Property Rights

The other day I saw a video clip someone posted on FB and it's kind of concerning.  It was of Harris talking to some of her cronies about how they could just take someone's patent.  And to her it seemed like something funny and fun to do.  Like it was nothing.

A patent is a property right.  You come up with an invention, you patent it so everyone knows it's YOURS.  This thing you created came out of your head and you made it real.  You should profit from it.  I'd say in perpetuity, but those things don't last forever.  Still, for as long as they last, they're yours.  

Kind of like copyrights.  

If someone in power is willing to steal a patent, it's not that big a step for them to just go ahead and steal your copyright, too.  Basically, if they want something, it's theirs to take.  Sort of like a whole section of our populous these days.  (If you haven't been paying attention, there have been hoards of people taking things that don't belong to them.  It'll get worse, trust me.  Sort of a 'if she's doing it, why can't I' mindset.)

Sure, they'll probably start with the conservatives and other people who aren't on their side, but before long, they'll come for the liberals, too.  Or, if a liberal's property is desirable to them, they'll skip the line and go straight for the throat no matter who is it.

Jus' sayin'.

I mean, I've even seen it here on my little plot of land.  Some people who occasionally come up from a rather large city south of here decided it would be okay to wander the woods... woods that do not belong to them... and one day they just popped out of the woods into my yard.  They were going on 'an adventure', they said.  They didn't even bother to ask if it was okay to trespass on my property.  I would've told them no, but still.  (And maybe that's why they didn't ask.)  We have our reasons, but we don't really need one to stand up and say 'this piece of property belongs to us - stay off'.  Hell, we don't even need to say it.  Property doesn't have to be posted No Trespassing for it to apply.  (It's easier to prosecute when there's a sign, but you don't need it.)  Those people don't see us walking on their land - and they have waterfront, so it would be awesome to just walk across their lawn and fish off their backyard.  We don't do that because those people have rights.  We respect that.  

Our books are our property, too.  We sometimes share our property for free.  Get the word out there, maybe pick up some residual sales.  Sharing it once for free doesn't mean it's always free, so you can take it and share it, too.  It means for this space of time, we would like for you to read it and appreciate it without having to pay for it.  Pass your love of the book along, not the book itself.

I find really quite concerning and more than a little depressing that the second in charge of our great nation has so little regard for property rights..  The only thing I can do is write posts like this and hope that come November enough people realize the truth and vote accordingly.

:shrug:

Out in the Woods with Hot Pink String

Since I don't have anything really writerly to talk about today, I decided to post here.  (Outside the Box = writerly stuff.  Here = everything else and also some writerly stuff.)

Yesterday, I went to Wallyworld and bought a new Christmas tree.  While I was there, I also picked up two spools of hot pink mason's twine.

Why?  Well, for the past six years we have been unsure of our property borders.  Recently, the guy to the north of us had his property surveyed.  This gave us our NW pin placement.  With this, we wanted to see exactly where that north border was.

Taking the hot pink mason's twine (the twine was hot pink, not the mason) (hot pink because that was the only color they had besides white) (mason's twine because that was the only colored stuff they had in longer length spools) and some stakes, we went into the woods to stretch a length of line from out bottom (NE) pin to the top pin.

Now, if the line had been where I thought it was previously, the whole thing would've been much easier.  I've spent countless hours clearing a path along what I assumed was our north border.  Unfortunately, I had the angle wrong because we never had western pins.  (Still don't have a SW pin, but we can calculate that from the others.)  And my line angle was off by the time it reached the road.  Anyway, there was a lot of crap we thought was the other guy's property in the way that needed clearing.  By yesterday, we'd gotten most of it cleared to the point where we felt confident we were ready to run the line.  And we were like 99% right.

We tied the bottom off to a sturdy stake and off we went.  So there we are, Hubs and I, in the woods pulling a hot pink string about the diameter of yarn, but stronger, up a steep hill.  He was in front, clearing a path, and I was behind pulling the string.  Lucky for us, no big trees were in the way.  Some little trees were sacrificed, but those were mostly buckthorn and spice bush.  Go a about 100 feet, check the angle, plant a stake.  Another 100', check the angle, plant a stake or move a stake to re-calibrate it so everything was in line.

It took us about 2 hours.  We now have four stakes in roughly the right line to make us a northern border.  We know where we can mow and we know where we can safely trounce around without wandering onto our neighbor's land.

Meanwhile, the deer kept walking up and trying to make it to the feeding area.  Then they'd see us, huff and run the other way.  At one point, when we were looking down toward the bottom, we saw a half dozen deer jumping our hot pink line.  After we finished, Hubs put out the evening feed and the deer swarmed the yard.  We ended up with about a dozen hungry does and fawns.  They had to wait a bit, but no harm done.

The hardest part?  Respooling 450 feet of hot pink string.  LOL, okay, that part wasn't hard just tedious. 

I know, I know.  Most people would think 'why bother?' but we're very conscious of property rights here at Sanderson, Inc. LLC.  Don't want to be touching land and trees that don't belong to us.  As such, there's this one cedar whose limbs hang over our yard and when Hubs mows, he's had to duck and stuff for the past six years.  Now we know that tree is ours and I'll be trimming those damn limbs.  Yay!

And of course, this means loads more things for me to do in the woods.  Woohoo.  =o)