Closing A Gate.

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In a "Past Life" I had 12 horses and and various other animals. I had a home in the middle of a large tract of pasture with a large barn and various other buildings. This was enclosed with a study fence with a front and rear gate. Both gates opened on a travel road.
I had a large printed signs at each gate "PLEASE CLOSE GATE-HORSES IN FIELD".
Vistors would open the gate, drive in and keep going to the house leaving the gate open.
While rounding up the escaped animals, the visitor (s) would state, "Gee, I am sorry, I forgot".The same visitor (s) would do this over and over each visit. I finally started locking the gates.
I decided that some people have a mental block on closing gates/doors.
 
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I feel your pain. People will throw trash out their car window in your pasture. They will run over your irrigation pipe. They will spin their tires and rut-up your field roads. These same folks would (pass) a brick if you threw a hamburger wrapper on their lawn, or drove across their lawn and created ruts. In short, most people do not know how to respect private property.
 
I had that same problem with a friend who likes to fish in our pond. He knew I kept the gate closed so my dogs (when they were still here) could not get to the highway. Nice guy - wouldn't do it deliberately, I'm sure, but I guess since they were not his dogs, he just couldn't keep it to mind to be bothered. :mad:
 
I had a friend that would come into my home and leave the front door open. One day I asked him "were you born in a barn?" He replied in his thick southern accent, "yep, my daddy built it on a hill, the door closed by itself.":D
 
Happens in the burbs also. We have 1/2 acre in suburban Philly and keep our gate closed so our dog can have the run of the place. UPS guy left the gate open (in spite of the sign on your way out that says "PLEASE CLOSE GATE") and the dog ran out in the street and got hit by an SUV - good news - the dog lived - bad news - $1500 vet bill.:mad:
 
As an ex. horse owner I feel your pain and hope none of yours got injured while on their trip to the other side of the fence...
 
It's a misdemeanor to not close gates here.

People just don't understand the potential for property loss or traffic accidents.
 
Jimmy,

Our gates have one simple warnin...


Peligro
(Fuego Vivo Delante)

Danger
(Live Fire Ahead)


Su Amigo,
Dave
 
Unfortunately I don't believe the mental block stops there.If common sense and respect for others and their property were money I think most of the country would be bankrupt.A leading reason for "NO TRESPASSING"and "POSTED"signs.Cynical?Maybe but sadly true I believe.
 
Somewhere in my upbringing I was taught to leave farm and ranch gates as I found them after passage through. The reasoning being that the farmer/rancher probably wanted them open/closed for a reason.

I've generally carried this reasoning over to gates at smaller properties and also to doors.

Does this sound fair to y'all?
 
On a place with 45,000 acres, there's a lot of gates. Typical response from gate violators is.. "Oh, gee, I didn't realize anybody owned this land":confused::mad:
 
Years back I and another guard were manning a guard station where people came in one door and out the other. A guy walked through and didnt close the door, it was cold wet and windy. My buddy told him, close the door! Ya born in a barn? The old gruff called back, "Yeah I was! And every time I see a *** like you I get homesick!"
 
Somewhere in my upbringing I was taught to leave farm and ranch gates as I found them after passage through. The reasoning being that the farmer/rancher probably wanted them open/closed for a reason.

I've generally carried this reasoning over to gates at smaller properties and also to doors.

Does this sound fair to y'all?

Same way here, and I'm not much of a farm boy. i spent a lot of time hunting when I lived in Eastern Washington, and learned to be respectful of the land owners. Closing the gate, or asking if it should be closed if it's found open is just being polite.
 
Went hunting and fishing with my dad, and he carefully closed every gate we went through that was closed when we got there. He didn't say anything, but he gave me the "this is important to remember" look every time. I still remember it, and dad's been gone since '99.

ECS
 
I lead jeep ride every year. We travel across BLM land that has been fenced and is used for cattle. Out in the desert, closing a gate that needs to be left open might meant he cattle can't get to water. Opening a gate and leaving it that way might mean the cattle are spread all over the place. Might take days or weeks to get them back.

We've been doing this for a long time now, decades. The recent problem is eco-freaks, aka Greenies, purposefully change the position of the gates. They don't like it that a cattleman can use the land by paying rent per cattle unit. They don't even like cattle (they're veggies.) Worse, we're not allowed to shoot the mountain bikers that do the damage. Basically what they've done is inject their own political feelings into vandalism.

Because I don't live there, I don't get the chance to meet the cattlemen. But a friend who dose live there talks to them from time to time (sometimes the holder of the lease changes). So now we do know that one of 5 gates needs to always be closed.

We had a minor confrontation about 5 years ago. We got to that last gate and it was open. I was the tailgunner that day, so I got out and closed it. About a mile ahead we came to the intersection (Dead Horse Point Road) and there were a couple of hostile bikers. They demanded to know why we'd closed the gate. They'd opened it and left it that way on purpose. So one of our group tried to be kind of polite and told the guy "we closed it to keep the cattle in". The biker then said he'd left it open so his friends who were following wouldn't have to go to the trouble. Besides, he didn't see any cattle. Then I recalled seeing a few bikers about 5 miles back, having a rest off to one side.

To them, leaving a gate open was no big thing. So we can easily guess they're city folks. They come to the desert to play. At least they don't litter. And we're not allowed to shoot them. :(

Normally a meeting where someone starts to become confrontational can get tense fast. Your're 10 or 15 miles from any kind of habitation or store of any kind. The greenies don't mind getting in your face. That's bad form with a line of 30 jeeps. Nearly everyone would like to get out and have an old fashioned tussle. Worse for them, its not a line of jeeps, its an armed convoy. I don't know for a fact that every jeep has a gun inside, I only know about mine and my friends, but then I'm pretty sure some have more than one gun, and lots of tire irons.

If the bikers were armed, I have no idea where they'd hide it. Them trick pants made out of silk hides nothing (I know, its spandex.)

So were kind of at a stand off. Jeepers hate bikers and bikers hate jeepers. Hikers hate us all. And the land owners hate most of us, just for good measure. The land users, like the cattlemen have a huge investment in both time and money, so they don't like anyone who messes with their cattle or gates.

Leave the gate how you found it.
 
My neighbors didn't bother with the gate - they climbed my fence to fish in my pond without permission. They were adult-sized but obviously with no mental or moral development.
 
My Grandpa used to take me fishin' on other people's property when I was a kid.

I'm a city boy & know that "If it's open, leave it open. If it's closed, make dog gam sure ya close it behind ya.";)

Oh... and always offer the property owner some feesh!
 
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