Neighbors sometimes good, sometime well!!!

buckshot721 · Jul 27, 2015

Husband and wife purchased a house 2 doors down from us. (they own 1 acre in our 82 farm) Well he was digging stumps and piled brush up between a 100 yr old maple which is on our side and our bean field. Some on his side mostly on our side, two weeks ago I asked him not to burn that big of a pile, said he was not going to burn it till this winter. Well got up this morning saw the pile was smoldering and mostly gone, looked at the tree saw it was scorched up about 50ft, and about a 50ft spot of navy beans were burned in the field! So walked up to the door his wife answered and my exact words were, I'm not happy with the way my tree and beans were burnt. Ok she said she would tell her husband. About 4 hrs go by saw the husband come home and stated up his bobcat, so I drove my gator to talk with him. He can running screaming swearing waving his arms. Just kept my cool and told him I did not like what happened, he threw 40.00 at me and said there 20 for the leaves on the tree and 20 for the beans. Also yelling he will never ask for anything or bother me again, and will stay on his side of the markers. (things looking up already) What a day, what a jerk!

dave1949 · Jul 27, 2015

Sounds like he got an earful from his wife.

MinnesotaEric · Jul 27, 2015

buckshot721 said:
Husband and wife purchased a house 2 doors down from us. (they own 1 acre in our 82 farm) Well he was digging stumps and piled brush up between a 100 yr old maple which is on our side and our bean field. Some on his side mostly on our side, two weeks ago I asked him not to burn that big of a pile, said he was not going to burn it till this winter. Well got up this morning saw the pile was smoldering and mostly gone, looked at the tree saw it was scorched up about 50ft, and about a 50ft spot of navy beans were burned in the field! So walked up to the door his wife answered and my exact words were, I'm not happy with the way my tree and beans were burnt. Ok she said she would tell her husband. About 4 hrs go by saw the husband come home and stated up his bobcat, so I drove my gator to talk with him. He can running screaming swearing waving his arms. Just kept my cool and told him I did not like what happened, he threw 40.00 at me and said there 20 for the leaves on the tree and 20 for the beans. Also yelling he will never ask for anything or bother me again, and will stay on his side of the markers. (things looking up already) What a day, what a jerk!

You can choose your circumstances, but not your consequences.

Mace Canute · Jul 27, 2015

He trespassed and caused damage to your property plus he lied to you and his attitude says he doesn't think you should even have said anything about it. I would say that with this behaviour chances are good that you will have more problems with them in the future and I believe this would be a good time to start to documenting in detail everything that was done and said by them, now and in the future, and your response to it and take pictures whenever possible to back it up all up. Consider emailing them instead of face to face conversation (always be non threatening and reasonable in either case) so there is a record of what you said. While it's possible that this will be a singular incident, I wouldn't count on it and if/when "push gets to shove" being able to show past history could end up being very advantageous to you.

turnkey4099 · Jul 28, 2015

buckshot721 said:
Husband and wife purchased a house 2 doors down from us. (they own 1 acre in our 82 farm) Well he was digging stumps and piled brush up between a 100 yr old maple which is on our side and our bean field. Some on his side mostly on our side, two weeks ago I asked him not to burn that big of a pile, said he was not going to burn it till this winter. Well got up this morning saw the pile was smoldering and mostly gone, looked at the tree saw it was scorched up about 50ft, and about a 50ft spot of navy beans were burned in the field! So walked up to the door his wife answered and my exact words were, I'm not happy with the way my tree and beans were burnt. Ok she said she would tell her husband. About 4 hrs go by saw the husband come home and stated up his bobcat, so I drove my gator to talk with him. He can running screaming swearing waving his arms. Just kept my cool and told him I did not like what happened, he threw 40.00 at me and said there 20 for the leaves on the tree and 20 for the beans. Also yelling he will never ask for anything or bother me again, and will stay on his side of the markers. (things looking up already) What a day, what a jerk!

What Mace said plus:

That tree has suffered serious damage and you shouldn't accept a pittance. I would return what he gave you in a registered letter, keeping a copy. Document, document and pictures. It will take a year or two for the tree to show how much damage.

Harry K

cat fever · Jul 28, 2015

People like that are why I wish I could afford to own a full section of land and have my home right in the middle of it.
I would have told him it was 40 dollars worth of beans.:laughing:

JerryK · Jul 28, 2015

The part I don't understand is why he would consider piling up the stumps on/over the property line in the first place. I would want an area you could get all around it when you burned... to work the fire. There had to be some thought process there, something I don't get...... As far as him staying on his side of the markers... that's what they are for.

Gary Fowler · Jul 28, 2015

Ask first before doing anything along a property line. When we bought our property and had it surveyed, we found that the existing fence was over on me at least 100 feet. We tracked down the owner who lived in Louisiana and told her we wanted to move the fence line to the surveyed property line and clear the area along the fence line a distance so we could bush hog on her side also. She had no problem with it as long as we didn't remove any large trees.
We cleared about a 10 foot wide area of all small pines and other trees and some areas where there was just a thicket of vines and scrub brush, we cleared all the vines away as much as 50 feet. We still get the occasional pine sapling blown down on our fence but they are small and don't do a lot of damage to the fence.
It is always better to ask permission than forgiveness when dealing with property line issues.

bullbreaker · Jul 28, 2015

What Mace and turnkey4099 said also you (OP) stated "he threw 40 @ me" . If he actually threw it at you or on ground I would not have picked it up . Also if he tried to hand it to me I would not have taken $ from his hand without time honored assessment of damage. Your rite that guy does sound like an jerk .

