So the neighbour comes along...
 

or at least, the person responsible for the maintenance on the vacant block next door, and pulls his rideon mower up and sees the pile of branches and stuff we've stacked neatly on top of a pile that's been there all along and not created by us, and says, "what is this? A fucking dump?"

Woops, time for me to stop admiring the fish pond and sneak back inside and consider whether to approach the man with an explanation or wait till he's finished his mowing when he's possibly even more grumpy.

The story is that the previous owners of this house planted vines and hedging all along the boundaries, right the way around the house, and the law says that you can do that, and then the neighbour is entitled to trim back anything that hangs over the fenceline. So anyway, it's a vacant block, so all the stuff hanging over that side really hadn't been trimmed for I don't know how many years, to the extent that it was hanging right over to more than 2 metres in some places.

Well, it's the begining of spring here and we've had a bit of rain, so everything is growing quite verdantly, so rather than just doing our side, I decided to do the neighbour a favour and trim back along his side. Of course, there was a reasonable amount of green waste because of the length of time it'd been left for, and I don't have any more room at my place, so I told the kids to just stack it up on the existing pile to mulch down till I can get a free weekend to get a large skip bin in and get rid of the lot.

So anyway, he's out there riding round and round in squares cursing to himself, and I'm sitting in here composing this thread, still thinking to myself, "don't be such a fucking sook and just go tell him".

Normally I'm not so gutless, but I guess the angst from the last few weeks, on top of maybe a bit of an issue with going off the anti depressants and I just want to jump in my car and head to the shops or something.

Chicken shit I know, but I just can't face a confrontation today, and I think that's what it's likely to be. :(

The worst part at the moment is listening to all the bits of stick he keeps running over that we missed in the long grass.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the grass hasn't been mowed for probably 2 months, so it's about a foot high in places.

Just walk out back with the 20 gauge and start yelling nonsense.

lol...it's one of those days classic. I've already been there and done that. ;)

he's got a riding mower?

Fuck, let him DRIVE it into mulch. This is the dude "responsible" for the maintenance? Merry christmas, I leafed you a little present.

Screw him, have a drink or a cookie or just go play peekaboo with Max. His blood pressure is not your problem.

Just walk out , smile Wave and Pitch a Lit match on the pile and Casually saunter away , its HIS Problem to deal with it

lol...entertaining responses fellas. Thanks.

my pleasure, ma'am

Hand him bill for the work you did

Yeah, maybe I should Jim, but I kinda felt like I should trim them since they're from our yard and they don't even have a house there.

Anyway, the mower man puttered up the road after he was finished, but I'm expecting something in the mail box from the owners over the next week or so.

I'm thinking maybe I will put a match to it next time we have a windless day (which doesn't happen much where we live). That might solve the problem. lol

Anyway, crisis averted.

In the mean time, I've been getting some piping ready for when the boys go home so we can get a bit more water in our tanks when it rains. I think the underground stuff is all blocked up, so I'm going to run some pipes around under the eaves for the main downpipes.

Also, I've been trying to fix my dishwasher today, but I need some new parts - which I only replaced 16 months ago, but they only have a 12 month warranty if you install them yourself, so I'm down another $100.

Owning a home with all the mod cons sometimes sucks a lot.