She would not live in the Gulch. If the shield was up, John Gault would not have allowed her in. She would be too busy telling everyone else what is wrong with them.

Yup. Lots of things are, demonrats project their fascism onto everyone else, then look innocent and blather about something racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. All of their statements are emotional, vice rational. Same thing here, property rights are anti state, so must be eliminated. "We WILL tell you what lawn decorations are allowed" BS.

By and large, HOAs tend to be fascist organizations.

Some people simply have too much time on their hands because that do nothing of real importance. This woman should volunteer at the Food Shelf...then she wouldn't have time to be offended by frog statues. Her attitude bans her from living in the Gulch.

Pretty much. Exactly what Ayn Rand was fighting, mob rule...

This is exactly the type of behavior that has led to idea behind 'wokeness' in today's world. Everyone seems to have the power to exert their own influence on others, to be the arbitors of taste, good or bad, and of behavior. Conformity and unity are good hallmarks of socialism and the radicals. It used to be 'live and let live' or 'ther's no accounting for taste' but now it subject to the concensus of the mob as to what is allowed. The idea of a HOA should be anathema unless the association owns the property outright it should have no say in what is done to the property within legal limits. There is no Constitutional RIGHT not to be offended, you have to live with it because what you do may offend others just as much!

I would love to get one to stand next to my bigfoot....

Licking frogs: make sure they're turned the right way.
Reminds me of a joke: The usual:
Princess finds frog, Froh speaks, asks princess to kiss it to turn it into a Handsome Prince.
Princess fails to kiss frog, puts it in her pocket.
Frog" "Ribbett! What are you doing?"
Princess: "I'm the most beautiful princess in the land. I don't need any more Handsome Princes; I have dozens. But ~nobody else~ has a Talking Frog!!"

They're afraid of anyone who knows the rules that they know but ~we~ aren't supposed to know. Using terms like 'whereas', 'ex post facto', 'habeas corpus' and 'plaintiff' usually scares them off.

I grew up in the 1960s on a 7-acre farm in rural America (30 miles southwest of Portland). At that time, our property was the smallest property in the area (now, with all the sell-offs and subdivisions, our 7 acres seems to be the largest property in the neighborhood). But, back in the 1970s-80s, it was just understood that someone's property is THEIR property to do with as they please. Back then, our neighbors to the north and to the east (across the road) raised chickens commercially (thousands in their chicken coops). During the summer months, all that chicken manure tended to breed flies, so there were always a dozen or more buzzing around in our living room, and we just believed that that was just the way it was. It never occurred to us that we should complain to our neighbors! We also enjoyed target shooting on our property, and the neighbors couldn't complain about the noise because they enjoyed target shooting too! If someone did something on THEIR property that anyone thought was weird or strange, well, we thought they were weird or strange, but complain? Are you kidding? Private property is private property! Now, if they were target shooting in our direction without a proper backstop, that would be different. But people out in the country "mind their own business!" - WOW! What a concept, so "out of vogue" today!

I'm sure she might have an issue with my front yard statue, he's made out of concrete and weighs in at 1300 pounds. He guards my flag which can not be an issue.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgczarxo0kl...

Very funny!

When I was living in Ventura County, CA, I occasionally got letters from the city about upkeep., The things where reasonable I fixed. But some stuff was mystifying. How do you define an "overgrown" bush? Anyway, I started all communications - per snail mail - with versions like "Before proceeding, I reserve to myself all rights due to me under Anglo-Saxon Common Law, the Magna Carta, the US Constitution and the Universal Commercial Code"
I think it worked, in the sense that the underlying intended message was "don't push too hard, I might push back".

I liked the little froggy too. Even if I didn't, it certainly wouldn't affect home prices in the neighborhood.

Odds are these parents had a BAD reaction to licking frogs in college.

But agreed. this is what PARENTING is a bout!

Yep, we have a few fireman in the neighborhood, I know most of them. We have a few police, they know my wife (She's a lead foot, LMAO)

It is amazing how much power a pissed off resident can have over a HO board by going and banginng on every door in the neighborhood and asking all the neighbors to join you in suing the board. Save the HOA presidents door for the end...when you get there he will answer with the phone in his hand with the 5th neighbor in a row calling him to tell him about it. You just then look him in the face and ask if he wants to join you in suing the board. Have your clipboard in hand. They will think twice about screwing with you again after you show you are willing to make their life hell.

