ML, I'm so sorry to hear that you have problems with your neighbor. Could it be that he is just nosey? On top of the house so he can see over the fence? What in the world does he think you could be doing that would be so interesting?

Do you think he harmed your poor kitty? If so, the fence needs to go up asap.

I am happy to say that I have great neighbors on all sides and accross the street too. We've all been here almost 39 years with no problems. My next door neighbor is almost 80 and in declining health. I sometimes wonder what would happen if he had to move. Our houses are so close that it helps to have good neighbors.

ML we have just the opposite here. Our back property line if you can call it back since we are a triangle, neighbor does not even really know where the true line is. We ask him every time we want to plant a tree. We are guessing the corner,point, post is the beginning and we do have a for sure spot to measure from at the other end of that fence. So going from known into unknown works for us.

Hopefully some day a new owner of the place will not bother us about it and there really is nothing there to fight over. They will cut down the trees or not. Probably not as trees are a blessing here. AND the rest of the area on the other side if fence is acres of ranch land where his cows run. We do not have a formal fence up on our side. Not sure if we will bother. There really is no need. There is the ranch fence to keep the cows out. We mow that stretch of ground that is about 10 foot wide to keep it looking tidy.

I have had neighbors as you though and it is not fun to have to constantly deal with. People here are less into the neighbors business. The neighbor across the street does tell us if some one was here when we were gone and I think would stop some one from trying to remove something from our property if we were gone.

Hope you caqn fence this guy out far enough away from you so he is not a bother. Gee there was this great yard make over blocking off view of neighbor last night on HGTV Was on really late. Can not remember the name of the show.Will see if I can find it later. Time to feed the man again. LOL

Chris

Lo, he IS nosey, but that is not the end of it. I can deal with nosey.

I generally have good neighbors but this one has caused quite a bit of grief in the time we've been here. And since we are gone for extended periods of time, the privacy fence was a real benefit.

I have two neighbors who are in their 80s. One is the hoarder with the rundown house across the street. The other is the neat little widow lady behind us, who still gets out every Monday morning and cuts her HUGE lawn with a push mower. I was concerned this last Monday, because when we chatted she was getting white in the face around her nose and mouth. Not a good sign. She is the one who sold us the "back forty" that we are in the process of fencing in.
To make sure we can still visit one another, this new fence will have a gate in the middle, just like the old one did. She is such a nice friendly person, who is kind to everyone. I think the best neighbor I've had in my whole life.

For yard makeovers, I already have a seven foot privacy fence between our houses. I left the posts taller than that, and now I will stretch a heavy gauge wire across the top of each post down that north side, so that the kiwi vines which are going great guns this summer, will be able to cover an additional foot higher with their leaves.

That neighbor is the ONLY one who is "that way." I figure he is narcissistic because it is all about HIM, what HE wants, and he has no compunctions about usurping the property rights of other people. When I first moved in here, he told me he burned his trash but was prepared to tell authorities he was barbequeing if they asked. From his own mouth, he told me that. When he was back at the new posts this morning, it startled me. I did not see a measuring tape, but I bet he was verifying our fence posts would be within our boundaries, even though none of that space is adjacent to his house.

Oh well, I just had to VENT, and now I'm cooled down. Unless there is a city inspector at my door first thing Monday morning. We shall see.

Remember the Greek myth about the Medusa? The warrior was given a shiny shield by Diana and told never to look at the Medusa or he would turn to stone. Instead, he held up the mirrored shield and the Medusa saw her reflection and turned herself into stone. Their own evil does them in, as I see it.

moccasinlanding, we don't have really close neighbors, those that we do have are nice, and other than one neighbor's cows getting out, and traipsing through our yard (yes, I've walked outside the back door and surprised a few cows--and myself, on more than one occasion), we haven't had much trouble.

We live about 1/2 hour from a maximum-security state prison, so if I looked out and saw an orange jump-suited man in my back yard, he probably wouldn't be a problem to anyone, anymore. ;-)

it's too bad he's that way. I would have yelled out to him 'hey, what are you doing on my property?'

most of my neighbors are fine - that I can think of. one that moved in a yr or 2 ago has 13 kids - that's not so pleasant. for that many they aren't very noisy tho.

and there's the guy across the road with about 4 rottweilers and a pitbull/boxer type dog. one of those rotts got loose a few yrs back and attacked my boy - on our land!

I've not known anyone to go out of their way to be nosy or mean. my neighbors to the east I like having there - they're snowbirds tho. and the couple behind me are very nice - it's their boy who used to come over to play with my dogs. and their dog comes over to visit us. I feed him food and a cookie. I love, love, love that dog. I puppysat for him and siblings when he was just born - like 1 day old.

