Trails

The weather this past week has been beautiful. On Labor Day, after spending two days in the house for no really good reason, I decided to go for a walk. I thought that 30 minutes out of the house would do me some good.


I walked to the end of the lane and found a trail that used to be railroad tracks. I walked on that for a few minutes and found some fields, woods and streams. I ended up meandering through the woods until I came to a small river. I followed the river. About 2 hours later I was in the next town over, Knaresborough. The weather was as near to perfect as one could hope for in September.


I spent about an hour in Knaresborough eating chicken and mushroom pies and drinking blackcurrant juice since I left the house with nothing more than my cell phone, wallet, and keys (everything else, you can buy on the way, right?). For the walk back I popped up the map and my position on my iPhone and walked home as directly as possible. I was on my couch eating popcorn and drinking some GeeBee in under an hour. All and all, a very pleasant day.

This past weekend I went for a run on the trails. I turned right instead of left and ended up in Starbeck, another part of Harrogate. After 30 or so minutes of running, I had to stop and find a trail back. I was hoping to make the run into a loop back up Skipton Road, but got a bit turned around. As much as I hate to admit it, I am a bit dependent on my iPhone. I tried finding paper maps at bus stops without luck and I didn't recognize any of the roads. When all was said and done, I walked/jogged home, finding short cuts through some fields, and made it back within the hour. Another fine morning.

What awaited for me at home was less pleasant. I'm still having issues with the neighborhood boys. They have taken to climbing on my sheds. I still laugh at myself every time I tell the kids to, "get off the shed." (That was a Will Ferrel line on Saturday Night Live, I think) At any rate, I spoke to a woman watching the boys and she was somewhat receptive to my asking her to keep the boys out of my yard, but a mere two hours later, they were running through.

As I was leaving on Saturday afternoon, one of the boys took to swearing at me and calling me names through a hole in the fence. I laughed it off, but when I got home later that night to find that there were scratch marks on my door, I wasn't laughing. I spend a couple of hours that evening trying to figure out the UK laws on how to deal with this type of situation. For better or for worse, property owners are a bit hamstrung here. It's not too dissimilar to the US, but where in the US I get the impression that the laws err on the side of the property owner, it seems that they err on the side of the trespasser in the UK.

In the end, I went out and bought 500g of 40mm (about 2") nails and put those on the vertical surfaces where the kids climb. I thought that that would be a good stop gap measure while I ordered an anti-climbing paint. The paint is something I learned about around midnight while researching on my iPhone. Basically, it never dries and it stains clothes. I figure that will be a good solution. It doesn't look terrible and it should have the desired effect.

About two hours after putting the nails in, I heard a commotion outside once again. Once again I went outside to see what was happening. I was surprised to find that the bratty red-haired kid was smashing the nails sideways with a hammer while being held on top of the shed by an adult. The man was surprised to see me and seemingly even more surprised that I confronted him.


As if it wasn't obvious, I told him that I put the nails in place because I was trying to stop the kids from climbing on the shed. I could tell he was really uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed for getting caught. He just kept cutting my off by saying, "yeah, ok," over and over again, but I was unrelenting. I was polite, calm, and collected, but I didn't let him walk away like he wanted to. I explained about the broken window that the kids admitted breaking, the two sections of fence that they admitted breaking, the torn up hedge, the swearing, and, what I consider to be the last straw, the scratched up door.

His only comment, as he was leaving, was that it wasn't his kid, but he would pass the message along. I'm not sure the message got passed.

So, that brings me to my new plan: anti-climb paint and a lot of spikes. I'm considering a thorny, climbing plant, but that would take a little while to grow. Long story short, I have run out of patience with the kids. My upstairs neighbor told me that the more they are told not to trespass, the more they make a point of doing it.

(Great defensive posture at this place. If I ever buy in the UK again...)

I feel a bit ridiculous, but I'm thinking of keeping a bucket of ice water by the door and dousing them as they pass through as the next step. I'm trying to decide whether or not that's over the line...