Yes, when we first moved there, our HOA board were ghosts. NEVER available, NEVER answered questions - simply horrible. So, it took us three years but we finally got a quorum and voted the lot of them out. Now, they are available, and they explain the reasoning behind every decision. But I DO get what you mean.

It is bad enough to have to rent your property from the government (property tax) and then do the idiotic thing of signing a contract with your neighbors that lets them legally tell you how to use your property. Only busybodies do that. Also, besides the taxes, another tax, the association fee, is added on.

We bought in a neighborhood where we noticed a lot of police vehicles parked in driveways. Although they don't work any longer than anyone else (they don't "police" the neighborhood at all and I don't blame them for not doing that.... it would be awkward at best), we hoped it would reduce any temptation of property crimes in the area. I do think it actually helped. We never had any problems with crime, but a few of the police did!

And in my FB group I asked for help with my smoke alarms and a fireman in the 'hood offered to replace them ALL for me (way up high on a ladder) if I would buy them and have them ready for him (this was while my husband was working out of town). Would take no pay, so I donated $100 in his name to Fallen Firefighters.

Many if not all public servants DO tend to make good neighbors.

There are 2 rubs with HOA's 1. people don't follow the rules or even read the covenants [this included board members] and 2. The enforcement is spotty and capricious depending on who is on the board.

I agree. My neighborhood had a similar but worse issue. People in the middle of the block just up and decided to paint their house black, without getting approval from the architecture committee.

Now, I DO SEE the thing about "it's MY house" and "I'll paint it whatever color I want."...I really DO get that....but.

These people signed a paper that said they would request approval before making changes (HOA covenant). They did not do what they said they would do. In addition, if they don't have to follow the rules (as I pointed out in my HOA FB group) NEITHER DO I!! And I reminded everyone in the group that if nothing was done about this, their copy of the covenant would be a good substitute for toilet paper, maybe someday.

The people were eventually fined $2,000, as opposed to being required to sandblast. Really the only thing I care about it at this point is that my house just went up for sale, and I want to wring every single penny I can get out of it! If any prospective buyer sees that house (fortunately it's not too close) they likely will not buy. I want my house to sell quickly and for TONS of money. That is, in fact, why we bought in an HOA to start with.

Editing to add: I hardly see anything wrong with that frog, though. That would NEVER be an issue in our HOA, and not only that, our board is made up of some really great people.

I remember Neil Boortz used to speak about the horrors of HOAs. We did accounting for one, and they fought about everything, no flag visible above back fence, one time it was sceen door color of one condo, only to find it looked different in shade! We have an HOA in our rural sub, one woman wanted French street lights in front of each hour, we voted that down, as we have our own which fits our house Across the street, a neighbor into Hummel figureines and Persian rugs, had a fit when we put up a ranch entranceway. She got over it. It fits the pines trees and mid-centruy style of our house, she had a hideous white garage door which drew the eye if you drove up the sreet. We learned to live in harmony as individuals. We do have rules, no livestock, no fence in front of house, okay anywhere else, but those were in place when we moved in. One lady still has her Trump sign up, will not give up, and I kinda like her determination, but we took ours down.

Honestly, we let it continue with the "No Fault" America of the late 60's.
Responsibility starts at home by setting the example you want your spawn to be able to observe.
Blame starts in the mirror!

I can inderstand the kid having a fear of unfamiliar things. My daughter was afraid to go to bed (around age 3) after seeing the 'Bug's Life' movie. I went in one night and she said "Listen! There they are!" "What?" "The baby owls! They're going to eat us!" I listened and realized what she was hearing. "Those are crickets. The little bugs we use for fishing."
She thought about it for a minute, then "Oh. OK." and rolled over and went to sleep.
Perhaps introducing the kid to a real frog and letting her know that they help us by eating mosquitos would be a better course of action. Although in this day and age, "AArrrgh! Frogs! Warts!" would probably be the reaction.