't worry... my DH already *knows* I'm nuts. Good to be ahead of the game sometimes...

I have a fisher-price long distance one from Wal-Mart. It works really good, so long as the cats don't step on the power button....

Ah, yes... the cats. I have four (completely outdoor "barn" cats that don't go in the barn)... they run the neighborhood killing rodents. I am waiting for the neighbors across the street to complain about that, too. I often catch the kittens over there in their yard... my husband told me to tell them to just shoot them... then we'll sue them. For what, I'm not sure, but seriously... I'm expecting them to leave me alone after this... I've been far nicer and understanding that I needed to be...

Y'all rock!!!! THANK YOU!

 

[Roll farms]

See, when they step on the power button, the receiver starts BEEP, BEEP, BEEP-ing. NOT nice to wake up to at 3 am. Although not quite as bad as a crowing roo.

Your neighbors might complain about the incessant beeping and call the law.

I'd probably be a lot less nice to the neighbor than you're being...

 

[PJisaMom]

See, when they step on the power button, the receiver starts BEEP, BEEP, BEEP-ing. NOT nice to wake up to at 3 am. Although not quite as bad as a crowing roo.

Your neighbors might complain about the incessant beeping and call the law.

I'd probably be a lot less nice to the neighbor than you're being...

Trust me, I'd LOVE to be a lot less nice. But we already know what it's like to be feuding with one neighbor, I just don't feel like being on the potentially losing side with another.

I am going to talk to our lawyer today about some ordinance interpretation and we've decided to put our farm name into an LLC, hang a shingle out front and become a publicly "bona fide" farm operation -- nothing different than what we are already doing, but legitamizes it outwardly. This move affords a lot of protections in the ordinance if we are "bona fide" farm... *gag*

Seriously... have better things to do with my time... (and money).

 

[PJisaMom]

Update: The dog is slightly depressed that she has to be closed up in the barn at night... but oh well. I have no other options. At dusk, I leave her in the "inner sanctum" pen (about a 25x25 space made out of cattle panels with a gate out to the pastures) until about midnight, then throw her in the barn with the goats, and let her back out about 6:30am... so it's not *terrible* for her...

I bought a Phillips Avent baby monitor with DECT technology (totally mixed reviews on Amazon, and quite pricey, but *had* to try it!) and put it in the rafters of the barn. The really cool thing is the intercom feature... so I can tell the dog to stop barking from my bed. She can hear me in the pen and the barn, so it's mostly effective. She *hardly* barks to begin with (thus the issue with the neighbor puzzles me), and very rarely barks inside the barn, so it's not bothering me at night either. The other thing that surprises me is how quiet the goats are... eerily silent.

The not so cool thing about the monitor is that it shares an outlet with the electric fencer and I hear a small "tic, tic, tic" every night from the monitor, pulsing in time with the charger.

The lawyer was... enlightening, but not so very helpful.

Basically, my dog can't bark, I need to put up a farm sign and sell some farm products (goats and eggs), and moving my chicken coop is debatable depending on the loosey-goosey way they wrote about animals vs. foul and bona fide farms. I am also limited on the number of animals. I have 7 acres, but supposedly can only have 4 animals. (1 equine for the first four acres, 1 animal per acre after that, unless you have more than 10 acres, then you can have ANY amount of animals you want.) Um... my math doesn't compute here. My five goats can't even keep up with the small pasture, much less the large ones they haven't even SEEN yet. So... I bought a mini horse to add to my collection. Oh, boy. Can you hear the neighbors over that one? (However, there are NO limits on the number chickens....) [worth mentioning that the previous owners had 15 cows in the pasture at any given time]

My husband's point was that since the ordinance is so open to interpretation, if they want to press the issue, we are more than willing to fight them on it. The reality is that by reading through the ordinance, we discovered we have violations on several of the neighbors if we cared to point it out...

Oh... and the lawyer said the ordinance didn't specifically say we couldn't put in a private shooting range... so we are. *evil grin*

So...

Just wanted to give the final update on the saga... the neighbor waves and is pleasant... so apparently I'm doing ok. And the monitor rocks...

Thanks, all!