Thanksgiving 2007

Here are some photos from our Thanksgiving weekend trip down to Florida.

Shortly after arriving at Mark and Kristin's house on Thursday, we sat down for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we went for a walk around the neighborhood, and out on a nearby boardwalk.

On Friday we went out to the water and explored the beach and sand dunes. The water was super clear -- the cleanest I've ever seen it -- and the sunset was absolutely amazing!

We also took turns riding bikes down the road to Fort Pickens, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan and is now closed to motor vehicles.

Sabbath afternoon we decided to hike part of the Blackwater Trail in Milton, Florida. The trail is built on an old railroad track, so is nice and flat -- perfect for walking and biking.

Here are some more photos from:
Mark & Kristin's blog
and Todd's blog (part 1 & part 2).

The Dead Oak Tree

Over the past week or two we've noticed that "the fence neighbors" down below had been parking their cars directly beneath our old dead oak tree. They have a 2 car garage and a driveway, but they seemed to prefer parking in the cul de sac, right under the large branches of our old dead oak tree. So I'm assuming that they were hoping to cash in and make us pay if a branch (or the tree) were to fall on their car(s). I think they're still upset about our fence..

So, Sunday morning we decided it was time to trim the branches back. We threw a rope over one of the lowest branches and used our rock climbing rope and harnesses to pull Er!c up the tree. Before we could trim any branches, our other neighbor (the good one) came down and asked if we wanted him to cut the tree down for us.

We figured it would probably be a good idea to go ahead and cut it down. So after tying a good sturdy rope around the tree Er!c came back down and pulled on the rope while the neighbor cut the tree. It came crashing down right on one of our biggest Dogwood trees, breaking it off at the stump. . :(

But at least it didn't land on the neighbor's car.

That evening we decided to have a campfire supper around our little burn pile. We roasted vegetables in aluminum foil and then had hot dogs, followed by smores... it was a very enjoyable evening sitting around the fire with good company (with Jane11's parents and brother, Todd).

Grandma's Memorial

On Sabbath we had Grandma's memorial service at the Collegedale church. Jane11's parents flew in from Kenya and other family members arrived from around the country in time for the weekend memorial.

Prior to the memorial service Jane11, Er!c, Mark & Todd worked together on a slideshow of photos from Grandma's life, which was shown on the big screen during the program.

After the memorial service the family met in the youth room to mingle with friends, which was followed by a supper (provided by the church).

It was good to see old friends and mingle with relatives again.

Remembering Grandma

Last night (Monday) Jane11's aunt called and informed us that Grandma had died shortly after 10:00 p.m.

Jane11's grandma had been suffering from pneumonia & Parkinson's, and after a recent fall at home she had been taken to the hospital and then admitted to a nearby nursing home.

Grandma was blessed to have many friends and family members who came to visit her each day while she was sick.

We're so glad that we were able to spend time visiting with her this past weekend.

Visiting The Grandparents

This past weekend Mark and Kristin drove up from Florida to visit Grandma. After church on Sabbath, we (Mark, Kristin, Todd, Jane11 & Er!c) drove to the nursing home where we spent some time with her. Although appearing very weak and tired (from the pneumonia), she did seem quite appreciative that we could all be there to see her.

After eating lunch we (Jane11 & Er!c) drove down to visit Er!c's grandparents in Georgia, who are also suffering with various health issues. Er!c's nearly 107 year-old great-grandmother was so happy to see us, she grabbed 'hold of our hands and talked our ears off for at least an hour! We spent a couple hours that evening visiting with them before heading over to Er!c's parents house, next-door. The next morning we stopped by again to see the old folks on our way back home.

It was good to see all of our grandparents this weekend. :)

Mailbox Bashing

Early this morning around 2:00 a group of kids in 2 vehicles drove down our street and knocked off 11 mailboxes, including ours. The next-door neighbor heard the commotion at the other end of the street and came outside just in time to see them stop in front of our house and whack our mailbox.

They then stopped at his mailbox and started beating it. He grabbed a hammer nearby and ran over to their Jeep and smashed their back window before they sped off.

Another neighbor down the street called the police but they arrived about 20 minutes too late.

We were sound asleep through the whole thing....

The Fence Saga Continues...

Sunday morning we decided to finish putting up our fence only to discover that someone (presumably the neighbors) had pulled up our 3 fence posts and had thrown them back into our yard. Aww no they di-'int! These posts had been clearly on our property, so we started driving the posts back into the holes. Yes... I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that "push" has finally come to "shove".

Here's the history:

• (1.) Destruction of Property!!!
• (2.) I Reclaim This Land In The Name Of...
• (3.) Let's Make A Deal
• (4.) The Downside of Neighbors
• (5.) Map of Destruction
  

Todd came over to help us with our fence project - blitzkrieg style! We were determined to get the fence up today. So we took turns driving the fence posts in with the sledgehammer until we ran out of available poles, and then we dismantled the remaining dog-run fence sections and took turns digging up the posts.

Once we had all the poles up between our yard and the neighbors, we started putting up the chain-link fencing. At one point the neighbors (who were busy moving in today) came home and questioned the property boundaries in regards to our fence posts, and tried yet again to convince us that we were not allowed to put the fence up period. Our fence is within a 6-8 inch margin of error on our side of the plum line (running between surveyor markers), so we are safely on our own property.

After lunch we continued driving the remaining fence posts along the rest of our lower property line, and Jane11 & Er!c finished up the chain-link fencing after Todd left to watch a race on TV. Thanks very very much Todd for all your hard work today! It would have taken so much longer without your help!!! :)

As we were cleaning up the mess we'd made in our yard, the neighbors pulled up again and Mr. Neighbor immediately came over to our fence and started complaining about the irregular heights of the fence posts. Er!c told him that this was the first day and that we weren't finished with the fence yet. When asked about the fence posts the neighbor said that the developer had pulled them up... Oh really!?

Mr. Neighbor then noticed the "Private Property - Keep Out" sign on one of our trees and ordered us to take it down! "Take that sign down! Take it down right now!" Er!c let him know that this IS our property and that we'd appreciate it if he didn't tell us what we're allowed to do on our property.

We sort of feel bad posting a Keep Out sign (obviously directed at them), but we can't really trust them anymore. They don't seem to respect our yard or our wishes for a fence. They have each lied to us on multiple occasions and have destroyed & tampered with our property again and again.

Update: We took down the sign Tuesday evening.

Then, because we were worried that they might try and tare down our fence again, Er!c let them know that if they do tamper with our fence again we WILL call the police. Mr. Neighbor then said that we still were not allowed to have a fence and that we should call his developer and find out for ourselves.

So we decided that we would call the developer and let him know what's been going on, and get a 3rd party involved. We found his number and gave him a call. He picked up and Er!c told him the whole story -- about how the neighbors had destroyed about 300 sq feet of our woods and then wouldn't agree to put up a fence (after agreeing to put up a fence), and how they had removed our fence posts, and told us that the developer wouldn't allow us to put up our own fence, etc...

The developer said, "They pulled up your fence posts?! They can't do that! That's YOUR property! You can obviously do whatever you want on your own property." He then said that he'd give them a call tomorrow and let them know that they can put a privacy fence up along our property line (if they want). Woohoo!!! So at least we now have their developer on our side too!

So hopefully this will be the end of our fence troubles with those neighbors. It's a shame that things went the way they did... Perhaps someday soon (when this whole fence issue dies down) we can work on being good neighbors again.

*sigh*