[cmjdisanto]

Maybe you will and maybe you won't find this amusing or maybe you know or live next door to someone just like this but today was certainly a day. Now I know I have had more than my fair share of opinion related run-ins over the years and here is no exception. Normally though it's a live and let live perspective when it comes to neighbors. That is unless they are going to do something that is illegal, immoral, dangerous to us or anything to depreciate the value of the neighborhood.

Ya'll may remember the piece of land behind our home? It was just inside the old S-Line for the SEHSR project we also discussed. Well..... It was once going to be a road some 45-50 years ago but never finalized for what ever reason so it turned into city easement. It's not the type of easement that you are bound to maintain but we chose to do just that and it's all shown in pictures in my New CMJRR post and in a couple topics in the archives. Today a Friend came by and helped me out by dropping 3 pine trees that were dead as could be. Recently we have had some good wind storms and they have in whole or in part taken down several of the dead pines behind us. Most are far enough away or have a substantial Oak blocking them they didn't or don't pose any threat. But the three in question? Not only that but we have been picking up limbs or sections as large as 4" in diameter halfway into our yard. So.....They had to come down. 
Anyhow, and because of this, we had the Chesterfield County Sheriff and Police called on us today by a neighbor./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif It would normally be a big issue but since we are not residents of Chesterfield County...../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif  The Chesterfield officers had to call our city officers and well.....The City officer didn't even give it the time of day and the fact that it wasted the time of three of the areas finest....Well judging by the radio calls of the Sheriff he could've been useful elsewhere. Yet it was certainly worth a good laugh and our friend sure thought so. In all honesty though it was actually more pathetic than anything else. I mean all the work we have done in clearing and maintaining things has done nothing but improve our property and the view for the neighbors, eliminate our problems with rodents and clear away otherwise dead and rotting organic matter that posed not only a critter issue but a fire hazard during that "season".  Our neighbor and not a taxpaying citizen of our fair city has to have more time on her hands than even I have and that's a scary thought. There's nothing like being the second neighbor she has felt it necessary to call the police on. The first being her County neighbor that lives directly behind us. Nothing say's to your neighbors that I never want to get to know you better than calling the police on them. Plus...that's just it (what I said previously! Our homes aren't even directly behind one another. There's gotta be 150 yards between us. This time of year is not a good example since almost all the foliage is gone. The summer you can't see anything on the other side. But we have transplanted well over 100 Azaleas on the border of things to create a natural and More appealing fence for the winter months and bring some color to the area in the Spring. Heck the proof of what it looks like in bloom is here. Just imagine what things will look like when they've had a chance to mend from being transplanted and grow because it's all not bunched together in a planting bed any longer. Sheesh/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crazy.gif  

Just wanted to share an interesting day. BTW she did take pictures of everything. I guess the headlines will read....

City Gimp has dead pine trees cut down by friend. 
Many leaves and dead branches crushed in chain saw frenzy!



Can't wait to see us on the evening news too?

 

[Mike Reilley]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

If there were a public road in front of the complaining neighbor...I might legally park a car somewhere...which might have a sign in the back window....

Now for the fun.....  WHAT SHOULD THAT SIGN SAY?

 

[Dave F]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

I had a similar neighbor experience when we lived back in Illinois. If you can't tell from my picture there to your left, I play the guitar. Once a summer I host a small "Jam Party" for my friends, everyone brings their instruments and we all just kick back and let the music flow naturally. It's usually a mix of bluesy, jazzy, folkie stuff. No death metal, no Ozzfest and we invite all the neighbors to come over and enjoy the evening as well.

One year the old lady three doors down decided to "call the Cops".. When a squad car rolled up and two of the villages finest entered the back yard, They were amused to find the Local Chief of Police sitting behind his drum kit. .......

Come to find out the Old Lady prefered country music and cheap domestic beer.

 

[Duncan]

Posted By Mike Reilley on 01/18/2008 4:17 PM
If there were a public road in front of the complaining neighbor...I might legally park a car somewhere...which might have a sign in the back window....

Now for the fun.....  WHAT SHOULD THAT SIGN SAY?


C'mon, Mike!!  Give us a hint!!!
/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif

 

[cmjdisanto]

I just needed to pull some posts from the past to show that I documented all of the changes and conversations. I was told I might not know when this would come in handy. No need to reply to this particular part of the update but if you wish or have any tremendous insight.....Always appreciated.



