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.