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Ok, here is the entire background on what is going on to this point. I live in a small village of around 750 people in Wisconsin and I have always been a fan of horse drawn farm equipment and I finally have a job where I can afford to begin a collection of items. When this all began 3 weeks ago, I had 7 mowers, a hay tedder, a sulky plow, and a 2 mule, left hand turn plow in my back yard. I was notified by the Chief of Police (we only have one cop) that he has been getting complaints from everyone around me about the "junk" that I had. Granted, only 1 of the mowers (the #10 New Idea) was painted all nice and pretty and I was working on the others (I'm using a small yard shed for a shop and I have to tear everything apart outside.) So to keep the piece I hauled everything out of town to a buddies place except for the painted mower and the sulky mower (that's my project at this time.) Well, 3 days back, I came across the #6 McCormick mower all painted up and in working order at a heck of a good price. Needless to say it found it's way to my house. I was just informed by the cop tonight that I was still in violation of the ordinance dealing with junk and I needed to get rid of everything except one item that I can use as a lawn ornament. I pointed out to him the house 1 block over where the owner had 5 old gas pumps restored and sitting outside of his garage so I asked him why he was allowed to keep them when he wasn't pumping gas and I had to get rid of my mowers when I could hook up a team at anytime and go mowing. He informed me that the pumps were antiques and my mowers were not. I then pointed out the ordinance stating that "farm equipment may be kept in the village limits as long as it was in working order." He then told me that didn't apply to me because I lived in a residential area. The monthly village board meeting is this coming Monday night and I'm loading both barrels with rock salt for this fight. I'm writing up a letter to the board (that's the reason for needing the years on when these mowers were made) along with copies of the ordinance for them to read. I'm also taking off from work so I can dig in my heels. Ganted, I should get a small place out of town and tell them to kiss-off but it's cheap living here compaired to what land prices are out in the country. I hope I haven't bored anyone with this long winded explanation but you did ask. :-) Have a good one, Houndman
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