Am I a cf for asking a farmer this question?

[Whye]

We want to buy a house which is off a rarely used but fast winding country lane - only wide enough for one car. The speed limit is 30 but we have seen cars zooming along. I would not feel safe walking my dog on these country roads. There are some woods nearby but I would probably have to load dogs up each time for the 2 min drive.

There are fields all around. Would I be cheeky to ask the farmer who owns the fields opposite us if I could potentially walk my dogs on the perimeter of his fields, obviously I will pick up messes and be respectful.

We would be 5 mins from a decent sized market town so there are plenty of options just not convenient. Am I being cheeky?

This isn’t the house for you.

Some of us "numpties" do. Some of us grew up in tiny farming villages with half the family working as farm hands.

It would be a hard no from me. I’ve seen the mischief kids get up to on the family farm and surrounding fields. Would you be ok for the farmer to graze sheep in your back garden?

One of mine's a golden retriever and he fits perfectly - I like to see them immediately jigsaw themselves into the hedge on command! But they've been taught it since they were babies, wouldn't think it'd be hard to learn though. In your op you said the road was rarely used, so presumably you wouldn't be throwing yourselves into hedges every few feet, which obviously wouldn't be ideal. Many people would be fine with walking along a road knowing that every few walks they might have to press themselves into a hedgerow for 10 seconds. But if you are adamant that's too much for you, it doesn't sound like it's the right house for you. Even if you could persuade the farmer to allow you to use his field, you could never be sure that consent wouldn't suddenly be withheld so you're best off finding somewhere with pavements. You did the right thing asking though, even if you don't get the answer you wanted.

Okay, my dogs rarely use the entirety of a flexi lead. They are literally a step and a bit ahead of me. I just don’t like the non flexi long leads as they get mucky and are a pain.

Some farmers are quite laid back and wouldnt mind. Theres one round my way whos happily let people land grab a couple of metres to extend their decking as it didnt encroach onto the bit he ploughed.

As for the dogs, its nice to see them on a flexi lead exploring a little.

Common sense says to me, if you are frightened to walk down the lane, this is not the property for you.

I can't see any difference particularly between the types of question. Even if I could it still doesn't make the act of asking cheeky, rude, entitled, ignorant or any of the other things OP is accused of.

I live in a similarly rural area, on the edge of rural suburbs and yes, walking dogs can be difficult round here as roads may not have verges (some have acres of verge, some have bugger all), paths may not exist or in my case may not be accessible, and land might well have a path but also have treated crops or livestock on it.

The same is likely to be true of most comparable areas - you either drive to where you can walk the dogs or ... don't move there?

He gave them some land for free and didn’t mind? 😬

Eh?
I said those who understand rural life are not numpties. You presumably understand rural life and thus are not a numpty. 😁

There IS a difference, you not seeing it doesn't mean it's not there.

The problem, for me, is that you say that you'd be responsible and considerate etc, but then talk about them having the freedom to explore on 1.5m flexis, which to a farmer isn't being considerate of their working fields.

You need to understand what it is you're asking. You're asking to be allowed access to the thing that makes their living. Unless you can guarantee that you won't impact the crops whatsoever, the farmer is going to have that worry when a stranger asks them for this.

Yes when your field is massive and flanked by houses, he wasnt averse to people extending gardens a bit. Nothing formally agreed of course. Could perhaps claim it back if ever needed.

You said "the numpties on here are not those who understand rural life". Blanket statement, which sounds like you're calling everyone on the thread numpties.

Apologies if I misinterpreted, but that's how it reads.

That sounds very odd - surprised he didn’t suggest selling off parcels of land, rather than giving it away for free 🤣

You misinterpreted.
I mean that the numpties are those who clearly don't understand rural life, and are making silly comments based on that. HTH.

The land is the livelihood of the farmer so don’t ask if you can walk your dogs over his business property.

Definitely don’t move to the countryside, not many pavements I’m afraid. You do get used to it, I go dog walking and jogging down them but I drew the line at taking a pushchair so was quite limited then, luckily only for a couple of years and some lanes are wider than others.

Well people have called all three questions rude, entitled etc in equal measure. I don't think asking a question is ever rude. Unless it's something actually illegal or entirely immoral.

Demanding or expecting are entirely different.

Hint:
There is a big difference between asking about something one-off, which can be supervised by the other party and will be just done and over. The dog walking is something long term, which might inspire others to ask (or just do) the same and with high probability of creeping on the boundaries over and over again.

Ok, my sofa is a bit creaky and needs replaced but it's too much effort to order a new one - would I be a CF to ask my neighbour if I could just sit on hers to watch the 6 o'clock news every night going forward? I'll not take up much space and she doesn't appear to be using the lefthand side anwyway.

Don't forget she's a brand new neighbour you've never met, and you may not be neighbours if she says no.

Oh yes, and I can't move in unless she agrees.....

.....though please don't start me on my two CF near neighbours (the rest are fine)....

Cheeky? No. A bit weird, yes.

If you turned up on her doorstep and forced your way in then yes. Asking for anything isn't rude. Unless illegal or immoral.