by CTLP, Sunday, April 27, 2008
So- I am a big time creature of habit. When things are going great- I am loathe to change things up. If I go to Subway I get the exact same sub every single time. When I first rode the Mt. Tom trail on my first mtn bike trip to Arcadia- I liked it so much that I did not bother to find a different trail to ride for several years. When Mrs. CTLP and I bought the 'Crayons Ranch' we did so with the thought that it would be the last move we would ever make. It was our own little private slice of happiness, tucked way in the back with no visible neighbors and suited us perfectly. Can't see the road from the house or the house from the road- that is- until the property next door was sold.
My neighbor called me on Thursday night to give me an advance warning (knowing that I work from home and do not regularly venture down the road) as he noticed the brusher parked in the driveway on the property that was just sold on the other side of me. The new owners told my neighbor that they were planning to do 'a little thinning out of the cedar where it encroached on the field' toward my house.
By the time I got home from swimming on Friday morning, the Detroit Diesel was fired up and clearing within feet of the property line. I guess by 'clearing a few of the cedars' they really meant- the cedar, the beautiful stand of birch, the hemlock, the maple, the oak, the chesnut and anything growing that provided a nice buffer between the direction our house faces and the road. I generally like to see big equipment operate, but the rate at which this one ate away all that forest was incredibly sad. Another neighbor across the street came over soon after I got home (said he heard the commotion and thought that I was under seige- wanted to know if I needed a hand beating back the invaders) and after talking for a couple of minutes all he could do was stare at the destruction and shake his head. He and his wife were talking with a third neighbor later on that day and like most people around here they are also not fond of people who come in and just start smashing. People here integrate with the community, and don't try to make the community conform to them as they tend to quickly learn that it is a losing proposition.
After Mrs. CTLP got home from work (after enduring my mid-day half hour full on rant where I voiced my opinion that we should move if they clear down to the road) we took a walk to survey the damage:
Mrs. CTLP voiced her displeasure over our new found 'view':
On our way back home, I noticed that in order to pluck one offending pair of birch trees, they managed to run over what might be one of the outer grave markers in the historical cemetary between our property. Real classy.
So now from our front porch you can watch (and as a bonus clearly hear) the cars going up and down our road. As soon as they manage to chip and clear all of the trees they destroyed it will be even more clear- but by that time some of the leaves from the trees that are on our property will have leaves on them and hopefully provide us partial screening for at least half of the year.
It has taken me a little while to cool off some, but all day today while I was working around the house I had to hear them knocking down more trees and stripping the dead branches off of the remaining cedar. Pisses me off royally that they did not even extend the common courtesy to talk with us first and take the time to consider the impact this would have on their new neighbor. Granted, this probably seems quite overblown to most due in part to my obsessiveness and the relative space that I still enjoy. Besides- what right do I have to say what should or should not be done with property that someone else bought and pay taxes on? For all I know- they are clearing that area out and are going to replace it with a fast growing evergreen screen and all this stress will be for somewhat mitigated. It would be one thing if they wanted to reclaim the field to cultivate it again- that I could get behind and would understand. But apparently all they have plans for is subdividing and putting up another house. So right now all I have is utter disappointment. If there is one thing that I can not abide it is people that decide they want to 'move to the country' then proceed to try and make it look like the suburbs, then get the heebie-jeebies when a cricket chirps and leave town. If you want to move to the country- LEAVE IT NATURAL. When you develop the country- it is no longer... the country... Pretty f'n simple.
One bonus to this, though Sleepy- the deer will be much less likely to bed down in the field, and I hope that translates into less deer trying to take out my car in my driveway at 3:30 in the morning...
