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4th of July NIGHTMARE!

2K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  booner 
#1 ·
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, lol.

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 :shock:) 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 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 proceded 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, mixed in 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 guys yelled something about someone's vagina at one point, about 4 times in a row... Yeah, Bush Light is a flowin' now!

At midnight, we consider calling the sherrif. But, it's quite likely that one or more of the drunken revelers is from the sherrif'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. :shock:

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 guage 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 thier house with our 3/4 ton Diesel and rev it for about 20 minutes at 1 am :?.

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. :twisted:
 
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#2 ·
Yikes. Sorry to hear that my fellow southeners acted like total you-know-what's. Owning a gun down here is pretty handy(hence why we are all republicans and almost all are for the third amendmant). Our horses are used to the fireworks, but those stupid drunkards should have been more considerate of the 1000 lbs+ easily frightened animals at your house.

If it were me, I would have waited till the losers sobered up and gave them a nice, long piece of my mind.

Next year, bring out the shotgun and give 'em heck.
 
#3 ·
I don't know why the rest of the neighbors put up with it... Everyone has dogs and cats, and there are three other homes with horses besides ours and our neighbor's. Most seem to be Republicans, but I saw a lot of Obama stickers on cars last fall, so I know we're not alone, lol. (Yes, I am yellow-dog democrat, as is my country raised Arkansas DH, but we're all for the 3rd amendment, lol)

The problem with guns in this neighborhood is that we're surrounded by homes on all sides. There's hardly anywhere we could point the gun without aiming it toward someone's house... Which is illegal and definitely "not nice". Ugh. Maybe an air horn would be more appropriate? I've been wanting to upgrade the horn on my truck, lol.

But really though, these dumba$$es just DON'T CARE about animals or people. There are plenty of older folks in the neighborhood who I'm sure would have liked to have gotten to bed before midnight... And what about the possibility of war-vets living around here? I wonder how much valium and zanax they had to take last night??? Ugh. They just have no respect for their fellow man at all. It makes me sick.

I would have enjoyed 1-2 hours of fireworks, and been happy I lived next to someone willing to spend $5k+++ on fireworks, but around 11pm (after nearly 3 hours of constant fireworks from all sides) I was about to go stab someone...
 
#4 ·
Good grief! Your poor horses! THEIR poor horses!

I don't live in the South, but you'd think my hometown was transplanted directly from southern Alabama. Redneck heaven. We have some fireworks that go off in the area this time of year, but nothing ever like that! Hopefully they didn't get too drunk to realize what a wreck they caused when they came to this morning (or afternoon...). Morons.
 
#5 ·
I'm sorry that your horses got so afraid. The reality of it is though, you can expect people to be partying and shooting off fireworks on the 4th of July. You were warned that the people next to you do a big fireworks display every year. It doesn't even get dark until around 10 this time of year, so it is reasonable for people to be shooting off fireworks after that. I think that if you get out there tonight shooting your gun....your neighbors may decide to join you :lol:. If your neighbors are fine the rest of the year, I would just suck it up and be more prepared next year...maybe even considering bordering your horses for the night. There are people who have neighbors that are obnoxious all year round.
 
#7 ·
Yes, I expected a nice big fireworks display. And, it gets dark here at around 9pm. We have a lot of hills and mountains, with tall trees on them. I expected a 1-2 hour fireworks display, NOT FOUR HOURS of BIG fireworks. I'm talking BIG, like professional fireworks. Not the crap you can buy on the side of the road.

Everyone else but these two groups of DRUNKEN IDIOTS quit at a reasonable time. They continued on another TWO HOURS, until 1 am. You're telling me that you would put up with that? In a NEIGHBORHOOD!?!

Come on... :roll:

I'm not going to "border" my horses for a group of morons. We're either moving, or I'll call the cops. Those professional fireworks are NOT LEGAL unless you have a permit. I seriously doubt these "people" had permits. Plus, after 11 pm, it's considered a noise nuisance, even outside of city limits.
 
#6 ·
We moved south 8 years ago from PA (not fireworks legal). Our 25 acre farm has a 100+ house development bordering the back property line and our 6 acre pasture.

Fireworks are a fact of life on July 4th and New Year's Eve as well as whenever they want to celebrate something. The horses I originally came down with are gone and replaced by "southern" horses. I think they are so used to it that it doesn't seem to phase them. The thing I worry about more then the noise is a spark setting my fields on fire. Last night everyone must have been at professional displays because it was rather tame for once - thank goodness since Boomer has only been here for 3 weeks and Dude for 1 day.

I don't know how I would react if things were as nasty as at your place, Luvs2ride. Maybe look at it as being only 1 day out of the year.
 
#8 ·
Mine are southern horses. Bridgette, my mare, was bred in MO, lived in OK until she was 3, and has lived here in Arkansas for the past 7 years. My husband's gelding was born and raised here in Arkansas. I am used to fireworks. THIS, however, was totally uncalled for.

I guess I'm not getting the point across. It was FOUR HOURS of NON-STOP PROFESSIONAL GRADE fireworks. I'm not talking about some roman candles and bottle rockets. I'm talking about HUGE, multiple bloom displays, JUST LIKE you would see at the professional firework shows. Only they weren't shot out of professional cannons. They BARELY cleared the trees... I was sure someone was going to set a house on fire...

My horses (and dogs) are used to "normal" fireworks that you can buy at the road-side stands. Heck, we had some of those ourselves on new years (a quick 10 minute celebration might I add). This, was, ridiculous.
 
#9 ·
Sorry your horses and you had to go thru all that.The last few years WE have been the idiots w/ hours of fireworks, BUT we only have two neighbors to consider and I drugged the dog that hates them and took our horses to a safer locale where they were put in stalls securely for the night.
 
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