Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I do not have any close neighbors: I can see them but it would take a good nine iron to hit their house from mine – not that I have actually tried that. But the point is I prefer to have some spitting distance. That has worked for nine years until my farming neighbor decided that he did not want the trees growing along his field and the property line that extends down from the road and across roughly 40 yards of my wooded lot that is located behind my house. He has slowly worked his way down the line cutting down big beautiful trees just to gain a few more feet of growing space.
However, when he came to my part of the woods we have come to a disagreement. As far as I am concerned these are what we call “boundary trees” – trees that have been there for 50-plus years and have grown in and around the fence row, that is still partially there. When you have a boundary tree that means there is joint ownership of the trees…my neighbor however, believes that they are “his” trees. Despite prior discussions that he would not touch a tree until we came to an agreement as to what trees could or could not be cut down… he went ahead and started taking down trees. He even dropped one tree completely over on my property… and when confronted he said that was not his fault. That was the way the tree fell. Yes, those were his exact words.
Then he add some salt to the wound by pointing out that the tree did not hit any other trees on the way down, so no harm no foul. Well, I yelled foul and had to get a lawyer to send him a letter telling him if he touched one more tree he would find himself in court. Shortly after that he came stomping over to my house wanting to know what we were going to do about those trees. I told him we were not going to do anything at this point in time. Then he wanted me to go over to the tree stand and have me show him which trees were mine…or actually jointly-owned. I told him that would be a waste of time. He asked me why and I simply asked him in return, “You believe all of those trees are yours…right?”
He agreed. Then I asked, “Is there anything I can say or do to change your mind?” He said no. “So why bother taking the walk?” Go figure. Anyway, he has finally offered a kind of a peace settlement. He said he would replace three trees of decent size. It will not replace the older ones that he cut down…but something is better than nothing. I just hope he does not show up with tiny one-foot sprigs that will take three lifetimes to grow to any size.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Trees are the best antiques.” Alexander Smith [I like this one..simple but dead on.]
QUICKIES
Q: What do you call a penguin in the Sahara Desert? A: Lost.
Q: What did the 0 say to the 8? A: Nice belt.
Have to wrap this up and go get my binoculars so I can keep an eye on neighbor. As always be good, do good, play safe and remember to be a good neighbor.
JR
