How Much Grief Is A New Fence Worth?

The fence between our backyard and the house next door is a sight to behold. We have a fairly small lot, but the house next door has several acres of land and is occupied by an older lady who lived here for many years before houses on small lots began to pop up all around her.

When we first moved here, I loved looking out onto her property which had a duck pond, filled with ducks, magnificent Oak trees sprinkled across the field, and a sturdy fence – not a lovely fence, but a serviceable, cow pasture type of fence; one I gladly suffered for the pleasure of watching the ducks cavorting in the pond, only a few yards from my kitchen window.

Over the years, contractors began road construction, the small stream that fed the duck pond was re-routed in the name of progress, and the duck pond was no more. I’m not sure what happened to the ducks, but they disappeared, and so did my tolerance for the fence, which, by then, had fallen into severe disrepair.

My husband made several tactful approaches to the lady’s husband, suggesting that we share the cost of a new fence, and the man said he would think it over.

A short time later, however, the elderly couple appeared across the way with a pile of wooden pallets, which they proceded to mount on top of the sagging fence. They dragged, hammered, and pounded all day long and then, with satisfied grunts, disappeared into their house which sat at the far end of the property. We were the sole beholders of the new fence.

Since the ducks were gone anyway, I tried not to look too often at the monstrosity of a fence. They planted several plum trees on their side, and we found ourselves harboring a swarm of very territorial bees come harvest time. They planted poison oak,(or at least I assume they did, since I know that we did not,) and it climbed over the fence and ran around our yard.

When I tried to kill it with gasoline, the lady informed me that I had better not kill any of the wild roses along the fence, or she might have to take action.

By this time, the pallets had begun to rot and were falling apart. The man, very ill by this time, placed bright blue pieces of corrugated plastic over the holes. That, too, dropped off after a while.

When the man next door passed away, we sent flowers, and waited a reasonable length of time before approaching the lady saying that we would like to rebuild the fence and pay for it ourselves. Otherwise, we would have to consider putting up our own fence on our side of her fence, but thought she would prefer to have the old one out of the way before we did so.

She replied that her daughter had said if anyone dared to touch the fence her daddy made, they would answer to her, in court.

Well, you might think we would have gone ahead and built our fence, but, you know what? Every year, about this time, the wild roses on her side of the fence begin to peep up over the ramshackle fence and then keep right on growing over the top each bush is about 15 feet across. They climb the plum trees, and blossom for weeks and weekds. The tiny flowers look so dainty and pure, I just can’t bear to fence them out. There is nothing more beautiful than a wild pink rose on a fence in the Spring.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to live where the wild roses grow, you might want to go to send flowers online and find some that suit you there. June is National Rose Month, and red roses are supposed to signify true love. For those who love variety, though, there are lots of other popular colors to choose from. Each color has a special meaning of its own. Coral, for example, means perfect happiness. Black Roses are often sent as a joking reminder of milestone birthdays, or, in a more serious vein, as a warning of vengeance or retaliation.

See my recent blog, Please DO Pick The Posies on how to make Rose Beads if you want a fun project for kids.