can i write this blog if i havent joined a neighborhood blog group because that page is currently unavailable and im not on the internet because my neighborhood is so far out there we dont get internet? looks like i can in fact write this blog so here goes.

So i'm sitting in my minivan at the end of a 1/2 mile dirt road driveway i hacked out of the bush with my ancient backhoe the guy who drilled my well sold me for too much but i'm sitting there where my new driveway meets the county maintained road waiting for the sheriff to show up but they're evidently having problems finding my driveway according to the animal control officer who was just in contact with them on her 2 way. cell phones are iffy out here where snakes, rabbits, coyotes, and hawks rule. i bought this land after arriving in san diego from another life raising kids and working overseas. i got the call: an elderly parent lived alone and needed help. so we sold the house and convinced the kids and ourselves how great it will be to move to america. we had taken them to disneyland when they were little and visited relatives in san diego so they were sort of for it, but starting high school in another country and leaving friends behind was cause for trepidation. when we arrived here the housing boom had reached tsunami proportions and an old house on a postage stamp sized block of land was minimum half a million. even my dads modest little place was valued anywhere from 4 to 500,000, judging by the vulture real estate junk mail invitations for free valuations jamming his post box daily. we left a rural lifestyle on acreage with a few chickens, cats dogs, a pony, and the thought of cheek to jowl suburbia didn't appeal.
with binoculars compass and daypacks, my wife and i trekked acres for weeks with poorly mapped land descriptions from land agents. the raw land invariably without visible markers so we didn't even know what the property dimensions, in question, were. most of the land we walked was vertical which was probably why it was for sale, expensive to develop. the views at times were stunning; panting and sweating we'd make it to the top of a hill and look around 360 degrees: mr laguna in the distance dusted with snow, craggy bell bluff, flat top la mesa over the border in baja, or off on the far horizon pt. loma and the coronado islands floating on an ocean mirage. and the silence. it was so quiet it almost hurt my ears. and always the sweet pungent aroma of sage. we fell in live with the back country and couldn't give up searching for our place in it. the road went from a two lane asphalt line down the middle to a single lane asphalt to a gravel strech to dirt and then it just stopped in a grove of old oak trees. we got out of the rent a dent and it felt like sherwood forest. suddenly barking, deep growling and many large dogs, a mastiff, several pit bulls come straight for us and no not robin hood, but a stocky limping, pony tailed beer bellied guy came lumbering behind his dogs, "you're trespassing" resting each hand gun hip holsters. it was a shock, after 20 years in a country where guns are banned, the sight of this pistol packing character and his pack of canines was unsettling. we said we were looking at the property for sale and he said "well this is my property and it's not for sale." by that time we were in the rentadent as 6 slathering jumping cujos clawed at our rapidly rolling up windows. the next day we managed to get the sellers agent to drive out with us to show us the actual boundaries. the dogs were there to greet us with a salivating cacophony and the agent ordered them back with a stick but she was unsuccesful finding any land markers, her brother wouldn't get out of the car. so we went back to her office, 40 minutes away and looked at some maps. the land was undulating according to the topographic map, not vertical; a big plus. room for corals, barn, house gardens, ; perfect. so offer, counteroffer, title search, disclosures,suddenly we owned the 19 acres. The dogs? well...maybe we could make frriends with them. o.k. that plan didnt work. the dogs were trained to kill other animals. despite the hoods large acreages, word came through; that pack had killed a 7 year old neighbors puppy, that pack had torn the face off another neighbor's sheep, that pack had killed another neighbor's black lab in the shared dirt road easement, and "not robinhood's wife" had stood there one night with a flashlight encouraging on her pack of ravenous monsters. animal control was called. citations were delivered to the owners, (our neighbors.) the pack attacked me several times, more dept. of animal services (d.a.s.) citations. my wife and kids were afraid to come out to the property. i asked d.a.s. why the owners couldn't be ordered to build a fenced enclosure for their pack of vicious dogs? the d.a.s. leiutenant advised me that they don't have that authority. the owner can say they keep their dogs in the house all the time and that's good enough for the d.a.s. so i had to build a fence. yeah, a 4000 foot fence around the whole 19 acres. getting the t posts into the decomposed granite was about impossible. i had to rent a 90 pound pneumatic driver and large trailer compressor and drive those babys in every 10 feet into ground as hard as cement. just placing the driver on a post took 3 guys and by that time it was dead summer. omg. the time, the expense, the effort. o.k. took months but got us fenced in. but wait, near the ravines, the dogs dug under the fence and continued attacking us, and we found out, pepper spray didn't work on the pit bulls. take pictures, never go out with out a camera and a baseball bat. show d.a.s. "look my property is completely fenced and these dogs are still invading and marauding." d.a.s. days "all we can do is forward it to the court. but there are many cases in front of yours. " i then starting packing a pistol. each morning i'd ride my quad around the perimeter and look for holes they've dug under my fence, place big rocks in holes, keep vigilant, hear growling, look up,pit bull lunging for me, grab pistol and shoot. no time to aim. bullet grazes its neck, yelps and runs up hill towards area of looser earth and under fence. i head for the trailer, call 911, "i just shot a dog that was about to attack me..." follow dispatch directions, put gun in locked box on table, go look for the dog to assess wound. animal control arrives, i tell her , show her what happened, she goes next door (600 feet) and checks out dog, then comes back and saysthe sheriff cant find our place and could i go up the hill and out to the county maintained road and wait for the sheriff which i do. while im sitting in my quad at the end of the road the dogs owners wife (evidently they were now divorced) she drives by and when she sees me she screams you shot my dog" and her truck fishtails away on the dirt road. my wife back at the trailer had just called me and said to come back down as animal control just heard from the sheriff that they werent coming out afterall.
then my wife calls 911 to confirm the sheriff will not be coming out because we have to leave for work and the whole tone at dispatch changes. they are sending out a "unit" and could someone meet them at the end of the long driveway? so i take the minivan up and they keep my wife on the phone for about 20 minutes. meanwhile i hear a helicopter and i wave "here we are" and suddenly 6 sheriff cars pull up around me in a dust cloud. i'm ordered at gunpoint out of my car face down, legs spread, handcuffed pushed in back of one of the sheriff cars, then they drive my minivan down to the trailer and all the squad cars follow. they go inside the trailer and ask my wife for the gun in the locked box which she gives them. then they drive me back to the end of the driveway where the dogs owner is. they show her the gun and she nods then they take me to the station where i have heart problems pass out and they take me to the hospital where im shackled to a bed. tests done then booked into jail about midnight and get bailed out about 5 am . my wife had to meet king stahlman and put up the property for collateral for the 95k bond for "terrorism" "brandishing a weapon" and "cruelty to animals." well we were dumbfounded and yeah...angry. what was happening? shooting a vicious animal in self defence on my own property and charged with terrorism, threatening someone with a gun and cruelty to animals? well in the fullness if time, it came out that the dog owner called 911 when she drove by me waiting for the sheriff, and she claimed to dispatch that i had said "i shot your dog and your next you f@#%g bitch" and pointed a gun at her! this was a lie which i had to prove in court and thanks to my video surveillance cameras, d.a.s. and witnesses testimonies i was exonerated, all charges against me dropped, while she was found guilty of malicious prosecution, slander, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. she was ordered to move or face her many dog violations in court. so within 4 months she took her dogs and moved but the civil case took 3 years. so the hood has become pretty peaceful here but i can honestly say i know what you mean when you mention the neighbor from hell.