How much do you know about fencing? 

No, I don't mean fencing, like dueling with swords fencing.  I mean fencing as in your yard. Or should I say, around your yard.  My days have been so wacky lately. As you can see by the previous 2 posts, we have had some special events and trips, so I have no idea how much I've said about our neighbor and the trouble we've had over the years. Not trouble like, loud music, or not mowing the grass, but in a nose-in-your-business/I-know-it-all-I'm-right-your--wrong kind of trouble. 

For instance, EVERY, I mean every single one, every outside project we've done, from cutting down a tree, planting a bush, making a garden, .... this guy has come over in Dennis the Menace fashion to ask "what ya doin", then proceeds to tell us why we shouldn't do what we are doing, or the way we are doing it; or tells us we ought not to do it, or ought to do this or that. Never once has he asked us to say, trim a tree branch, he TELLS!

The last straws were:

When we were out sweeping the shale off the road that the PA Dept. of Trans. spreads on the road in the snow and ice. This is something we do every spring. The shale crumbles over the summer as cars and trucks drive over it, and creates a thick cloud of dust that is so bothersome you can't open your windows without dirtying anything near them. So we have gone out each yr. and swept in front of our house/property, and neighbors on both sides. This year we broke down and rented a motorized broom, which cut the time and work WAY down. The weather was hot. "Dennis" (he's in his 70's) rides his glorified golfcart up his lane to the road, and while we are cleaning in from of Mr. Larry, our neighbor on our west side, Dennis starts singing "working on the chain gang" (DId I tell you this before???) Bob kept his cool, and let it pass without a word. It definately was the LORD because this was NOT the first time Dennis did this type of thing. Needless to say, there is only so much a man can take, only so many attacks on his family, and his authority.  When Dennis does these things he undermines Bob's authority and makes him look wrong to our children and plants seeds of rebellion in their minds and hearts. 

The very last straw, was when Dennis came onto our property, uninvited, unwanted, for probably the 1000th time, at least, and asked Joshua if my husband kicked David out. UGH! What NERVE! Like it's any of his business. Joshua has a good bit of discretion and wisdom. He told him that David moved to NY, which is/was true. Dennis didn't need to know all that transpired. It would only have given him pleasure, and he'd of taken glee in the tragedy that struck our family.

Not 2 weeks after the sweeping the road incident, Dennis asked Joshua to do a job for him. When Josh came to get permission to do it, Bob decided it was time to say no. He told him to tell Dennis that things between the two of them needed to be worked out first. After Josh told Dennis this, he got irrate, and said a bunch of junk, said Bob wasn't a good Christian or Pastor, (you know they always go for the jugular-instinctively people know that that's where they can really hurt you-question your testimony) and that he was gonna "put up a fence". 
Within days he was out measuring, driving stakes in the ground. He even had the electric co. come out to try and force us to cut our trees down.

The rain kept coming, this was mid-May when it started, Dennis dug his holes, complained they were full of water, and had to wait and wait and wait. This had to make him more upset with us. He put the posts 4 INCHES from the property line. This didn't bother us. In fact, we were happy that finally they wouldn't be able to sit in their house and watch our every move, and inspect our property without invite or permission. PLUS his dog, which has been coming into our yard, tormenting our dog, running at guests-even small children, would finally be restrained. Peace at last....so we thought.

By the end of the first week after finishing the fence the children were out and saw him in our yard, again. He  was coming around it to trim the grass by the posts.

We really didn't know what to do. We called the county main. dept. and they came to check it out. When they got here, they said that he should have gotten a permit, had a new survey, should have set the fence back 2-3 FEET from the property line, and that they would write a letter telling him this. They would also tell him that we agreed to maintain the back side as far as cutting the grass (he'd come around with his mower that day too)

The letter was very rough-they threatened to fine him, told him he might have to move the fence, and that he had to trim his trees. In response he CUT DOWN his trees. Then met with the dept. of main.

