Rox, no offense taken. You don't understand the entire picture, and I have the same concerns you point out.
Our property is only 3 acres, and it is a "flag" lot. In other words, right behind our closest neighbor. Of my 3 acres, due to slope, I only have about half of that as usable property. The entire portion thats usable is adjacent to his adjoining property line. I don't have many options of how I use my land. He, however, is on 3 acres of nearly flat property, yet he chose to put his house right on the setback line adjacent to me.
I'm being as sensative as I can be towards him, but really don't have options. Our farm is on two levels, and I'm putting the livestock on the lower level as far as I can from him.
Also, a side benifit to him is that my tree removal has opened up the woods and given him a mountain view, which he asked if I would consider doing.
The guy on the other side, has not built yet. However, he cleared the woods all the way up to the property line. I left about 30' thick of trees to buffer him from the farm. Reality is, if he had a concern he could have left some buffer on his property too. I can't be responsible for everyones buffer space just because I have 6 chickens and a goat running around. For that matter, the first guy I spoke of cleared his buffer out too.
By next year, I plan on planting an evergreen landscape buffer between us all, but then I'll hear about how I'm taking away his mountain view (which I gave him in the first place).
Sorry, its a sensative subject. I'll get off the soapbox. I'm not defending myself, just explaining.
I tried to approach all these guys in a buddy buddy fashion. While being friendly enough, they made it clear that being neighbors doesn't make us friends.
I'm glad to hear you've got such a relationship with your neighbor, but thats not the case for everyone.