Posted - 16 Nov 2006 :  15:25:12
Well we have a new home. Closing is set for the middle of December. Really large lot too. When the house was built back in 1966 there were originally plans for an alley way and a side street to be behind and next to the home. Well since the city we're in is independent from the county.... when the county tried to force the city to allow them to tap into the city services a few years later... the city slammed the door. So no street and alley. Then the county built a set of homes that backed right up to an old Seaboard Rail line. That was abandoned and then later removed and sets the line between the county and the city.

Now for the really good part. After spending some time today at city hall asking 1000 questions, I found out that because of what the county did we have an extra yard.

We started at close to an acre and now it's more like an acre and a half or two. It's not really our property but after speaking to the City Engineer, I was told that all the plans for that had long since been scraped and there was no way to rejuvinate them because of the the way the county developed their land.

We are gonna have a great time doing this layout.

Anyhow here are a couple shots of the house. When we are at the inspection next Wednesday, I will snap some pics of the train area and post them.

Later

The wooded area on the otherside of the bushes is part ours and part city/our use

  Posted - 17 Nov 2006 :  06:02:35
Supposedly this house was one of the first. Not sure of the validity of this but we are checking into things. We are also looking into purchasing the extra land from the city since, as it sits, it's not a money maker. Since no one owns the land no taxes can be collected. We might be able to come to an agreement especiall since the srea we have access to is locked in by surrounding private property.

I guess the most important reason to try at the least is that if I were to invest time, effort and funds into a GRR I'm gonna make dang sure that 15 years from now no one can lay claim to things.

This whole thought process may take some time and effort but that may well be well spent. From the looks of things the neighbors to the left (that's where the street was to have gone) have stayed within the boundries of the property. The previous owners of our future home have done the upkeep of the area. Then again I may just leave the "sleeping dog alone" and just do things. Nothing has come up in 40 years and there's no sense in me stirring things up now.

Thanks everyone. Hey Marty! You sure you have the right house????? Hehehe. There's only a couple hunderd thousand of these "Colonial types" in the region (Virgina, DC, Maryland, etc)

Now all we need to do is sell the house in KC.

Posted - 02 Dec 2006 :  14:34:49  
Hello to all from Colonial Heights VA.

It will be official on December 15. Having jumped throug all the necessary hoops to get the house all that remains is the title info. Close is scheduled and we made it over to the house to get some pictures of the yard.

It's hard to picture at the moment but there is a great amount of space back there. I know some of you are thinking look at all the trees and some have already warned us about the leaf hassle so I will say that we intend on removing a few of the less important trees in the near future. The wooded lot chgarm does appeal to Martha so we will attemt a compromise here.

Anyhow we guestimate things to be about two and a half acres after seeing what the platt to the home is shaped like.

Well here are a couple shots of things. Like I said before it's hard to picture things now but just wait'll spring.

This picture looks across the back yard. Nothe the property line for the side is 35ft behind me and for the back it's 80ft to my right. There is a grove of azaleas and other ornamental bushes between me and the property line.

This is that grove of Azeleas and bushes.

This area is behind all of the developed yard and where the bulk of the layout will be.

There is a small water feature just below the center of the picture. This also looks back across the yard from the shed.

This is the left side yard of the house. The yard extends approx 150ft back from the point I am standing.

It's not a full shot but this is the shed. It measures 12X24 and sits on a block foundation with a concrete slab floor. Unfortunately until we get a garage I have to have the trains share the space with all my tools so no designated train shed. For the moment. Hehehe

 

[Spule 4]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

There was a story about one of the indoor model railway clubs where several men were seen coming and going from a building late at nite, some with doctor's bags and the like. Well, one nite, the local police come in, and instead of the gambling den they expected to find, they find an operating session....

 

[Torby]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

Come to find out the Old Lady prefered country music and cheap domestic beer.


So, did you invite her over and play some for her?

 

[blueregal]

/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.giffrom your pics ive seen, i invision many many trains, and long lines of freight cars, all engines with sound and tuned up for the maximum sound level you can attain from each most townships cities dont get excited about noise until after 10pm, and before 8am in the morning!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif


OR TIE HER UP AND PUT HER ON A RAIL OUT OF TOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Steve Stockham]

  It seems to me that your neighbor thought you were doing something "illegal" (otherwise why call the Sheriff?) Has she been properly "educated" now? If so, I'd let it slide. The fact that you are going to develope that area into a garden railroad will p*ss her off FAR more than anything else you could devise!! Of course, it's also possible that she may try to cause trouble in the future (make that probable) so I'd be prepared for "visits" from the local constabulary!

