“My sister has a small 60-acre family farm that was annexed into the city about 15 years ago. While she still maintains it as a horse farm, most of the adjoining property around her has since been sold for residential development.
For the most part, she gets along fine with her neighbors, but she has one neighbor who took it upon himself to cut a barbed wire fence, fill in a perimeter drainage ditch, and extend his lawn another two acres into her field.
The property has twice been officially surveyed and the neighbor was served written notice of encroaching on her land. On top of that, she has twice taken him to court for property damages for cutting the fencing, yet he continues to extend his lawn more and more.
One day in early spring, I was at the farm and Sis was at wit’s end on how to deal with this character. I said, “No problem, Sis. I will get his attention today.”
I then went an got the trusty old John Deere farm tractor out and gave the horse barn a thorough spring cleaning, removing about 4 tons of manure, which I loaded on the manure spreader and hauled it to the back of the property where the neighbor was happily puttering along on his little craftsman riding mower. I went right up close to the property line and dropped the manure spreader in gear, then I ran parallel to the fence making sure that nothing was being thrown over the fence but making a good ground cover at the state-mandated maximum rate of two tons per acre. I made one pass, and when I turned around to come back on the parallel track, the neighbor walks out in the fields and asks “What the do you think you’re doing?” I said, “Simple, buddy, I am just spreading all the BS you been passing to us?”
The neighbor then pulled out a cell phone and called the cops. The cops came and asked me what I was doing? I said, I am spreading horse manure in preparation of plowing this field; it’s technically called “organic farming.” Do you have a problem with that?”
I then got off the tractor and walked the cop over to the property line and showed him the survey stakes and where the neighbor had actually cut the fence.
The cop then went over to the neighbor who was livid, shouting all kinds of stuff about health regulations and spreading effluent, etc. The cop pulled out his pad and asked the neighbor for his ID. The neighbor thought the cop wanted his information to file a complaint against me, so he immediately handed his license to the cop, all the while still pointing at me and shouting obscenities and nonsense about health laws and such.
Imagine the neighbors surprise when the cop handed him a citation for cutting the fence, filling a drainage ditch, and trespassing, then telling him that what I was doing was perfectly legal and normal functions for a working farm. The cop then waved at me and hollered, “Have a good day, and by the way, if this guy gives you any more problems, call me. Next time, I come out here I’m gonna haul him in.”
