January came in with a huge storm and the 5th coldest month on record! For a week we watch our
neighbor's trees drop limbs and again we have fence damage. The above photo was taken after the 14+ inches of snow melted and we could get back to see the damage. There is no way we could clean this up so I started by calling our fence guys, they are now listed with Home Advisors. I got them out and sure enough one pole to a big hit and it tweeked the fence to the south when it took the hit. So we are looking at replacement of one and resetting of three or four more. This is the second time our fence has had to be repaired. Two years ago it was taken out in about the same area. At that time we sent out letters in a neighborly manner to all the adjacent neighbors that had trees on our fence line as they are a huge problem. After getting the fence guys out I got a phone call from HA asking about the fence guys and the estimate. I got talking to the gal and asked if they had pros that would give us an estimate for limb removal. Shocked when the phone started ringing right away. I wanted estimates for removal and possible limbing up, mind you I need to get permission first to do so. Not our trees but they hang into our yard some 40 to 50 feet. Mid spring I had the neighbor at my door and telling me tree trimmers will be out a certain day, I thought okay but concerned as the plants were up and growing. After watching them drop limbs in the yard it was time to go out and tell them to stop dropping them in our yard. I went out and started tossing them back across the fence. They were out to sail up the trees, but only did it on the west side. They didn't care!! As I watched them
drop all over the place, no tieing of limbs and lowering them safely to the ground. I asked what company they were with, mental note not to hire them!! They did nothing to our side and after our
growing season my husband and I decided to remove what we could as the limbs were all the way to our roof. Hence the cleaning off the roof before any rain hit. A job that needs to be done monthly due to all that comes out of the trees. Also our small maple in the back yard was touching the huge branches. Time for a trim and we knew to cut the limbs so they would spring upward. In the middle of the job we found broken branches and they drooped down to the fence area so we noted the area
and keep a watch on the branches, the same branches that came done in the storm. Again not our trees and after taking two truck loads out at our expense we had enough. We take two loads of stuff off our yard yearly just from these trees besides our every other week yard debris which is full of stuff from neighboring trees.
After the first storm and filing a claim with the insurance company, the adjuster made the statement if the winds kick up, I should grab our dog and leave!! If you don't know fir trees they have shallow roots and will topple over in the wind out here. Beings that these are planted close together, you got it if one comes down they all may come with it!! These trees are to the west of us and yearly we have a mess with the stuff dropping out of the trees! After a few years of fighting to keep grass growing we removed the grass and put in our flower beds as there was no way grass would grow. We currently have a beautiful hosta garden that will grow in the shade.
Making this long story short, we sent out letters to all our neighbors that had trees planted on the property line and they hang over the fence line. We did so by certified mail according to what we learned from our visit with our insurance company. We also changed our policy to an umbrella policy. We are just trying to protect our property! In the letter we made just a few requests, that if work is going to be done, it's not during the growing season. That all requests be put in writing and we ask who is doing the work, there would be minimal access to our yard and I would do the clean up, my going rate is $20 an hour. I will not allow work when it's raining as our yard will not tolerate a lot of traffic and beings that we are located in a tributary area we see our soil become really soggy.
The end of April our neighbor to the west showed up at our door one evening to inform us that the next day he was going to have a couple trees removed! Nothing was done in writing, nor did we get
very much notice to protect our property from the mess of taking these 80 fir trees down. This photo was taken after the clean up from February's high wind and storm before the hostas started to grow.
The day they started trimming it was raining and wind so you know where the fir chips fell. We had chips fly all over the yard, across the roof and even falling in our front yard. Needless to say we weren't happy and watch it all happen, I video taped 90% of the day's events. I was shocked the first hour they just cut and allowed it to drop. I even watched as they started lowing the branches when they noticed I was watching them by rope and watched as they hit the fence a few times. One of the post was hit hard enough it moved forward. Needless to say when the neighbor showed up at our door to ask if they could clean up, all I could do is shut my front door. The yard was wet and knowing the company that was hired they would just pick up the large limbs that dropped. I was not going to allow them to walk all over our yard. Plus what did the letter say? I then contacted an attorney we had hired in the past. We went over to talk to them and told them I would clean up the yard and my going rate was $20 to do so. I would send them the bill for that and the fixing of the fence as we were tired of paying for what their trees damaged. They kept telling us they were trying to be good neighbors. When we left they stated that they were going to talk to their attorney, so be it.
We are in the process of getting the fence folks to come out and fix the fence now that I have spent 10 1/2 hours doing the clean up.
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