The things people do

Calling the woods behind my house woods is a bit of a misnomer. It’s more like a patch of wild land with some trees on it. It’s an area large enough to plant a house on it, if it was flat. But it’s a steep hill with trees growing on it—some maples, pines, and birch. I own half the hill. The neighbor at the top of the hill owns the other half.

He doesn’t like trees. A couple of years ago, he started whacking away at the trees, mine included. I dragged out the plot plans and we had a cordial discussion about it and he stopped whacking my trees.

Then he decided that he wanted to expand his yard space. The best way to do that, he figured, was to pitch stuff over the edge of the hill to fill in the space...or raise it up to his yard level. But that didn’t work very well. Most of the stuff he pitched over the edge rolled down the hill and ended up against my fence. We had another cordial conversation and he stopped pitching stuff over the hill.

Now, he has gone and chopped down about eight medium to large sized trees at end corner of his part of the hill. I’m not clear on the details, but he plans, somehow, to build a swimming pool up there and the trees were in the way. I believe he still has some plans to extend his yard out and fill in the hill somehow. If he does it properly, it will cost him dearly in coin and probably still make my life just a little more difficult. But, it’s his property.

However, cutting these trees wasn’t the best short-term solution, either. After a couple of heavy rain storms, a good portion of his newly denuded hill washed away. Down the hill. I have a whole lot of new dirt (sand) to play in. He’s not very happy about it and I could have told him, but he is still determined.

He’s in a race with the clock now, I figure. He’s going to have to do something pretty quickly before his yard starts caving in and washing down the hill, too. He wanted to build the hill up, but probably not down at the bottom of it. I’m not too keen on it, either. I don’t think this was a very well thought out plan and I hope he doesn’t abandon his plan before he fixes the damage he did. But I’m not holding my breath.