Neighbor's Yard

6/12/14 At first our neighbor’s fascination with his yard and driveway was kind of entertaining. Our neighbor is quite meticulous about his driveway. When you live directly across the raod and your bay window is facing  his house, you can’t help but notice what he is doing. He started late winter by  pulling a harrow through his driveway round and round and up the driveway, unhooks it, turns his truck around, and rehooks it then goes back and forth some more. I have never seen anyone put so much time and effort into ones driveway in the country. He also spent many days  out with shovel, pitchfork, hoe, broom, and rake leveling. Somedays he would park on the road, rake and level his driveway before driving in. I have also seen him with an axe and a leaf blower. He works on snow piles trying to chip away ice or even help it melt. He takes his broom and sweeps bits of rocks out of his grass into a dust pan. As the weather  got  nicer, he spent more and more time raking and leveling. Late spring, one day he began digging up a huge section of his yard. He was digging with a shovel for hours. His hole got wider and deeper. The boys had an idea that they should go and help him. I thought it was a great idea for them to show love to a neighbor and was happy they were eager to go. It was the cutest thing watching the two boys cross the road with gloves on and shovels in their hands. I watched out the window and soon the boys were back feeling kind of sad. I watched the neighbor go inside. He told the boys he was just getting ready to go inside. I felt bad for the boys and wished the neighbor would have let them dig just for a little while so they could feel like they helped. When the boys asked what he was doing, the boys said the neighbor found some nails in his grass so he was digging up all the grass and very deep too. Bizarre! Here we are months later in June and he has worked at his driveway almost daily. Back breaking hard digging, raking, you name it. He dug a hole through the center if his driveway by hand and put in a long at least 16’ culvert in his driveway. He continues to dig dirt around his house and pack dirt. He plants trees and burns huge fires. He rakes day after day.  He is a busy bee. Now I am adding to the most recent observations in September. While riding horses, the neighbor chatted with us and started to explain his latest project. He got new rock for his driveway, but it was larger rock than what he already had. So, he is digging up the top layer of small rocks, digging about a foot or more deep into the hard driveway and then filling it in with the new big rock. Then he goes and fills it all back in and covers it with his old small rock. And to make this all worse, he is doing it with a shovel and wheel barrow load after load. I don't know how he does it and I told him that too. It just looks like work that would put me in the hospital. He told me he doesn't want the snow to drift in his driveway and that is kind of his whole purpose behind all his work. Recently I have noticed him spending lots of time sifting dirt over and over. Not quite sure what that is for? He keeps us wondering.
9/10/2015 The labor our neighbor does on his driveway is tedious and back breaking. All winters, spring, and fall, he labors over his rocks. In fact one day I met him on the road out walking and he told me he had hernia surgery. It slowed him down for a few weeks, but then back at it again. We often scratch our head trying to figure out what he is trying to do with his yard. The latest, anywhere from 9:30 PM and as late as midnight, we will see him outside roaming around his property with a flashlight. My theory is, he is looking for critters. He always tells me how much it bothers him to have a skunk, gopher, beaver, coon,opposum or any animal other than cat or dog on his property. This past week we got some heavy wind and one of his medium size trees lost a large limb, The very next morning he was out with an axe and hacksaw. Not only did he remove the limp, he also chopped down the rest of the tree, by hand!! He is not a young man and he walks with quite a hunch in his back and wears a back brace. It hurts me to watch him, but he never quits. We have made offers to help him out, but he never accepts.