Just Our Thoughts

UPDATE at the bottom!

Jason and I are generally pretty giving people. But I've had about enough of people "borrowing" our property without permission.

First it was the back alley neighbor to the left who had playground equipment installed for his little boy through the Make A Wish Foundation. They took our gravel from our yard. In the whole scheme of things, not a big deal! But what if we had a plan for that gravel in our own yard! It's called stealing! It's called TRESPASSING! It's called have some decent respect. If the other homeowner had asked, Jason probably would have given the gravel to him. But he STOLE IT!

Then in the fall we heard tell of a man who parked in the back alley, right in the middle of the road so no one could get through, and stood in our bush and ate all our Saskatoon Berries!! I was going to pick and freeze or can those berries for our own use. When J went out to see if they were ready, they were GONE! We know he had a red truck, but that's about all we know. I can't beleive it. He didn't just go along the edge of the bush by the alley; to eat what he ate, he had to walk right into and onto our property.

Now today, a back hoe or high hoe or something big and yellow and dangerous for kids to climb on unattended, is sitting in my back yard! I gave NO ONE permission to park there. This piece of equipment was seen digging up the yard of the back alley neighbor to the right. That house has a fence. But he was digging right behind the house so, why didn't he just leave the machine in the backyard of THAT house inside that house's FENCE!!! Why in my backyard? Just cuz "oh they won't mind".

UH, NO, I do mind! Thank you very much!

1. IT'S TRESPASSING!
2. IT'S A SAFETY ISSUE!
3. IT'S TRESPASSING!
4. IT'S MY YARD!
5. IT'S A LIABILITY ISSUE ON THEIR PART!

What kind of society do we live in, when someone I DON'T KNOW can just park his large equipment on my yard! What kind of society do we live in, where I am not granted the common decency of asking me if I mind if they park there. My yard is NOT a free-for-all! It's MY YARD! HELLO!

And do I go and talk to the man, when he comes back from lunch? No. I'm too mad. Will J? Probably not. But we have plans to put up a fence, even if it's just on that back corner.

UGH! It's so frustrating.

I teach my kids about respecting the property of others. When we are walking down the street we stay on the sidewalk and not on someone else's front grass. When we go to visit someone, we don't snoop and poke about in their things, just eating whatever we choose from their garden. We don't just assume that they won't mind. We ask permission first!

Our neighbor that we share this block of land with has been here for years. She owns about a third of the block and we have the rest (think church parking lot and parsonage). She owns the parsonage and property and we own the church and its parking lot. She has been a wonderful neighbor and her children are respectful of our property. They cut through the back corner of our yard to go to school or wherever these guys go, but they don't muck with the garden or eat our berries or leave trash on our yard. At least I don't think they do. The pets on the other hand don't know the same boundaries, but our cats don't either. lol. We can live with that. The people that live next door (I'll call them S.T. and family) are great with my kids. All summer long the yards are almost one. The boys from next door are growing up and don't use their tree house and other such equipment as much as they once did. S.T. has welcomed the girls and W in her yard to play with their things. She scolds as needed and sends them home. I don't mind. We have a relationship.

It's these ding-dongs that think they own the world that I have a problem with. It's the pain-in-the-butt cocky blah blahs that I have an issue with! Something has got to be done! We need to teach and re-train our society to have some R-E-S-P-E-C-T!!!!

Now to figure out how to make this new fence work with our Dave Ramsey budget!

UPDATE: My dear friend Tammy-Lee came over for a visit. She is a real go-getter. I don't know if she read my post before she got here or got here and talked to Jason before she came in, but when she came in she said that she'd gone to the neighbor and asked that the machine be moved. "Well, we're not sure who's property that is." "Yeah, you know who's property it is and I know who's property it is." "Would a couple hours be fine?" "No, move it." Gotta love, Tammy-Lee. Thanks, so much! Now, maybe some No Trespassing Signs and then a fence.

Learning to live my life with purpose,