New Neighbors

The house directly behind us is like a revolving door. Just when you get used to someone living there, they move.

When we first moved into our house, the neighbors behind us were a young family and always seemed to be in their backyard playing baseball or volleyball. They’d even play into the night, as there was a large pole with two floodlights on the top that lit up the yard nicely. But a few years later they moved on and the house sat empty. It would be five years before anyone else moved into the place, which meant that our busy street at least had a quiet area… our backyard. Of course, with nobody living there or taking care of the yard except for the occasional lawn service to mow the grass, the plants, bushes and trees quickly got out of hand. And so did the blackberries.

Ever since that first late summer day when we moved into our house, we noticed there were blackberries all over the back fence, as well as where our current rock garden is. One of the first things we did, with a lot of help from my partner’s mom and dad on a rare joint venture as they’d been divorced for nearly a decade at that point, was clear out the blackberry vines that had taken over that whole area of the backyard, which is only a small part at thirty feet long by 6 feet wide. The back fence on the other hand was not a priority as it was on the upper level of the backyard accessible by stone steps built into the retaining wall that splits the backyard in half, and we rarely went up there. Well, rarely except to pick blackberries for delicious blackberry cobbler.

Over the years, we eventually hired someone to clear out all the ivy, blackberries and holly along the fence, and with that, the only blackberries we’d get would come from the neighbors on the other side, on vines that crept over the fence and bent back down into our yard, in a property that still sat empty. When we decided to actually use the upper level for a vegetable garden and chicken coop, and planned their locations, naturally somebody moved into the house. We found out they were renters, and that they had a pair of dogs (that quickly turned into four) and a teenage daughter. Needless to say, our bitches didn’t get along. And by bitches, I mean our female dogs. The male on the other hand, was fascinated with the chickens, and tore down part of the back fence and knocked over another section in his pursuit of them. At first, we were amicable about the situation, and they fixed the fence up and apologized profusely. But after the fifth or sixth time of dealing with it, pictures were taken and Animal Control was called. Does that make us bad neighbors, or simply concerned livestock owners?

Well, it wasn’t long before these new neighbors decided that between their slumlord who wouldn’t fix things in the house to make it legally livable, and our rickety fence that couldn’t contain their dogs, that it was time for them to move on. And so once again, the house sat empty, but this time for only six months until an elderly man and a woman I could only guess was his daughter moved in. Four months later, they were gone, and the only impact we noticed from them was their lively choice of paint colors quite visible through their windows. It’d be yet another six months before our current neighbors would arrive. We still haven’t met them, though my partner keeps saying we should go introduce ourselves and offer them some eggs, as backyard chicken owners tend to do. From the looks of things, it’s either one really big family, or two families living together, and lots of kids ranging from toddlers to teenagers, who all seem to enjoy playing soccer at all hours.

One day, while doing the dishes, I noticed the guy I assumed to be the dad was hacking away at the brush along the fence line with a machete. Within a few days, the entire fence line and our source of blackberries was cleared out. While I am glad that they did this, as nobody since that first family kept most of the blackberries under control, it really shows how badly that fence needs to be replaced. And now that they’ve cleared out that whole area, they found the large steel pole with the two floodlights on it that was previously covered in blackberry vines, which means their late night soccer ball kicking might be extended.

So I guess the thing is, do neighbors still welcome newbies to the neighborhood, or do we live in an age where everybody pretty much keeps to themselves? I’d hope that we would be the first, but it has been about three weeks since they moved in and we have yet to even talk to them. Something tells me the time has come to say hello and give them a carton of eggs, as they are taking up too much room in our fridge as of late!