…are your neighbors”. As some of you may know, we generally have great relations with most of our neighbors. Most, not all. The long border to the north is occasionally fraught, as Richard and Angela can be rather difficult to deal with. For better or worse I have since discovered we are not the only ones to have trouble with them, as they have had many grazers quit after only a few weeks due to their peculiarities.
We share 850 meters of boundry with them, and unfortunately much of the fence is in need of repair. The latest discovery was on Monday, I was clearing brush along our fenceline, and discovered that the fence was in terrible shape. So terrible that once the brush was gone, Jason stepped over the fence to graze on their side! For, for historical perspective they had four cows come across the fence to our side about a month ago, where they grazed for weeks, until we left a note in their mailbox to do something about it. Jason was over the fence for less than 3 hours before we got a call. Sigh. Also annoying in that they knew what the fence was like (they could see from their side), but did nothing about it, nor did they tell us.
This weekend we are supposed to meet with them to discuss options. We are not really looking forward to this, as they have the wonderfull combination of an abrasive manner (using f*&k as noun, verb and adjective- sometimes in the same sentence if they are agitated!), and a really strong belief in their own farming knowledge. In reality their farming knowledge is negligable to negative, in they have some stuff wrong/backwards. They are also people would would much rather curse the darkness than light a candle. They would prefer to complain at length how the horses have “destroyed” the fence, rather than do an hour of work to fix the problem (which is usually just basic maintenance, like repacing missing staples).
In this coming discussion we maintain (and are ready to use) the “nuclear option”. At the rear of the property is a ~80 meter segment of fence that needs work. This segment deviates into our property by about 20 meters. This was clearly done in the past to give the previous owners access around the top of a gully to their back paddock (which is about 10 acres). There is no legal easement, however. We could rebuild the fence along the property boundry and screw them. If we need to, we will.
Oh, I am also irked because the times they have “fixed” the fence they have created nasty horse-crippling hazards. When they tie their wires they leave loose ends sticking out an inch or more, effectively making barbed wire, but with extra-long barbs to catch any horse moving along the fence. I have to find and repair these “repairs” to de-hazard them. Quite annoying.