I agree with hoghaven, if this is the first time his cattle have gotten out and onto your property I'd wouldn't call the sherif on him. If he's offered to pay you for damages give him the benifit of the doubt. Also calling the police the first time someones cattle get out is liable to give you a reputation of being a crabby town person among the "real" farmers. Before you escalate this you need to decide how much getting along with your neighbor is worth to you. You may be able to hire a lawyer and get him to pay for a contractor to replace some pine trees and clean up the poop, but is that going to be worth the bad feelings that come along with it? My advice is let this one slide, graciously take what he gives you, and if this kind of thing becomes a habit with him then you'll be more than justified when you act more drastically.

I had a couple of pink flamingos in my yard for awhile. I named them 'Tongue' and 'Cheek'. They finally died. I think of,embarrassment.

Does anyone think the historic village market has potential? There's another one in an old mill town, very small space, not accepting new vendors (I've been trying for 4 years), bad parking but it's a yuppie town. They're going to be re-doing the intersection next year, and I don't know how that will affect the market (I think it will probably close during construction, it will be a mess). But it's Sunday morning, and it's very busy. The village I'm thinking about might not have the cachet of the other since the Hitchcock Chair factory closed, but both are on rivers, scenic drives, historic districts, and IMHO Riverton is more quaint and walkable than Collinsville. The fair grounds are spacious and well-known, the fair has been going on for over 100 years and is pretty well-attended, being the last fair of the season in the area. But that's the only big draw to the town now, they don't use the fairgrounds for festivals or anything the other 51 weekends a year. Of course we would have to advertise heavily but the town might help out (market fees or a large portion would have to go to the Ag Society that owns the property) since they've been trying to get more tourists into the historical/retail district. Of course I expect locals might do some shopping there too, though an awfully lot of people have gardens there (as opposed to Canton/Collinsville with the McMansions). So there won't be as many local regulars in Riverton but it's the best I can come up with since other markets are full, expensive, and/or have absurdly short seasons (a new one started in Avon this year was only July and August and $30/week!). I looked into a banner at Vistaprint and it's $60, will have to wait for a good sale (33% off just ended). As I said, I have been wearing the same almost-JD-green shirt all month, and they only had me move my booth this week b/c there were half the vendors that we usually have, and I would have literally been stuck my myself at one end. The move up to the MM's end seems to have helped - I think the lady was confused b/c there was NOBODY at the end where the apiary and I usually are, near the entertainment at the end of the row where the orchard and BBQ sauce guy usually are. There were at least 5 booths missing from that row this week, maybe it wasn't 100ft from where I usually set up, but it was definitely more than 50ft (the length of my house) - the entire width of the parking lot from the building (strip mall) to the curb. I could have set up in the apiary's spot and been next to the conventional farm's double booth, but I don't think the MM wanted their stall and the soap lady's to be the only ones on that side. I do plan on getting a banner, but have been spending $ on the HT this year. People don't really read anything anyway - I have the white board out with prices, sometimes I also put prices on the "CT Grown" bin tags, no one reads the white board, lady asked if my tomatoes "would taste like local" (?) another asked if they were CT Grown(???), and everyone asks me how much something is, even if it's priced in both places. The banner would just be something memorable for the graphic like (hopefully) a distinctively colored shirt. I don't expect people to actually remember the farm name or any other info, just recognize the graphic when they see it. If I can get shirt(s) in some color other than white I'll do that, that's why I'm thinking blue full-front apron with embroidered name, my business cards (which I've been handing out a lot of, but no new hits on my FB page) have a blue floral design and farm name in script, I've designed a banner with similar (gray) floral corners and blue script, with address/phone in block print. Just waiting for the price to come down, will get that for next year.

We don't do anything special for our two German Shepherds except we are religious about walking them everyday, usually about 6 or 8 blocks, on weekends a little longer. Even though we have a backyard, we can see that they love the stimulation (and probably the feeling of being part of the pack) when DH and I and the two Shepherds head out the door. I've heard that a huge part of their brain is for their sense of smell. Walking where other dogs have walked gives them a lot more stimulation than they get just in our back yard. But also, one of them, Ginger has more of a herding instinct. She and I are usually walking behind DH and Spooky (the male Shepherd). She stays right behind DH, with her nose about 1 inch behind the back of his knee. Then she also does the zig, zag routine back and forth like she's herding but always stays just behind DH (when we are walking across the bridge or somewhere narrow). She knows her place in the pack (I'm at the end, LOL). They are fairly well behaved though rather spoiled. They never try to dig out of the back yard, we have a doggy door they can use as frequently as they like. So I think the walk (and other playing around we give them now and then) is all they need as their "JOB".