Too Many Pigs
My parents have lived in the same house for over 40 years.
The whole time they've been there they've had the same neighbor on one side. I'm not really sure what his deal is. Apparently he is a talented engineer so I've been told.
When I was a kid, the place next door was overgrown with blackberry. There was a house they lived in that was on stilts. It always looked weird and almost cartoony to me. There was no real reason for it to be this high up.
The neighbor got another house delivered if that's the right term. It sat on top of a bunch of 40 gallon drums, the plan was to take the roof off of it and slide it under the original house? I'm not sure how that was going to work.
Over time both of those houses collapsed.
In the mean time the neighbor got his hands on some classic cars, they were dumped down the back of the property. Before the trees grew tall and the weeds and grass took over people would sometimes stop and ask where the neighbor was, people wanted to check on these cars, from a distance they looked like a specific model they were after.
The neighbor would be away for months at a time. Working at factories during shutdowns apparently.
He had many different woman, fathered a bunch of children. All the while adding to the collection of stuff next door to my parents.
He once got his hand on a prototype machine that produced pine oil (I think that's what it was) with grand plans of doing something with that. Over time the machine rusted and was taken over by more weeds and blackberry.
At some point a refrigerated truck turned up. It's what he lived in for a long time. In the last couple of years he got his hands on a lot of 40 gallon drums, my estimation would be around 50 - 60 of them. What they contained and what the plan was I have no idea.
People come looking for the neighbor, asking my parents if they have seen him, why? We have no idea. It's hard to know sometimes if he is actually there. Between the broken machinery, blackberry and god know what else it's sometimes hard to see a human figure.
One of his many kids took over the property apparently. Not sure what that meant legally, but practically it meant some portacom type portable buildings turned up. The neighbor, or some of the kids live in those... I think.
They got power hooked up to the property. Unsure if it ever had power, but if it did, this must have been the first time in at least 20 years.
There's also been animals. One time he had a bull in there. It would escape and go down the road. Locals would round it up and get it back to the neighbors. I have a vague memory of cows escaping and ending up in our front yard, most of this happens when he isn't there.
Most recently he's got 2 large pigs. My mum throws them scraps over the fence. Now there's piglets, 12 of them in total. After escaping a few times the neighbor sorted out securing his place, for a little while.
Now my mum is on the lookout for them when they escape and come over to start digging whatever they want.
Today was mothers day in my part of the world. We went and visited my mum and dad. They were good. My mum stayed in the kitchen most of the time, keeping watch out of the window. Yelling out the pigs are back, then storming off outside.
What is a 76 year old woman supposed to do when a drove of pigs come crashing through the crappy wire fence? Well she grabs a water pistol and starts squirting them, driving them back to where they are supposed to be.
Once the neighbor shows up sometime in the future they'll let him know, he'll then try and sort something out.
Oh and his latest thing he's been interested in apparently is doing something with batteries, I'm not sure what type, how many or even where he is getting them from. All I know is the plan involves burning them.
There's always something going on next door.