ML - As I've mentioned before, I am in the mortgage business and I am a firm believer in obtaining your own land survey whenever property changes hands. The common practice today is if the Attorney or Title Company performing the title search can locate an existing land survey then the Lender typically does not require a new one. However, what if the old land survey was perfromed incorrectly and you inadvertently build something across the property line? If that land owner obtains a current or accurate survey and wants to press the issue then you have a legal battle on your hands and because the old survey was not performed for you, you have no recourse on the surveyor. It's just best to get your own survey and know for certain where the property lines are. Then, install a fence, hedge, something to define that property line so everyone involved knows where the boundaries are. Things change, property is sold or passed in death and you never know when you will get a nuisance like you are dealing with. Not to meniton, there is a legal action who's name escapes me right now but if your neighbor openly uses a portion of your land in a conspicuous manner for seven years, uncontested by you, then they can claim that land as their own. It just came to me, it's called "Adverse Possesion".

It's best if everyone stays on their own property unless invited to visit.

Scott

Hi, ML, it was late last night when I left my comment, and I realized when I awoke this morning, that I sounded very flip, without telling you how sorry I am that you are going through this. Although we've had wonderful luck with neighbors, we've been involved in community groups where people can become very territorial, and one troublemaker can make everyone else miserable, or uncomfortable at best. What a shame that your neighbor can't mind his own beeswax, and let everyone live in peace.

Not to be flip again (I can't help it), but have you checked your back 40, and the adjoining vacant property, for plant matter (IYKWIM) that you haven't planted there?

ML I can not find pictures of what this garden designer did but this is the show and episode where he created a wonderful shelter around a gorgeous tree that stopped the neighbors view into yard.

LOL Mama-Goose I know what you are talking about. Too bad other workers will be out there I would place some poison ivy or oak out there for a little bit. Smile when neighbor shows up with a rash.

Chris

Here is a link that might be useful: Jamie Durie

Ohhh, MamaGoose, I am dying laughing at the orange jumpsuit! And that alarmed me when I saw it too, especially when he ducked down out of signt immediately after I called the dog. I knew the fence guys had the option of working Saturday, and I checked the front drive again to see if I'd missed seeing their truck, but no they did not come to work. That meant someone else. I suspected who, but had to return to the back door and wait for about two minutes before he finally stood up. Yep, orange jumpsuit and a white head of hair, just visible from shoulders up above the shrubbery along that property line.

And orange jumpsuits signify prison to me too, Mama. But the white hair meant the neighbor. And his presence there was not on his property, but on his back neighbor's property, which he is treating like his own. The owner is the niece of the lady we bought the back forty from. And she had to put up NO TRESPASSING signs facing HIS HOUSE in attempt to keep him out of there. The house is vacant. He does cut the back yard up a ways, but not all the way to the empty house. He is doing to HER property what he once did to OURS, expanding his space, even planting hydrangeas in places. Well, it is better than weeds I know. But also in the tall weeds up near that vacant house is where he was secreting his infamous burn barrel. On someone else's property, so he could deny it was his. But that was stopped too. I have no idea where he hid it this time. But now and then, I do smell burning stuff late at night on weekends.

And Scott, we had a survey done and we paid to have both our lot and the neighbor's lot totally surveyed. Money well spent. The old survey markers next to this neighbor had been removed. Well, one of them had been cut off below the ground out by the street, and it was located in what I thought was HIS YARD by about 6 feet. After he backed his trailer up our driveway and across our lawn to haul away huge tree limbs and boles, I popped a line and built my rose bed to prevent any such future occurence. No fence on the front yard portion of this property line, but I did make the flower bed pretty on both sides as viewed from both our yards. I dare say it is the best flower bed in the neighborhood, and it is out in view of God and everybody. LOTS of compliments on it. I installed a line of brick flat to the ground on his side of the line (still on our property though), so he could put the wheel of his mower on it.

As to plants growing in the Back Forty. No poison ivy, which really surprises me. But thank heaven it is not there. And no one has tossed any pot seeds there. I had not thought about that. A grandson lives with them, a college student, so I appreciate the heads up about that. It would definitely cause us some grief if such seeds thrown in our new space suddenly grew. The authorities would be notified and we would be turned in you betcha. And I'm not so attentive to WEEDS that I'd notice any strange things dropped into a basic overgrown place. We've cut back the major overgrown stuff, but not fine tuned it yet. That will come after the fence people quit stomping around back there.
Even their presence for one afternoon has made a big difference in the open ground. But I am careful walking there until all the stobs of cut-off tree seedlings are removed. I cannot afford a foot injury with my diabetes.

Oh yes. I revisited the spot where the neighbor was seen. He's pulled out some grass along the old chainlink fence, but not significantly so. I suppose he was doing his own survey of the post locations--for what other reason could he be so fascinated to go so far as to HIDE his presence, and not stand up until he expected me to be moved away from the door? But the new posts are inside our property markers.

Good Sunday morning to you all. Lovely day.