Long Hollow

A few weeks ago these chains and signs went up on the property next door… (yes, the damn dam property.)

Now, I don't blame them for putting up the signs. Several years ago we had people zipping through the middle of our land on their four-wheelers, despite our "No Trespassing" signs. We finally had to pile lumber and cedar posts across the trail to get our message across… ("Stop driving on our land! We don't know you!")

It seems some people think they can just drive wherever they want to drive, especially if they're on a four-wheeler. And especially if there's not a house visible (although that doesn't always stop them, obviously, since our house was clearly visible.) They don't bother to consider that the property might belong to someone… perhaps someone who doesn't want tire tracks all over their property.

…and then there were these people who decided to make changes to their property, without regard to property lines…

Believe me, we understand. 

See the line of rocks on the left side of this photo?

Those mark our property line. I had to line them up like that to keep our neighbor's workers from driving on our property. They had already bulldozed that large pile of brush you see to the side – we'd placed it there to keep people from driving down that trail. We were trying to get things to grow there again. His excuse? "I didn't know where the property line was." Hmmm… did you think to check before you started bulldozing?

Well, he seems to know now. We had seen trucks driving on that property, but we just assumed it was the owners. Now we're guessing it wasn't. And now that people are driving on his property without permission, he suddenly cares about respecting property lines.

Ah, life is full of irony, isn't it? What's that old saying? What goes around, comes around…?

On the other hand, there's not much to report on the damn dam. When the ponds were full, it wasn't quite as bad. Still bad. Just not as bad…

But now the ponds have almost completely dried up; thank goodness we had that explosion of green between the house and the dam or we'd be staring at this from our deck…

Otherwise, nothing has changed, beyond the "No Trespassing" signs. That's probably a good thing. With change, I can only imagine things getting worse, as far as our little pond and our property goes.

But we'll make the best of it and I'll keep you posted. Despite it all, we're still grateful for our little bit of paradise.