Neighbor Troubles

Once upon a time, we had a wonderful neighbor that lived next to us. She was elderly but minded her own business. Actually a lot of times, she wasn't even around because she'd be galavanting with her two sisters. She kept her property in good shape; always mowed her lawn when it started getting long and did the usual maintenance to the house and other out-buildings when they needed it. In fact, upon our suggestion that she have two maple trees on her property cut down because they were beginning to rot, she did so. We even made the slight suggestion that she cut down a large white pine tree nearest to our house but actually on her property because it could pose a hazard to our house if it were to fall; and she granted our wishes and had it cut down. It was often thought that she had the nicest home in the entire community. She even went out and bought very beautiful and extravagant hanging baskets to hang up along her sidewalk. I mean, there was no denying it, she really kept her home in nice shape and it certainly didn't go unnoticed, especially by us. And we'd even help her out on occasion and we definitely didn't mind.

But then she began ailing. She had surgery done on her back and ever since that point, she was never the same. Gradually her health had gotten worse and worse. By that point in time, we had taken over the lawn mowing duties at her place and still managed to keep the grass in tip-top shape. By the next spring, she was gone. She had succumbed to whatever disease was ailing her and it was actually quite sad to know we'd never see her around. It's funny; even though we have new neighbors own the property (whom I will be discussing as we go along), we still refer to it as her property. I don't think that'll ever change because we're so accumstomed to her owning it. And even though we didn't know her really close, I certainly couldn't help but feel a sense of loss when she was gone. It just felt weird that we wouldn't see her walk around and make her precense known. I am sure you know how hard it is to accept change whenever something is different for the first time in years. This was one of those situations for us.

Her house would be vacant for a few years and during those two summers, we continued to keep the lawn in good shape. Her daughter would check in on the place every now and again and would pay us for taking care of the lawn. But other than that, there it sat. Then came word late in the winter that there was someone interested in the place. They were very serious in buying the house and the daughter was a very motivated seller (y0u can understand after it sat for two years). We knew the inevitable situation of someone else owning the property was coming; it was still rather hard accepting it. But knowing it was someone I knew from high school made that fact a little easier to take. Recalling from memory what he was like in high school, I thought he would do a really good job of maintaining the property from falling into disrepair. I couldn't believe how wrong I ended up being.

First of all, even though the chances are pretty slim that the people I am talking about in this blog ever catch wind of this; there's always that chance. So let me say that I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings by writing about this situation. In fact, I think it's best to leave out names to keep this annonymous as possible. But the reason I am bringing this up is to let out some of my family's and my own frustrations. It really is a nice way to vent about something and that is what I am doing in this blog. Anways, during the first summer they starting living next door, we noticed that the lawn was being seldom mowed. Every two to three weeks, he'd end up mowing. By the time we got into late summer, they were pretty much saved by the fact that it didn't rain for some 70 plus days so the grass basically dried up and died. Once we got rain into early fall - the grass did start growing again, but it wasn't mowed again the rest of the season. Now let's jump ahead to this summer. It ended up being a very cool spring and the grass was late in growing. Finally by the last week in May, we started mowing our lawn because it had gotten long enough. You know how long it took the neighbors? About three weeks after we mowed ours. It was like a hay field it was so long. My mom was beginning to get very frustrated with the lawn situation that she was going to talk with someone involved with the village council. It never did get that far as they finally had some motivation and started mowing the long grass. From what I understand, people out in the community were discussing the neighbor's lawn. I have a feeling someone from the village council gave them a warning about their lawn or they were hearing so many negative comments "out there" that they felt they should do something about it. Ever since then, they've had a teenage boy come over every Monday and mow it.

Then late last fall, they were having trouble with their septic tank. Sewage was starting to back up into their basement, so they decided to have it pumped out. Not knowing where it was, they had someone with a back-hoe try to "poke" around and see if they could find it. The back-hoe operator ended up breaking a sewer line near the tank itself. So they had to get that fixed and also had the septic tank pumped out. You can't blame any of this on them because it was the previous "owners" that left them to deal with this. It was getting very late in the season and we were in and out of freezing temperatures. They had everything set in place; all they had to do was put the dirt back in around the broken pipe and ontop of the tank and they'd be in good shape for the winter. Well, they never got around to it and that big mound of dirt and uncovered septic tank cover remained during the freezing cold months. They were lucky to have a back-up septic system; otherwise there'd be no way they could live there without an adequate septic system. So this spring, the mound of dirt stood there until at least mid-May before the neighbor finally borrowed his father's tractor and pushed it all into the hole that was dug for the septic tank. Not only did the tractor create rut marks in the lawn that still exist, he didn't bother removing the large boulders that came out of the hole and pushed those in along with the rest of the mound. So needless to say, the dirt was never properly smoothed out and even at this point, that area of the lawn isn't even being mowed because it's so uneven and jagged with rocks. They've even had to dig up the septic tank cover one additional time recently to get the tank pumped out again. If they continue to have problems with it, they just might need a new septic system; something they can't exactly afford at this point in time.

The shovels, rakes, and various other tools they used to dig up the lawn and dirt around the septic tank prior to getting a back-hoe have remained near their front porch ever since last fall. They are still resting up against the house at this very time. They did have one of the boy's they regularly hire to mow the lawn try and clean up the area around the septic tank cover. They managed to fill up a wheel barrow full of weeds and rocks and left it near their main entry way for a good month at least before it was finally disposed of. A spare tire from the Toyota pick-up they often borrow from his father is sitting on the corner of their sidewalk near their main entryway to the house and it's sat there since early spring. A lot of good that's going to do when the truck gets a flat tire several miles away. Rugs they've brought to "air" out several months ago are still draped on the back fence or on the clothes line. I could go on and on regarding certain things but I'd be here all night and I've got to end this particular blog at some point.

So I guess you could say we have our challenges when dealing with our new neighbors. Obviously we knew things weren't going to be the same when they moved in, but we didn't expect things to be as bad as they are. But let me say something about them personally before I continue bashing on their upkeep; they are pretty decent when talking to them and it's not like they are nasty or rude. It's just they lack motivation when it comes to finishing jobs on their property or putting tools away. A lot of things sit for months and months before one of them does anything about it. And most of the time, it's the man of the household that does anything. I think I've only seen her lift a finger once since they've started living there. All she does is take care of her own "humane society" of pets. And she has a lot of them!

It's not like me to talk negatively about anybody but sometimes, it's justified. I am sure this isn't the end of our game of charades with the neighbors, but at least we're not involved in some nasty feud with them. It just gets rather tiresome seeing all of the junk laying out in the yard for months and months before something is ever done about it. I am sure this isn't my last blog talking about them either! Stay tuned...