A local orchard is raising pigs under his orchard trees. Pigs clean up the fallen fruit, graze, and he didn't mention anything about pig/tree problems in the article. He was going to raise more piglets next year! Another bonus was that with pigs cleaning up the fruit on the ground, a certain kind of fly has no place to over winter, so they are not bothering his fruit like previously. Breaks the cycle with pigs eating fruit. Evidently the pig digestion kills the eggs or lavae so flies never hatch. Michigan State Ag Dept is EXCITED about this, will conduct further studies. Sounded like a winning combination all around for him. Pigs do require good fencing, but with plenty to eat, they grew fast, sold well for the orchard guy.

Glad I found this site as I'm having issues with my downstairs neighbors. I moved into my apartment two years ago. It's the second floor apartment in an older house. The other apartment is on the first floor. The couple that live there are in their early 70's but the guy thinks he's still in his twenties. He spends all his free time working on his truck or washing it. Now I have no problem with someone taking care of their vehicle but what I do have is someone having no respect for someone else's property. This guy washes his and his wife's trucks EVERY day. I'm not kidding. When I'm not home, he'll park his truck in my spot and wash it so when I get home, my space is full of puddles that I have to walk through. If I am home, he pulls his truck up right along side mine and as he's hosing down his vehicle, the water is spraying all over mine. The sun dries the water spots and they're hard to remove, especially on the windshield. He also parks his truck so that the hitch ball hangs over onto my parking spot which is directly behind his. He has plenty of room to pull up and not be so close to my spot. It's hard enough squeezing into my space because there is a tree behind it and a wall along one side (part of a building). The second issue I have is that he plays 60's music 24/7. I have gotten up at 2 or 3 in the morning to use the bathroom and the music is playing. It's loud enough that I can name every song and sometimes he turns it up loud enough that my coffee table vibrates. Asking him to lower it does no good because another neighbor told me that the guy that lived in my apartment before me went downstairs and knocked on the neighbor's door to ask him to lower the music. The neighbor wouldn't answer so he asked him from outside the door. When that didn't work, he went back downstairs and knocked again. This time, the neighbor opened the door, swore at him, and punched him in the face. In fact, the neighbor told me this himself. It was like he was giving me a warning not to complain about his music. My landlord is completely useless; he knows he plays the music and he can see him washing his car every day (the landlord has a business on the first floor opposite the neighbor's apt). I'm a single girl living alone and I don't like confrontation, especially since this guy has a chip a mile long on his shoulder and is always ready for a fight. I have been living with it for two years and telling myself that maybe he doesn't realize he's spraying my car or that he's parking with part of his hitch in my spot (though he can easily see it when he sits on his deck every night) but it upsets me anyway. This past week I bought a new SUV. I went out early yesterday figuring he'll wash his truck while I'm gone. I got home and parked my car and a half hour later he came out and started washing his right next to mine and sprayed my new SUV all over except for the driver's side. I was furious. The only thing I can do to get some satisfaction is to wait until he washes his car and then go outside and wash mine next to his so that his vehicle will be sprayed. Then if he comes out and says something, I can explain that the same thing happens to my car when he washes his truck. If that doesn't work, then I have more vengeful ideas though he wouldn't know they came from me.