 

[Dave F]

Posted By Torby on 01/19/2008 8:42 AM
Come to find out the Old Lady prefered country music and cheap domestic beer.


So, did you invite her over and play some for her?" align="absMiddle" border="0" src="/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/biggrin.gif" />


Yup...

Remember when the Blues Brothers played at Bob's Country Bunker?.. It was a lot like that. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif

 

[Madman]

 "I mean all the work we have done in clearing and maintaining things has done nothing but improve our property and the view for the neighbors, eliminate our problems with rodents and clear away otherwise dead and rotting organic matter that posed not only a critter issue but a fire hazard during that "season".  


Now Joe, you should know by now that no good deed goes unpunished.

 

[John J]

Your yard is to  Ummmmm   "Prissy"  Yea that's it.    YOu need to get some  dirt piles  around the place  a lay some track.   Mabye some empty  Concrete bags.   The neighbor on the other side will be complainging our yard is too clean.  It makes her's look bad.   Your just not gona win this one./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/doze.gif

 

[blackburn49]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

All I have to say about this is, this is one of the reasons I STILL LIVE IN ALASKA! My neighbors are all a nice safe distance away--and they mind their own darn business.

 

[sheepdog]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

I had the reverse happen to me. Bought a house on 4 wooded acres in a somewhat rural area in the Finger Lakes of NYS. It was on a side hill and the only real neighbor I had was uphill about 50 yards and across the road. Nice older guy and his wife lived there.

After about 2 months, I hear this chainsaw running and it sounds like it's coming from my woods. Sure enough, there is the neighbor cutting down a live tree on my property. Remember, this is across the road from his place. I ask him what the yell he is doing. He replies 'cutting down some firewood, the land owner doesn't mind. I point to the 2 month old, two foot high, surveyor stake with the orange tape flying only 5' from him. Clearly he is inside my property. No way he could have missed it because the uphill land owner had logged his land at some time. All it had on it were pine trees. No way he didn't know..... And there were several other stumps nearby.

He sheeply says something like 'opps, sorry about that' and slinks back across the road. At least he had knocked down the tree for me. I cut it up the next year and used it for firewood.

Craig

 

[Bill4373]

     Several years ago, in Jonesville, Michigan, the question came up about an abandoned New York Central right-of-way.  The "grant" for the right-of-way back in the 1800's, stated that, should the right-of-way be abandoned, the land would revert back to the land owners.  After some legal searching, the Village Council was going to revert the land back to the present land owners... One family objected (they didn't live near there), their ancestors owned the land when the "right-of'-way" was granted to the railroad; therefore the land should revert back to them rather than the present land onwers.  After more legal research, the land was deeded to the present land owners because they bought the land.  If you think you have a claim the family was told, file a civil suit in circuit court.  They never did.
     So, you might check for similar limitations.

 

[ByrdC130]

In the case of busy bodies the amount of land is totally inconsequential.  Where I grew up my family ownes 5 sections of land, full one mile x one mile sections, and we  lived smack dap in the middle of it on a dead end dirt road.  All that land just meant that you have more area to have neighbor troubles and we did all the time, either with fences or them letting their cows get some free breeding from our bulls to tresspassing issues.  Ya can't get far enuff away from some neighbors. Heck last year on the back side of our 80acre family compound the guy across the creek drove 7 miles to my house to ask if we'd not ride 4 wheelers on our side of the creek cause the deer like to bed down along there.  Guess his deer had dark circles around their eyes or something.   /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif

So if you have a Mrs. Cravits in the area, there ain't near enuff room to excape her prowling sense of community.

 

[cmjdisanto]

Decided to contact the city last Friday and then again Sunday noght while suiffering a bout of medication induced .......Yeah I know that some could say not a wise move but we're sort of focused on not hiding things so.....

I received a response to things yesterday and was certainly surprised!!!!!! Basically we were told to keep doing what we were doing in regards to maintaining things and not to worry about our Chesterfield "neighbor". (I use that neighbor thing very, very, very loosely. Anyhow I can't wait to see her reaction when we go about thinning trees that are actually on our property. I don't mean cutting them down or anything but they do need some attention. And if she was bothered by 3 dead pines I can't wait for this. 

