Neighbor removed my property line pin

[sixdogs]

Moving these is no big deal so relax. I believe you planted American Arborvitae, also called Northern White Cedar and I am very familiar moving them and have transplated many both with a tree spade and by ripping them out with a backhoe and doing it myself. Give them water for a few years and 100% should live. I have moved 10-15 footers with no problem. Just WATER THEM and broadcast some fertilizer outside the drip line each spring for a few years. Transplant now if you stll can.

Don't do it yourself because of the learning curve although you could. You need a a skid steer with a 30" front spade. Flag or paint spray all the locations in advance as this can go fast. Dig the first hole an dput the dirtball by the last hole. Dig the second tree and plunk the tree in the first hole. Take dirt back and put in that hole the tree came out of. Rinse and repeat. Don't worry if not exactly straight or they sit a few inches high or not, they will live if you water them. We used to live in Maine and I have planted maybe 500 of these. Maybe 1000.

If a guy is humping and has a helper to guide the tree alignment in the spade and do the same with planting, you can probably do all these in an easy 3/4 day or so but that depends on operator experience. You could rent a skid steer that would likely cost $450 for the day plus transportation. It will take a few hours of learning curve and you will be dreadfully slow for the first 25.

When some people dig a tree, they lift the spades slightly and knock the point off the rootball so the tree fits better in the new hole. That takes too much time. A better way is to dig the blank hole deeper and dig the tree out a ittle shallower and it's close enough. The trees will grow straight and depth doesn't matter much in New England damp gravel and frequent rainfall.

You do need to water the first couple years. Read that a few times since your rock and gravel soil dries out FAST and cedars like damp. Figure it out and broadcat fertilizer as mention but ask about that later. Search how to water trees under my older threads but it's easy. There is an older thread--i think-on moving 12 ft cedars with a backhoe. Don't even think about it since it takes forever.

Drip irrigation is easy but you could also use some 5 gallon buckets witha 3/16" hole drilled in the bottom. Fill the bucket and every drop goes to work. Get a couple 55 gallon barrels, plumb a hose connection at the bottom and lift in bucket loader to water. A better way is a couple hundred feet of Sam's Club hose with quick connectors on them and knock yourself out. We have evolved to this method unless the trees are really out of the way. Start now picking up 5 gallon blacktop buckets from other people's trash.

Putting the trees 8" off the line is a sure way to cause a scuffle so you get some blame and your neighbor is partially a tad in the clear. You could also leave the trees and they could be trimmed and do well but moving is the best idea. I have cut cedars in half and they recover just fine.

By the way, a tight cedar hedge is 4 ft on center, no more and no less. Great time to adjust spacing. Maybe 3' to 4' off the line is a great idea but that's up to you.

EDIT--You know, you could also just plant another row of trees and cut the first ones down in a year or so. Maybe prune while the others grow. Cedars grow really fast and it just takes a few years for six ft. You can buy 3 ft tall plants from a nursery for a couple dollars each and plant those. We start them in pots for the first year and transplant in August. 100% survival rate that way.

 

[dodge man]

To TCBoomer I'll give you a little more input based on the rest of your story. I'll make a couple of points, and please don't be offended by what I say. Through my work, I run into an amazing number of stories that are similar to yours. Something that starts as a fairly simple dispute between neighbors degrades into something that almost seems to an outsider like two kids having a fight. Throwing dog crap in your yard, not the first time I've heard of that.

As far as you planting bushes up against the line, I've heard of a term called a "spite fence". A spite fence is where someone puts up a fence just to spite a neighbor. It doesn't serve any purpose except to tick them off. There was a famous one in San Fransisco as I recall during the late 1800's, where someone put up a spite fence that was several stories tall. The person had tried to buy up an entire block but one person held out. The owner of the rest of the block put up this really tall fence to block this person is. I'm not saying you putting up the bushes was designed to spite your neighbor, buy I can see how he would feel this way. You can make the point that you did it to keep people off your lawn. You could have done the same thing by putting up a fence or something else that didn't block his view as much.

Another point to make, some people have a different perspective on yards and living in the country. You have a yard that many would love to have and it looks great. Some people would never dream of driving on the grass in someones yard in town, but out in the country, they think it doesn't matter. I'd say your neighbor and his guests have this attitude. They just don't respect the fact that you have a nice yard and its important to you.

If I were to be honest, I'd say you have done some things to escalate the bad feelings between you and your neighbor, but in legal terms, I don't really see you having done anything wrong. When these things turn sour, I tell people they had better be ready the suffer the results, both in terms of the financial cost and emotional. It seems like you and the neighbor are 1 incident away from landing in court.