2LaneCruzer · Jul 28, 2015

Don't get me started. I haven't yet figured out how to cope intelligently with my neighbors, and we have been here for over 40 years. My biggest gripe is folks who move into an acreage from town, and then let it grow up like it's been abandoned. I try to keep my place maintained, grass mowed, shrubs trimmed and the house and shop presentable; not so for everyone else...I keep hoping they will be embarrassed enough to clean up their trash, but no luck so far. I have worked with people all of my life, but it seems neighbors do what they are going to do and I don't know of any way to change that. We mostly just ignore and tolerate each other, and I guess that's better than a pizz fight all of the time.

dmccarty · Jul 28, 2015

Go take videos and photos of the damage, especially the tree. Might not be worth the effort, but if the tree dies in the next year or so, you might wish to have the evidence of the fire.

Later,
Dan

Country Geek · Jul 28, 2015

buckshot721 said:
Just kept my cool and told him I did not like what happened, he threw 40.00 at me and said there 20 for the leaves on the tree and 20 for the beans.

When he threw the money at you, did it look anything like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bm0RIs-VJU

(first minute only though the rest is entertaining too)

buckshot721 · Jul 28, 2015

I did have the property surveyed about a month before they moved in. Then of course his grand kids with go carts tore the markers down on our side of the property. Which ticked me off but I did not say anything. The part that bugs me he could have waited till this fall to burn the pile, and he does have a bob cat so moving the pile would not be a problem.

buckshot721 · Jul 28, 2015

Just took some pics of the tree

sseelhoff · Jul 28, 2015

We're fixing to have the same problem. A younger couple bought the property next to us, and are building a house (been under construction for nearly TWO years. Ugh). We had some privacy thanks to trees. He decided to bulldoze/clear cut his entire property-9 acres-and piling up the debris about 150 feet FROM OUR HOUSE and about 100 feet from our trailer storage. It looks like an Aggie bonfire. His pile is about 20 feet from the fence line. He already told us he's going to burn it. I can only imagine how this is going to go. I can see him burning down everything in a two mile radius. But at least we'll have a good view of the fire coming at us, now that he has elimited all of the screening on his side of the fence. Can't walk outside wihout seeing the construction site and all his junk (he welds as a hobby and has piles of scrap materials everywhere.)

Wagtail · Jul 28, 2015

2LaneCruzer said:
Don't get me started. I haven't yet figured out how to cope intelligently with my neighbors, and we have been here for over 40 years. My biggest gripe is folks who move into an acreage from town, and then let it grow up like it's been abandoned. I try to keep my place maintained, grass mowed, shrubs trimmed and the house and shop presentable; not so for everyone else...I keep hoping they will be embarrassed enough to clean up their trash, but no luck so far. I have worked with people all of my life, but it seems neighbors do what they are going to do and I don't know of any way to change that. We mostly just ignore and tolerate each other, and I guess that's better than a pizz fight all of the time.

A bit of an opposite scenario with me... I bought my property in '98 and rented it out until I retired here at the end of '12. My tenants really only maintained around the house and most of the surrounding properties were in a similar 'back to nature' state.

Once I moved in, I got stuck into cleaning up & developing the land; trimming the trees, new paddock fencing, new shed, painted the house, etc... The place looks great and the paddocks are pristine. About a year into my efforts, all of my 'back to nature' neighbours started sprucing up their own properties. Hmmmm...

The "word in the pub" was that their wives had got onto them.

Deere Dude · Jul 28, 2015

buckshot721 said:
Just took some pics of the treeView attachment 434629

I cannot see where the fire was and I can see the brown leaves. They will grow back. I burned a few piles of brush near trees and really scorched them about 30' up and within a year I could hardly tell where it was burnt. But I did it to my own tree.

I agree he was very inconsiderate and a dork for everything he did but a tree like that cannot be replace at any cost and I don't think it is necessary. Maybe he missed a couple hormone treatments.

Dftodd · Jul 28, 2015

2LaneCruzer said:
Don't get me started. I haven't yet figured out how to cope intelligently with my neighbors, and we have been here for over 40 years. My biggest gripe is folks who move into an acreage from town, and then let it grow up like it's been abandoned. I try to keep my place maintained, grass mowed, shrubs trimmed and the house and shop presentable; not so for everyone else...I keep hoping they will be embarrassed enough to clean up their trash, but no luck so far. I have worked with people all of my life, but it seems neighbors do what they are going to do and I don't know of any way to change that. We mostly just ignore and tolerate each other, and I guess that's better than a pizz fight all of the time.

House next door is a rental. Privacy fence bordering our property is falling over and needed to be replaced ten years ago. Owner doesn't care, and the renter is a lazy slob. Everything is over grown with weeds, except for a ten foot piece he weed wacks by his shed. He keeps complaining about snakes and wondering why they are all around his place :banghead: Neighbor lent him his push mower. Guy tore it up and ruined it in about 20 minutes. Carb was ripped off and the shaft was bent for the blade. Guess the guy is gonna have to deal with the snakes. He's hinted a couple times about wanting me to bush hog. Told him he had to pick up all the trash, loose fence and wire just lying out there in the pasture. We could talk after that was done. That was a year ago, and the crap is still there. It's a wonder his horses haven't gotten tangled in the wire yet