A few days later we got another letter from them advising us that Dennis agreed not to come on our propety except to maintain his fence, if we would sign and notarize a statement saying we'd weedeat only at no cost to them.  What an insult!  Honestly, we got in the flesh, let me tell you. The audacity! It's ludicrous.  That same day we phoned the dept. of main. again. They told us Pennsylvania, the entire state, had no ordinances regarding fences, and basically there is nothing they can say or do to make Dennis move his fence or stay off our property. Mind you NONE of this would be a problem if not for the conflich over the years. Conflict that we kept quiet about because of past problems with neighbors when we were renting--more LONG stories. 

We made a few more calls and determined that if he can put a fence up when and where he wants on his property, why can't we put up one to keep him, and his dog, o-u-t. We have some orange construction fence which we put up to temporarily send the message, No, you are not coming into our yard anymore. This man made it a point to show us the property markers when we moved here in Aug. '99, yet he has constantly disregarded them-and not just with us, but also with neighbors on the other 3 sides of him.  Our poor neighbor on the W. of us, Dennis keeps dragging him down to the end of the fence to look at what we've done to keep him out. He thinks it is wrong of us to prevent him from entering our yard. We thought of just getting a loud, growly dog, but he has previously threatened to shoot Millie, so I don't trust him. One day when he was erecting the fence, Bob was watering our newest trees and had his back to him. Dennis had a shovel in his hands, and was using his usual you=better-do=what-I-say tone, and the only reason Bob even looked at him, but didn't say a word, was he thought Dennis might actually strike him with the shovel.

Wed, and Thurs. we wracked out brains trying to figure out what to do.

I wanted to plant briars!!!!!!

 Ultimately we will have to put up a proper fence on the propety line itself, and that will eliminate much of the problem. But privacy fences are expen$ive. The cheapest panels are $26+ and we need at least 20. Bob wants the next better ones which cost $32 right now. That's without posts, hardware, and concrete.  The wind up will be us buying a few posts and a panel or 2 at a time, putting them up as we can afford it.  Once that's done, if he can squeeze into the 4-8 inches of space he left, more power to him. Does it sound like we are frustrated and just want this to be over????  Do you know anyone who can weed-eat in 4-8 in. ??? Joshua is average size and needs more than 2 feet for a short weekwacker.

So, while we tried to figure out what to do, beside using that orange fencing, we circled the fence aisle in Lowes at least 15 times. Even cheaper fences are out of our budget right now.  Finally, when we were about to just get more orange fence, Bob saw a picket fence that was weather beaten. He asked how much it cost, and would the mgt. take off something since it was old. The reg. price is $46+. They sold it to us for $10.  Ain't God good. 

The day before Bob was talking to our neighbor on the E. side of us. Bob was venting. Mr. D. proceeded to explain that he'd gone through the exact same thing with Dennis' father. He knew what we were going through. Bob went on to tell him that I'd mentioned raspberries in passing but we didn't knwo where to get any big bushes without dishing out alot of $$$.  Lo and behold, he had some, and we could have all we wanted, if we would just clear some rotten wood away and clean up the area when we were finished. Praise God!!!!

Sat. bright and early, all 7 of us were down at the end of the yard. Measuring, holding, bracing, hammering..... And of all the Saturdays to do it, Mr. W  who has a garage below Dennis decided to reface his bldg. and was there with 3-4 other men. Dennis was out in back of his house doing stuff. We had an audience. You could tell they thought it was a riot-you see our picket fence is a SNOW fence. Anyway, this only added to the stress and strain and frustration we all felt. We are tired of Dennis complaining and making work for us. We have done alot to make things look nice where he has to see it. 

We got our main posts in, attatched the fence to  the first two, and everything was A-OK. The third post was our problem The fence was short, or we measured wrong. With our audience watching, we had to quick figure out a way to make up the 8 in. difference. Bob did it. Then we looked at our job. The fence was totally wavy. We had to shimmy it up with wedges at the bottom of all the posts. All nice and straight now. Then we headed to Mr. D's for our raspberry bushes...with loads of green berries on them. These we planted at both ends and by each post. It looks like the fence has been there all along.