 

[sixdogs]

Reagrding the dodge man comments, there is a book around called The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker that deals with defusing and de-escalating situations. He is a big dollar pro in this area and deals with the psychological reasons why people behave the way they do and how to judge the intent and probable behavior of one's fellow man. It is required reading for most detectives. As well, it discusses the behavior of why some people wind up being survivors in life and some wind up becoming victims and the behavioral charateristics of personality types that cause trouble and why they do it.

This book has really helped me understand what people do and why they do it. Why some survive and some don't and how to get out of trouble when you're in it and how to identify those likely to be trouble from the get-go. It really doesn't apply much in this situation but is worth the mention since it sort-of fits. It would also cover why some survive a tragic situation and others don't. You would likely fully understand the neighbor's motivation which likely is different than we all think.

For anyone ever planning on resolving anything, has ever been in a dipute or may be challenged in life, this is must reading. Just my two cents here.

 

[Redbug]

I think I would enjoy the privacy those trees give and not having to look at another person's house. And that's whether I like the neighbors or not.

 

[dave1949]

I understand what DodgeMan is saying, but the first overt action that is strange in this case was when the neighbor placed and oriented his house in such a way as to guarantee future conflict. That happened before the OP even lived there, if I understand the timeline. Just about everything else flowed from what I would call a bad and somewhat aggressive choice of the neighbor.

I guess, if you want stretch a point, that was an existing condition when the OP bought his house, that he could have avoided by not purchasing the property. But, that decision reached by the OP or any other buyer, is like saying the neighbor is taking over the next door property by devaluing it. It's not the OP's job to be the property police, but if he looked at the situation and decided he could screen the neighbor's house and be happy, he is hardly to blame IMO.

Like Redbug, I wouldn't want my back yard to be a fishbowl with no privacy.

 

[dodge man]

Sixdogs, sounds like an interesting book. I've done some boundary surveys and had what I would consider both reasonable people, yet here they are fighting, sometimes physically, over a boundary. Some people get very emotional, almost like defending you childern, over there boundaries.

I would say that one theme I often see is that people don't respect their adjoiners boundary. Have you ever seen your kids play "Hot Lava". They will run around jumping on the furniture and pretend if their feet hit the floor they will be burned up. Some times adults need to do this. If they set foot off of their land and on their neighbors, they are in hot lava.

 

[riptides]

Sixdogs, sounds like an interesting book. I've done some boundary surveys and had what I would consider both reasonable people, yet here they are fighting, sometimes physically, over a boundary. Some people get very emotional, almost like defending you childern, over there boundaries.

Yeah, emotional, angry, almost hostile, stupid and down right mean. And whatever they do is right, no matter the outcome for their neighbors.

So how does one deal with people like this?

 

[MarkV]

Yeah, emotional, angry, almost hostile, stupid and down right mean. And whatever they do is right, no matter the outcome for their neighbors.

So how does one deal with people like this?

Simple, you go to court and everyone spends more than the land is worth on legal fees.

MarkV

 

[riptides]

Simple, you go to court and everyone spends more than the land is worth on legal fees.

MarkV

Nope. I just grit my teeth a lot. But, unfortunate, your correct, the court is the right way to go.

 

[sixdogs]

Read the book I suggested. It's in most libraries and it's a paperback as well. I'm no expert at this but the author gives a number of examples in which people went to court when in reality only a simple problem existed that could have been easily cured. For an example I am just guessing at, maybe a particular neighbor's problem with someone next door was that he appeared to be showing off a new tractor and made a guy jealous. The dispute escalalated because the signals of compromise were missed and things went bad from there. Read the book.
Court is rarely a good idea and a person who is intuitive or taught to be via example can often diffuse an issue long before it gets there.

In this thread's OP issue, my guess is the neighbor was genuinely ticked off because the OP planted trees 8 inches off the border and when grown would encroach on his lot line. Maybe the parking was a straw dog and maybe not but he felt threatened and rightfully so. What his kids or cars did is a separate matter.
Moving the trees is a great clarification but again, I'm no voice of dispute resolution. Maybe after the trees are squared away and the border adequately and correctly marked, the issue goes away. Surely if the border is marked and the OP moves his trees, the issue is deflated to a large degree. You have to take it one step at a time but I'll bet that solves it since both then know the resolve of the other and the border is absolutely marked. Read the book.