Neighbor relations

[swirt]

The question of how your B&B fits in with your neighbors is always bound to stir up a little fun.
Here is our most recent example. Our neighbors' seasonal cottage means that they are only here a few days a week. They are retired so it is not tied to always being the weekend. They are nice enough, and so is their dog...a larger than average Doberman Pinscher...named after an 80's action hero. He is a very gentle dog who walks the many acres of his owners property freely but does not have a concept of where his property ends and where ours begins. We have invisible fencing for our dog (LOVE IT) and it keeps our dog in, but does nothing to keep other dogs out. So Rambo makes a few trips a day to patrol our yard. Our dog gets along with him fine, they play and it is kind of cute. However, there are two issues we are concerned with, our guests have no idea how sweet and gentle he is as he goes strolling through, and he leaves his "calling cards" in unexpected areas of our lawn.
So in talking with our neighbors about it they propose training their dog to our invisible fence (we have an extra collar). So yesterday I am outside putting an invisible fencing collar on Rambo and training him not to come in our yard. So far he has not made a visit to our property today ... we'll see how it goes.
What concessions have you made to keep peace with your neigbors and keep your guests happy/safe?

 

[Morticia]

Trees, shrubs and I turn the parking lot light off at 1 AM. The lights from the car are mostly (I think) blocked from going right into their house by the trees & shrubs.
A fence along the 'nasty' side of our yard. This is that spot everyone has to have...shed, storage, mulch pile, dog outhouse.

 

[EmptyNest]

Our neighbor had 5 derelict Ford Mustangs sitting in the barn yard next to our back porch. Nice enough guy..but...we put up 7 foot tall lattice fencing and planted lots of flowers to hide them. Of course, by last year, when we retired..he had finally gotten rid of them all. Now we just have cows surrounding us on 3 sides. We love them and our guests did too!

 

[muirford]

We planted five fast-growing Leland Cypress trees to screen our back yard from the neighbors and have lattice up on our upstairs back porch. We have an OCD hoarder neighbor with a yard full of stuff and a falling-down house (literally - one wall fell off a few years ago while we were making breakfast). He and his wife are the source of our adopted outdoor cat family (holding steady at eight) when they added feeding the pregnant strays to their repertroire.

 

[swirt]

Our neighbor had 5 derelict Ford Mustangs sitting in the barn yard next to our back porch. Nice enough guy..but...we put up 7 foot tall lattice fencing and planted lots of flowers to hide them. Of course, by last year, when we retired..he had finally gotten rid of them all. Now we just have cows surrounding us on 3 sides. We love them and our guests did too!.

A bit of clever cow humor is in order then (turn speakers on and prepare to sing along).

 

[MTLLodge]

Our neighbor had 5 derelict Ford Mustangs sitting in the barn yard next to our back porch. Nice enough guy..but...we put up 7 foot tall lattice fencing and planted lots of flowers to hide them. Of course, by last year, when we retired..he had finally gotten rid of them all. Now we just have cows surrounding us on 3 sides. We love them and our guests did too!.

A bit of clever cow humor is in order then (turn speakers on and prepare to sing along).

.

LOL that was good!

 

[EmptyNest]

Our neighbor had 5 derelict Ford Mustangs sitting in the barn yard next to our back porch. Nice enough guy..but...we put up 7 foot tall lattice fencing and planted lots of flowers to hide them. Of course, by last year, when we retired..he had finally gotten rid of them all. Now we just have cows surrounding us on 3 sides. We love them and our guests did too!.

A bit of clever cow humor is in order then (turn speakers on and prepare to sing along).

.

OMG!!!

Where do you come up with these things????

 

[swirt]

Our neighbor had 5 derelict Ford Mustangs sitting in the barn yard next to our back porch. Nice enough guy..but...we put up 7 foot tall lattice fencing and planted lots of flowers to hide them. Of course, by last year, when we retired..he had finally gotten rid of them all. Now we just have cows surrounding us on 3 sides. We love them and our guests did too!.