Hi- Some of you clearly have not spent much time in apartments. Normally you hear light walking and the ocassional ruckus when they have a party, which is bearable, especially if they are kind enough to let you know in advance. When you have truly noisy neighbors they ruin your life, you have no privacy nor peace, no ability to think or decompres in your own home. Your TV is overwhelmed by TV or music from upstairs and the base from their music waked you up every morning. It is intolerable. Your ignorant suggestion that everyone in an apartment disturbed by other wear earplugs is ridiculous . . . I can just see my husband, or guest, and our housekeeper all wearing earplus all the time. No normal conversation, no ability to watch tv, etc. Sounds like a good life. As a very long-time apartment resident, I have the followign advice . . . Please carefully check your lease for a "quiet enjoyment" or similar clause that not just requires carpeting, but also entitles you to the landlord's protection from other tannant's misuse. Contrary to some of the posters comments, the laws in many places don't just require some random floor covering but "adequate carpeting or similar noise-reducing materials" � their rugs are not adequate at noise-reduction. If people want to live in a communal place in a manner that significantly disturbs others it is their own responsibility to correct it. I'd call the police and ask them to visit your place, have some friends who visit your apartment and document the noise they hear, and ask the Mgt to come by. Then tell the Mgt SPECIFICALLY what you want -- say either: (1) they give the people upstairs the choice of 14 days to fully carpet with (over foam or similar padding) the place; or (2) tell them to move to another apartment in the building with the understanding that if they get similar complaints from their new neighbors they will be evicted. Tell the landlord that if they can't do this for you, you will have no choice to go to LL-T court -- that you really don't want to, but if you've mamaged for 13 years w/o significant complaint, they can't say you are difficult or unusually sensitive! We live in a NYC Co-op and the people above insisted on not carpeting their apartment b/c they have allergies the are the world's heaviest stompers, are often making noise at 1, 2, 3am, have a hyperactive 4 year-old (not normal child noise) who they allow to play with balls, etc., and run nonstop as early as 6am and as late as 1am, and another child learning to walk using a roller-walker. Also, they like to move the furniture around a lot on the HW floors! They were allowed to wake us up at 1am the night before my brothers wedding with their stomping, but if we call (while their child still is running around at 9pm) they complain we wake up their other child, so we stopped calling. It got so bad my husband started hitting the ceiling with a broomstick when it got to the point we were going to rent a hotel room. We have been living in nonstop hell for 4 years and are moving to another apt in the bvuilding just to get away from them (we own the place so we lost a good mortgage rate and had to pay more for the new place) -- that is how bad it is. We first called up a few times, then asked the doormen to call after they'd swear and yell at us to suck it up. Then after numerous houseguest and visitor, and even my housekeeper (working in NYC apts for 25 years) says they are the worst she's ever heard, we started documenting the noise -- loud bangs, thumps, running literally going on four hours to a non-human degree, etc. We had 6 months of tears, frustration and very detailed documentation and presented the info to the Board - along with the doormen's documentation of the calls. The management finally investigated and immediately insisted they carpet the place with padding. They complained about their allergies, but I have very serious dust and mold allergies and was able to find hypoallergenic carpeting and just vacum regularly and use air-purifiers. It is my problem, not someone elses. The carpeting helped the furniture and the heavy walking, which now is annoying dull thuds, but did nothing for their child who PREFERS running on the HW areas, and they pull up the carpet do let her play with balls, and for the younger one to use her roller/walker. The Board member assigned to our matter when the noise didn't stop just said he sometimes heard the people above he and deals with it -- he doesn't understand we sometimes have 18 hr days of noise -- every single day! The neighbor to the side of them just sound-proofed his own walls with quietrock at great expense, and we were advised that ceiling sound-proofing is significantly less effective than floor sound-proofing. Some people take no personal responsibility for their actions and really should find places to live where they can be on a ground floor! Sorry for the venting, but I totally sympathesize with you and am so sorry you have to live with this. As these people who have never heard it can tell, it make people very irritable and ruins your quality of life . . .

mrb627, when we take the duct off the dryer, the loud whine comes from the back of the dryer where the hose would be connected. The first Electrolux i tried was an IQ touch which was the same way, very loud whine and also outside coming from vent. I returned them because the washer sounded like a tank when it spun,and didn't want to tolerate the noise of them. Then i got an Electrolux Wave Touch, the dryer had a good size dent in it when it was delivered, so i had to use it until the replacement came in and it was not as loud as the replacement. at least i could ignore it better. this sounds like a jet airplane,that kind of whine. i know that these put out a high velocity of air, but i wondered if putting the heavy foil one on it would make any difference in the sound. It may be something that i will just have to live with, but you can hear it over the TV, and i have to not have it on when sitting on the patio.