Ya know it's really kinda phunny in a stoopid sort of way. I mentioned the issues about fire season and we do have one of those here. It just makes no sense that people want to "protect" things so much that in a very real sense they are creating more of a danger by doing so. They want to protect this natural setting but with that setting comes a natural phenomenom.... 



Wildfires.

Plus she swears that there is not an Issie with snakes here like copperheaderattlemoccasins but from what we have learned we are in an area that has the largest moccasin breading ground in the SE US and a Copper head population that is on the rise. Three of our neighbors have had issues with both of these in their back yards but they haven't cleaned things like we have. Trouble is if one of them bites her the doggone thing is doomed to die in minutes/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif After all  the Viper is more dangerous.

 

[D-n-H - Kirkville Branch]

RE: The Mother of all "busy-bodies"!!!!!!!

You better make sure your pulling electrical permits and such if your city requires it. same with ponds and retaining walls, here in central NY almost every town has some kind of regulation on electrical, ponds, walls, and permanent structures as well. If she is a b***** you could get nailed if she knows about these things.

 

[Mike Reilley]

Posted By cmjdisanto on 01/22/2008 6:55 PM
...Ya know it's really kinda phunny in a stoopid sort of way. I mentioned the issues about fire season and we do have one of those here. It just makes no sense that people want to "protect" things so much that in a very real sense they are creating more of a danger by doing so. They want to protect this natural setting but with that setting comes a natural phenomenom.... 



Wildfires.

May sound stupid to a lot of us....but there's an extreme form of "greenie" that STRONGLY prefers that nature be just that....natural...and wildfires are part of that.  They're particularly prevalent in the West where I live..and while I have some philosophical agreement with their positions, in practice, I find most of the detailed positions they take overwhelmingly NUTS!  In my immediate neighborhood, there are over 80 homes that burned down because the owners were NOT ALLOWED to thin vegitation.  

Perhaps these homes shouldn't have been allowed to be built where they were....but they were....40 plus years ago when being hypersensitive to nature wasn't so in vogue.  Somehow, we gotta get some sense back into property rights...and I agree with others...be sure to tow the line on building permits when you build your garden railroad...and good luck.

 

[cmjdisanto]

All our utilities except for irrigation system end at our property line AND the city knows about it. However we installed the sprinkler system so it could be capped off at the property line if and when the City decided to use the property. Yet it has been 45years since they abandoned the road plans and we're not the only folks that have a vested interest in the easement. Some have even built permanent structures on it like garages and sheds./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif However I do plan a shed back there. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif It will be built on skids and have the powers supplied by a tether (old-school electrical type) rather than the alternative though/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif.  And were still looking into the "right of way" thingy since from what we understand of it..... it just applies to a railroad but doesn't define "the gauge" As far as we're concerned tracks is tracks./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif (it was a joke well sort of/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif) But we don't have the funds nor the effort to test them waters for now nor a long time to come. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif

Mike, most would probably say I take the same stance as you in regards to the whole "Natural" or "Nature" thing. I kinda like the "caretaker" approach to things. But since we own a home and because our "county" neighbors down the street want to continually have bon fire parties even under heavy burn restriction bans......../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/pinch.gif We were happy we cleared the extra third to half acre of property. Unfortunately we can't control everything around us (nor would I try) so/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif   We'll just continue to maintain things until the day when it doesn't matter anymore. Anyhow I think she's just envious of us since we asked the city first and they didn't care. Some of the folks over there have tried to buy this area but because they don't reside in city limits (and a couple other reasons that I'm not privy to) they have been outright refused. 

I am gonna try to take a pic of things but it's a real mess back there.... I took some pics to show what a mess it is of things back there...Ahhhh the heck with it....where we stopped the clean up back I mean. There has to be well over 3 dozen trees that have been taken out by wind and storm. There's still remnants of Isabel back there. (ie. trees at least 4-5 in diameter that are lying hap-hazard all over) I think that was the name of the Hurricane that came through the area. But that was 2003. But the alternative to having it messy is folks riding their ATV and four-wheelers back there. But if it's clean and sectioned of to look like yard as we have done...... Then who in their right mind is gonna ride in someones yard. Hasn't happened yet. 

Personally I think the city should allow all the folks to do as we have and they should also allow a fence to be installed between properties and the county/city lines. There's still hope for the Azalea fence we have planted.