A bit of clever cow humor is in order then (turn speakers on and prepare to sing along).

.

OMG!!!

Where do you come up with these things????
.

LOL people send me stuff. I don't seek it out.

 

[YellowSocks]

We have a neighbor who likes to park his truck in front of our house... smack dab in the middle so that it's difficult for others to park in front or behind him. When I was going to zoning I knocked on every neighbor's door... discovered that not only he and his dad lived there, but so does his mom (whom I had not seen in two years... apparently she parks in the garage in the back). Anyway, I mentioned it might be nice if he could pull forward a bit (when what I would really like is for him to park on his own side of the street) so others could park behind him. She then mentioned that the lights I had put on the front of our house were keeping her awake at night.
We switched to yellow bug lights, which hopefully has helped. We later learned from another neighbor that the first neighbor once called the police because the second neighbor has a small light in her front yard. The nearest street light is a ways down and the second neighbor works nights. She refused to remove her light and the police told her she was absolutely in her rights to have it there.
Why the first neighbor doesn't have curtains is beyond me...
=)
Kk.

 

[Samster]

Our biggest problem is the restaurant which is attached to the larger B&B near us & the folks that park blocking our walkway. It's a public street, what are you going to do?
We did talk to the owners about their employees parking their junky cars in front of our house. They park in front of their property now.

 

[mooseberry]

Trees, shrubs and I turn the parking lot light off at 1 AM. The lights from the car are mostly (I think) blocked from going right into their house by the trees & shrubs.
A fence along the 'nasty' side of our yard. This is that spot everyone has to have...shed, storage, mulch pile, dog outhouse..

(Phew, wiping sweat off my forehead)..I thought I was the only one having such a side to the house......

 

[gillumhouse]

Other than the fact that all tree limbs that fall off the tree that splits the properties ALWAYS fall in my yard during a storm, no problems. Of course the old lady across the street sold her house to the VFD and they tore down most of that block and the eyesore across the alley was demoslished a couple years ago with half the brickd n my yard - moved the car when they started working on it fortunately and left it moved!So we have a physical therapy business next door, a twit behind us, and 3 parking lots everywhere else (the funeral home parking lot is catty-corner across the street).

 

[trishany]

Hi, I know how sweet and gentle this dog is. But, if your guests have access to your yard, I would not permit him to be there.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

SWIRT!

 

[swirt]

Hi, I know how sweet and gentle this dog is. But, if your guests have access to your yard, I would not permit him to be there. .

You read the part where I said I put an invisible fencing collar on him to keep him out of the yard? I forgot to mention that right after I dragged him into the fence to get a shock, After he winced from the shock, I looked him snout to nose and said very clearly, "Rambo I will not permit you in my yard."

 

[Copperhead]

Our neighbors to our east are some of the nicest neighbors we have ever had, with one problem, 2 barking dogs. When they are home, they bring their dogs in at night but the problem was when they travel (very often on business) they have others feeding the dogs and keep them outdoors at night and they bark continually.
Since they are such good neighbors we found the best way to handle this is by handling it ourselves. We purchased a soundwave device that sends a high pitched irritating sound, not heard by humans which causes the dogs to stop barking. Made for the out doors, we attached it to a tree near our property line. No more barking dogs and neighbors heard no complaints.
The other side is not so easily handled. You would know him if you saw him, his pic is in the dictionary under 'red-neck'. He owns 12 acres, most of which is woods until we have an outdoor event. If he figures out that one is planned, he hops on his large tractor and starts clearing paths around us. He hasn't done this much as of late (getting older) but early on this was a big problem. Once, the minister decided to make a visit to him after hearing the noise. As if on que the noise stopped just prior to the wedding music. I asked what he said, he just pointed to the sky - funny HE never gave me the impression with his verbal gestures of ever being religious.