The moral of the story seems to be: get a very, very large dog.

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"I cut him off after a time and just said, 'Well, I should get back to work, take care,' and thankfully, he left. I don’t want to be known as unfriendly, but the eagerness with which this grown (supposedly married) man bounded out of his car and walked uninvited up my driveway just didn’t feel right. It has gotten so bad sometimes that I hide when I hear a car driving by," she continued.

"I love living in the country, but it’s ridiculous and somewhat infuriating that here in this space with so few people, I still have to deal with random-ass dudes trying to use me for free emotional labor. This is why I’ll always choose the bear."

"She would then tell the stranger, 'My husband went inside to look for his gloves,' (hence why the work boots were placed on the porch). Then she would shout, 'Honey! I found your gloves! They were right by the bags of soil! Oh, he probably can’t hear me. I’d better run inside and tell him. Okay then, bye!' She said this works 10/10 times. She lives alone, but strangers don’t need to know that!"

"Another time, I was waiting on a sandwich, and a guy with a handlebar mustache started doing a mustache performance, but just to me and another girl who were cornered in the tight space, and not to any of the men. Some fellas just can't exist knowing a woman is quietly minding her own business. I've never seen a woman do this. Are they out there? I'm sure. But it seems to be every third grandpa."

"The second deterrent is a big black dog. 120 lbs of him, to be exact. It doesn't matter that he's a service dog and about as vicious as a newborn mouse. It doesn't matter that he associates people with treats, scritches, and love. It doesn't even matter that he's so well-trained that he does not even bark, and he's so pampered that he does not know how to growl properly. People, especially people who have not met my dog, will keep going even if the gate is open, if that see that dog running loose. Those that have met him? Well, they know what he is, and they will pull in to visit.

The third deterrent is simple. I open carry in a shoulder holster. I've had strange people pull into the driveway, park at the closed gate, and get out. But when they see me walking up to them with no fear, and with that firearm on my chest and that very big dog bounding at my heels, they usually get back into their vehicle and leave very quickly. I confess to using body language to convey that I'm assertive and a little bit of an ass: head is up, shoulders back, stride purposeful, overall confidence high. Inside, I'm scared witless. But if you don't know me, what you see is a tall, fit, armed, and seemingly aggressive woman going straight towards you. It can be (and is meant to be) highly disconcerting.

But the one thing I don't do is wave empty-handed at people as they pass. People take that as an invitation to stop by. Wave with a knife or shovel in hand. That way, what you're doing looks so much like hard work that these lazybones with leisure time won't stop by, for fear of the woman asking them to do something manly. No joke. It's the best deterrent in your arsenal."

"This random man passed me in his car, then U-turned, got out of his car, and came right up close to me. This was right past peak COVID. I still wore masks whenever I went indoors, so I didn’t actually want him near me. I figured he wanted to know what I was doing, and he did kinda ask that, but honestly, he blew right past the topic once he knew I had permission. He immediately launched into a rant about how no one wants to work the fields because of the stimulus checks, everyone’s spoiled now, and COVID was a hoax anyway. Literally ranting at me! I didn’t even have a chance to say anything or leave. I mean, I was supposed to be working, and he was getting in my way.

I was already uncomfortable, but it did get kinda creepy, though. The grad student saw the man and, since it was his project, figured he could best answer any questions the man had, so he started making his way over. Once the random man noticed him, he said, 'Oh, but I thought you were alone?' And he took off in his car before the grad student got close. SIR?!? But why did it matter to him if I was alone?!?"