Noise & Stuff

Since our return from Newport, R.I., the donkeys have been very vocal. Maybe it's the cooler weather; maybe they have new donkeys; maybe they have jennies in season.  But they've been very, very vocal.  For instance, last night they started braying at 9:54 p.m. and they continued to bray until 10:07 p.m. - NON STOP!  It wasn't just one donkey, but a whole passel of them...  Mr. Squeaky, Foghorn, and one or two others.

Yesterday afternoon, Karen K. & I went to visit with Mrs. Perea, a neighbor.  Mrs. Perea is a sweet lady who had 82 years of life under her belt.  She's a lovely woman and she does not like the donkeys. One reason for her dislike is she is not in the best of health and the donkeys prevent her from getting a proper amount of rest.  Another reason is that she wants to sell her home, but she's concerned (legitimately) that having a small herd of donkeys so close to her home will affect the property's value. The donkey paddock in the valley is about 300' from her house and 45' from her fence line.

Mrs. Perea has good cause to be concerned and she isn't alone in her concerns about the effect that the establishment of a donkey rescue will have on property values.  It is a well known fact that animal noise and bad neighbors can and will reduce property values up to 20%!  So, if your home is appraised for sale at $100,000, you will only get about $80,000 for it.  That is a considerable chunk of change to lose!  Face it, for most of us, our homes are the biggest investment we have.  We have dumped many hundreds of thousands of dollars into our homes: purchase, taxes, insurance, improvements, and repairs, only to have our investment evaporate due to bad neighbors and noisy animals.

According to an article, Seven Neighborhood Threats to YourHome's Value, by Brian O'Connell, published in MSN Real Estate, bad neighbors can seriously affect the value of one's property.  Real estate professionals say that a bad neighbor is any home or business that turns people off.  

"A bad neighbor is one that has no consideration for the rest of the community," says Mindy Pordes, co-founder of Pordes Residential Sales & Marketing in Aventura, FL. "For example, someone who doesn't take care of the outside appearance of the home, such as the gardening, painting of the outside of the home, roof, garbage, and general upkeep.  In addition, a bad neighbor may have constant visitors taking up parking spaces, perhaps on the street, loud house parties, dogs that bark all night or stray cats lingering around."

Another article, Nine Things That Will Trash Your Home's Value, published in Business Insider on May 15, 2013 states 

"A nearby property's overgrown yard, peeling paint, and clutter can easily knock 5% to 10% off the sale price of your home, said Joe Magdziarz, the president of the Appraisal Institute and a real-estate appraiser with 40 years of experience.  A true disaster – a junky home in deplorable condition and a yard packed with debris – could cost you even more."

Our neighbors, Mr. Cross & Ms. Lotter, fit the description of "bad neighbors".  They have accumulated piles of trash and junk on their property, making their yard 'unkempt'.  The trash and junk are eyesores, as are the run in sheds in the donkey yards as they are in need of repair.  They have not been taking care of their home and there is missing siding, odd materials used to patch the house, old tires around the base, and, in general, it is an eyesore and in desperate need of repair. 

The same Business Insider article goes on to state, 

"Noisy neighbors (or their pets) are enough to drag home values down by 5 – 10%.   There's a reason prospective home buyers are advised to make multiple visits to homes and at all times of the day: Noise can be a property value killer."

The noise; the lack of upkeep; the piles of trash & junk; all of them result in decreasing the property values of the other homes around them.  The homes directly affected as they share property lines with these people and their noisy animals are:

1046 County Line Road (Zillow estimate - $189,000)
1052 County Line Road (Zillow estimate - $296,000)
1038 County Line Road (Zillow estimate - $253,500)
17 Whispering Elms (Zillow estimate - $187,600)
2 Log Cabin Lane (Zillow estimate - $168,200)
8 Log Cabin Lane (Zillow estimate - $167,500)
12 Log Cabin Lane (Zillow estimate - $172,200)

Other homes in close vicinity, especially those adjacent to where they hide donkeys at 12 Log Cabin Lane and 1058 County Line Road are:

14 Log Cabin Lane (Zillow estimate - $200,700)
5 Whispering Elms (Zillow estimate - $178,600)
1056 County Line Road (Zillow estimate - $162,100)
1058 County Line Road (Zillow estimate - $290,900)
1081 County Line Road (Zillow estimate - $276,300)

It's rumored that they have several other places where they are hiding donkeys in a never-ending shell game. I know I've personally seen a couple of donkeys down on Quiet Valley Loop, which is where one of their supporters lives.  Of course, there were only 2 donkeys at the Quiet Valley Loop location, not a herd of 13 or more.  Makes a difference with regard to noise.

Some examples of noisy donkeys in the news include:

Reese Witherspoon, neighbors complaining about noise levels

Neighbors in Brussels complain about Lola.

Joseph, the Brierley donkey heard 2 miles away

Donkey stories on Horse & Hound


Other donkeys have made the news for other reasons:

Abandoned donkeys

Donkeys Maul & Kill Pensioner

Texas Mayor Killed in Donkey Attack

By the way, BernCo Animal Services was called last night about the noise, just to notate how long they brayed.  

Braying Asses

Last night, I was looking forward to a good night's sleep.  I was exhausted from a day of working in the garden, moving bags of compost & soil, moving large clay pots, working the soil, and planting.  All of which was then topped by the stresses of dealing with braying asses - human & equine.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a surprise when I had a hard time falling asleep last night.  Don't know why, but even the ever reliable relaxation exercises weren't working. Finally, I fell asleep sometime between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.

I don't know why I even bothered with the exercises to sleep.  At 12:38 a.m., a braying ass awakened me.  It was one of the neighbor's personal asses. How do I know?  The decibel level.  The closer the braying ass, the louder it is.

So, what is a decibel?  The decibel (dB) is the unit used to measure the intensity of a sound. The  human ear is incredibly sensitive, allowing one to hear everything from your fingertips brushing over your skin to a loud rock concert. On the decibel scale, the smallest audible sound (near total silence) is 0 dB. A sound 10 times more powerful is 10 dB. A sound 100 times more powerful than near total silence is 20 dB. A sound 1,000 times more powerful than near total silence is 30 dB.

Decibel Levels of Common Noises

Now then, just how loud is a donkey?


According to those who dwell with donkeys, a donkey's braying can be heard at least 1.75 miles (3 kilometers) away, making it much louder than the call of a horse or mule. The main purpose of this peculiarly loud sound is to allow the animal to be in contact with other donkeys across the vast desert distances.  That's loud.

Here's a blurb about the adverse affects of noise.

"There are adverse physical and mental effects from noise. For example, prolonged periods of exposure to 65 dBA can cause mental and bodily fatigue. Furthermore, noise can affect the quantity and quality of sleep; cause permanent hearing damage; contribute to the development or aggravation of heart and circulatory diseases; and transform a person's initial annoyance into more extreme emotional responses and behavior." (Marsh, A. 1999. University of Western Australia, School of Architecture and Fine Arts. Cited in East of Huajatolla Citizens Alliance. Noise.)

I can honestly say that I am suffering from several of these effects: mental & bodily fatigue, lack of quality sleep, and some extreme emotional response, i.e., crying over gray hairs.

To give you an idea of what a donkey bray sounds like, please click on one of the links.  To have an idea of what this sounds like at 4:00 a.m. or some other time in the dark of the night, turn up the volume in a silent room.

Braying Audio (short)

Braying Audio (longer)

It's bad enough that the braying woke me up after just falling asleep.  However, the damned things started braying, again, around 4 a.m., waking me up.  I fell back asleep rather quickly with the phone in my hand as I was going to call the sheriff.