Neighbor is hard on fence

[Fuddy1952]

Thank you.
He "fixed" it...three loose strands on barbed wire nailed to two trees. I had to simply run everyone off, lock the gates, I'm in process of new fencing. It's a shame, but my insurance agent has horror stories to tell of people getting injured on someone's land, suing, one person may well lose their house. One had a $2Mil umbrella policy (I urge everyone to at least check with their agent about that...it's not expensive!

Okay that a bull tears a hole in your fence to get cows that you allow to be there?! Ouch. Hope the owners of those bovine properly fixed the fence. The suggestion of an electric fence seems appropriate even if it does add a layer of maintenance. Sorry you are going through that.

 

[Fuddy1952]

You just need to start a rumor that a crazy person owns that land, when I was a kid we used to ride our dirt bikes and would cut through farms to get to the sand pits and other areas where we used to ride. Most people didn't care back then but there was this one guy, old man Sharkey, and there was a story going around that he shot trespassers with rock salt. Well I don't know if it was true or not but we allways found another way around his place.

You got that right! Dad kept his 12ga. ready in the closet. He would step outside and peel one off at different times. In talking to people around that area who didn't know I was his son said "You know...a crazy man lives over on that place!".

 

[Fuddy1952]

In our old neighborhood, I was home from work sick one day. Lying on the couch, looking out the window, I see this kid, about 15-16 years old, sprinting down the street with two more kids chasing him. He hurdled our 4' fence without touching it, ran across our back yard and vaulted the other side with his hands... pretty much never broke stride. He looked scared. The kids chasing him ran around the yard and down the alley after him.

One thing on these forums...never read with a mouthful of liquid!
Reminds me of one of my late Dad's many funny stories. He grew up in town complete with an older bully (this would be early 1930s). One day he and friends had enough...spotted bully walking down the alley...all the kids grabbed him, one kid flipped his bicycle upside down and hand-peddled it fast as he could. The kids yanked the bullys britches down...backed his fanny up against that spinning tire. Dad said it was smoking!
That put the hiatus on that bully!

 

[cqaigy2]

Always had a thing for Terri Garr...!

Don't think Keaton will ever top Beetlejuice [sic]

For sure! , and ditto.

 

[cqaigy2]

Couple of my friends and i were walking down the street, young teenagers, when we saw another schoolmate walking ahead of us up by the corner of the road. We started yelling at him to wait up and took off running toward him and he start running too, away from us. So we ran even faster and rounded the corner and saw him duck up an alley, now we are all running full out and as i'm getting closer to him, i notice up ahead, someone had put up a wood fence across the alleyway. I figure he'll stop, but he plows full tilt, right into and almost completely through fence! We all caught up and could hardly stand up, we were laughing so hard. We were dumb founded that he just tried to run through the fence, instead of going up and over. Apparently, he thought we were some kids he had mouthed off to just a few minutes earlier and that we were out to get him. :laughing:

 

[95XL883]

In all reality, how do you know it was even him? It could have been someone else cutting across both of your properties.

Moss, you are correct that I don't know who did it. But, his residence is the only one close to the damage, the other two houses are a 1/4 mile away. Sure, someone could have cut across both properties but they would have to have crossed a heavily treed, basically virgin forest, 30 acres, cross his 10 acxres and then cross 1,200 feet of hay field while avoiding the road only 150' away. Basically, if you could see the ground you'd realize it is extremely unlikely for a random individual to cross the property lines.

Iit is more of an annoyance than serious damage. First, I need to fix it and I am being given very good suggestions to do that. I appreciate it very much. Next I need to find a way to discourage it from happening again and preferably have that be in a non-confrontational way. That latter will most likely be a process and not an event.

 

[goeduck]

You just need to start a rumor that a crazy person owns that land, when I was a kid we used to ride our dirt bikes and would cut through farms to get to the sand pits and other areas where we used to ride. Most people didn't care back then but there was this one guy, old man Sharkey, and there was a story going around that he shot trespassers with rock salt. Well I don't know if it was true or not but we allways found another way around his place.

I put up a gate last weekend on a back old logging road and made it look like a crazy person did it for that very reason.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, you are correct that I don't know who did it. But, his residence is the only one close to the damage, the other two houses are a 1/4 mile away. Sure, someone could have cut across both properties but they would have to have crossed a heavily treed, basically virgin forest, 30 acres, cross his 10 acxres and then cross 1,200 feet of hay field while avoiding the road only 150' away. Basically, if you could see the ground you'd realize it is extremely unlikely for a random individual to cross the property lines.

Iit is more of an annoyance than serious damage. First, I need to fix it and I am being given very good suggestions to do that. I appreciate it very much. Next I need to find a way to discourage it from happening again and preferably have that be in a non-confrontational way. That latter will most likely be a process and not an event.

That's what I say to myself every time I bump into some hobo walking in a swamp or briar patch.... "What the heck are they doing out here???"

 

[Dftodd]

I once watched a high school age boy run through about 6 adjacent back yards, all with six foot fences. He was lucky no one had a big dog or sticker bushes.

Probably practicing for an obstacle course.

Bruce

Had someone do that through my yard once when i lived in Florida. When they landed in my yard, he took about 3 steps and realized our Pit Bull was there watching him. :shocked: Guy proceeded to levitate back over the fence :laughing: We happened to be having a couple brews sitting on the back patio when it happened. Pit just looked at him like he bumbed his head. If he had known her, he would have known he would have been licked to death.

Now the weanie dog was the one the went into kill mode and was barking and snapping :laughing:

 

[onionfmr]

Oosik and Onionfmr, you guys are making me think I'm lucky. You guys are obviously being taken advantage of. Hope your situations have subsided.

My issues in general have quieted down over the last few years. My original reason for posting was to let the OP know that he is not alone with this kind of stuff. I have game cameras setup on the property and use a drone to fly and film the property lines. Neighbors all know this and that has really helped over the years. It is amazing how people change their behavior when you show them pictures of things that they shouldn't be doing.

One other thing that has helped is keeping the neighbors at arms length. We used to be super friendly and invite them over for grilled burgers or go out of our way to be helpful, etc... Now, we just wave and say hello. An example, neighbor was attempting to dig and plant 40 plus smaller pine trees. In 2 hours, he had dug 3 holes. Asked him if I could help. He was thrilled. I threw the post hole digger on my tractor and did all the rest for him in 2 hours. Two weeks later, I find his brand new game cameras 100 to 300 feet on my side of the property line. He didn't think I'd mind. I DID! This type of thing has happened numerous times. Another example, older neighbor was trying to cleanup back area of his property. Saw him at the mailboxes. He was exhausted. Asked if I could help. He too was thrilled. Used my box blade and rake and cleaned up his property for him. A couple of weeks later, I had 20 tons of runner crush delivered. Never any issues before. Maybe a neighbor would take a wheel barrel full w/o asking. Old guy and son pull pickup truck up to my stone and are filling up pickup bed with shovels of my stone w/o asking permission. I asked them what they were doing. Said this was their 3rd load. Didn't think I would mind. I DID! If they would have asked beforehand, I would have let them have the stone.

Now, if neighbors ask for help, I'll help them out. Otherwise, they are on their own. I never ask them for any help, ever! I don't like to be this way. However, familiarity seems to breed contempt.