Our neighbors have a deathwish. It’s obvious to me now they are intentionally trying to push me over the edge of reason and into a homicidal mania, because they want to die and are too wimpy to commit suicide.
They have already cut down one of my trees today, a tree that stood wholly and firmly on my side of the property line. They stated they wanted to cut down about five more. Uh huh. Lin told them we would “trim” the trees, and that we didn’t want them cutting on our trees anymore. I was pissed and have vowed to go to civil court over the tree that is now gone, and they went in their house and we didn’t hear from them anymore.
Until I was in the kitchen cutting veggies, and I hear a chainsaw again. At first I think it might be Lin, because he wanted to cut a branch off the tree beside our gate. But no … I see Lin in the front yard washing the truck. I rush out the back door to find that rat bastard with a ladder up against one of my trees, over the fence, hacking away at the top of it.
I was going to let him do it and take pictures of him doing it, just so I’d have more to take to court, but my camera batteries died. Being more than a little inflamed and not wanting to allow myself the opportunity to be near enough to this asshole to kill him, I go get Lin who rushes to the backyard.
I have no idea what transpired, as it happened at the back of the yard behind one of my trees and Lin hasn’t reported to me yet, but I am not hearing any more chainsaw, and I damn well better not EVER hear a chainsaw again unless they are cutting down their own damn trees … though I have no doubt they will wait patiently until Lin is gone thinking I wouldn’t come out to confront them. Well, I would and will. The only reason I don’t when Lin is around is because Lin wouldn’t have the urge to kill them.
You want to know why they want those trees down? Because Linda hates Hackberry trees, and because they are a little taller than the one Pecan tree close to the property line … she wants them down so the Pecan tree gets more sunlight. Because, you know, that thing called the sun doesn’t travel across the sky moving the areas that get sunlight. That Pecan tree has had sunlight all afternoon. None of those god damned trees are hers to worry about one way or the other anyway. The whole lot of them, including the Pecan tree are MINE not hers.
There’s already going to be a court visit over this, but one more branch off one more of my trees comes down at their hands, and I will go out there myself and chop down the Pecan tree just to spite them … after asking it’s permission to take it’s life to fight a good fight. It has to go anyway when we put in the massively tall privacy fence, because it will one day get too big and screw up any fence there, so it might as well go now while it can make a point to the neighbors that I am free to do with my trees what I want, whether they have a fondness for one of them or not, and they have no right to go chopping my trees entirely down.
And now, I have to go serve a totally organic dinner to my husband. I will try to find something pleasant to talk about later, but it hasn’t been a very pleasant day today. In fact, today has sucked so badly, it doesn’t even feel like it was a Sunday at all. :(
Lin is no longer telling me to shut up and get over it, by the way.
Let me get this straight..They came onto YOUR property and cut down one of YOUR trees?? So if you go onto THEIR property and dismantle THEIR chainsaw, that would be about the same thing? Yup, I’d definitely drag their ass into court and hurt them where it hurts the most–their pocketbook. They should have to buy and plant a tree to replace the one they cut down, at the very least. I’d even check with your laws there to see if you can get them in trouble for not securing a permit. Here, you can get in big trouble if you don’t have a permit to cut down a tree, even your own trees. And in many cases, it is required by law to plant another tree once you cut one down. You can probably get them for not having a permit on top of trespassing on your property and willfully causing damage to your property. What the f-ck is wrong with people these days?
Three words: Sense of entitlement.
They set a ladder up on their side and leaned over. Yeah. Not kidding. Chopped it off about a foot higher than the fence. Fell in our yard, hanging on the fence. Uh huh. It’s laying in the middle of the backyard right now, and that’s where it’s staying until it dries up and starts to rot. Right the hell there in the middle of my yard. Not moving it. Not tossing it out at the curb for pickup. One dead tree laying in my yard until it falls apart molecule by molecule. It should take years.
Color me totally livid.
Spent the day reading codes and ordinances. Already have paperwork printed out. They pushed the wrong damn button.
No mercy from me. War is on.
Oddly enough, I am currently involved in litigation exactly like this. Neighbor sent a letter saying that she was going to “trim” the portion of the tree that hangs over the property line – then when the owners come home the trimming people had reached over the fence and cut down a four-foot-in-diameter tree.
Client is supremely pissed and litigating to cause the tree-cutter grief.
Seems as if a retraining order would be in order to keep any of said neighbors from coming on to your property for any reason. Of course this will lead to untold unrest with said neighbors until Hell Freezes Over, but with their track record who would care.
One thing you need to do first thing is place several No Trespassing signs in full view of the offending neighbors, get batteries for the camera and think about setting up the old web cam just incase. Texas has some strict laws regarding No Trespassing laws especially once posted.
Oh there’s going to be some litigating going on. It’s such a small tree to make such a fuss over, but I don’t care. The fact that had we not been home and they wanted to do the same to several much larger trees that happen to be mine (to, oddly enough, give another of MY trees more sunlight), well … it’s a good thing we were home to react. I have no doubt had we not been here, we’d have come home to a decimated tree-line. They don’t understand boundaries of any sort.
I was already thinking about No Trespassing signs. Seems ridiculous to need to put those up in the middle of downtown on a sleepy little street, but I want it clearly known that anyone not invited is a trespasser and will be dealt with appropriately. I will be informing Annoying Boy of this when next he bugs me, likely sometime today. Then I better not ever see him on my yard again. Don’t think I won’t go as far as a restraining order, because I will. There’s already going to be untold unrest around here until hell freezes over anyway.
I hate being mean. I hate having to be mean, even to mean people. But dammit, I am not going to just sit around and gripe here and to Lin about it anymore. This is OUR PROPERTY and OUR DOMAIN and I want them to stay on their side of the line and not interact with me or anything/anyone on my property anymore. I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore.
I wonder.
Would a court be likely to (if asked) order them to pay to replace the tree they cut down?
As for the Pecan, if it’s not getting enough sunlight where it is then clearly it’s in the wrong place. They need to get the relevant tools in to transplant it.
Yes, the court system considers giving three times the cost of getting a new tree. I figure that would end up being a few hundred bucks, with which I can get any kind of tree I want. Or even several trees if I go smaller.
Yeah, see, thing is, that Pecan tree is none of their concern. It’s my tree too, and I don’t care if it gets any sun or not, because it’s in a bad place and will have to go eventually. Personally, I am now thinking of just going ahead and chopping it down now and getting it over with … pretty much just to spite them, since they prefer that tree over the others … and to make the point that those trees, the ones that are growing out of my backyard and on my property are, in fact, my trees to do with what I will.
Not to mention, I have been in the kitchen looking out the window while working most of the day since sunrise, and that Pecan tree has been getting sunlight all damn day. That was just some sort of stupid excuse they thought we would be dumb enough to buy. Do these people not realize we went to college and aren’t mentally challenged? I thought it was stupid the first time she said that was why they wanted to cut down the other trees, aside from the fact that none of those trees are hers to care about.
I look forward to the day we can put in the privacy fence. Too many things need to be fixed on the house first though, so we are just going to have to live with looking at each other for a while yet.
I would be thinking the same in your shoes. Why not just cut the pecan?
Of course the still better option might be to wait, get the cost of three new trees off them and then replace not only the one they felled but also cut down and replace the pecan then.