Neighbor wars happen to good, honest and nice people! I’ve heard so many hysterical stories over the years from my students when I taught English. Laughed so hard!
Especially over petty things like “how early is too early to mow the lawn”?
I mean….would you rather have a neighbor who woke you up in the morning by lawn mowing or kept you up at night with that infernal weed wacker blasting in the side yard?
Fortunately for us, we never have this issue because our neighbors are great! In fact, my husband even borrows the neighbors zero degree riding lawn mower. This cuts his mowing time in about a fourth. So we must be the annoying ones!
Unlike my former students, our mowing life is good. But how about you?
And which side of the fence are you on? Those who keep the lawn in pristine condition, mowing once or twice a week, or those who barely mow twice a summer?
How about Sundays? Is there ever a day of rest…albeit a day of no blasting noise?
Your thoughts? Because the mowing season lasts from April to November and that’s a lot of racket!
Cause offending and annoying the neighbors is always a bad idea. You don’t want to be forced to move when you hit these rough patches.
But this is what baffles me most of all!
Are you a morning or night person?
Can you guess I’m a morning person? As soon as it is light out, I’m up. Not ready to face the day….mind you, but up.
So if you mow at 7 a.m. no worries. But major bummer if you’re mowing past 9 p.m. I mean, I’m trying to sleep here!
But it’s hard to throw too many punches.
Everyone keeps such different hours and it’s unrealistic to expect unique people to wake and sleep on the same schedule.
Nothing is better than sleep….
And of course, my baby seems to sleep through everything. Nothing bothers the little man!
But I digress. Light sleeper or deep sleeper? Which group are you in?
If you are a light sleeper/insomniac like myself, any noise that ruins sleep is the enemy. Lack of sleep causes crankiness ~ although I try my best to resist that temptation. Not good enough according to my husband!
Sleep is vital.
I’d rather have sleep than food. Even water. I’d rather get 8 hours of sleep than a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top. It’s true.
How about you?
Sleep or food?
Which do you prefer?
Back to my parents Lake neighbors….
My parents have a place with close neighbors on both sides of their cottage. Super close. You could easily throw a pebble from the side deck and hit their window. No problem.
Personally, I find both neighbors a little cranky most of the time. And the neighbors are related making it even more interesting. (The crankiness is likely genetic.) So we are the odd people in the middle who aren’t related to them.
When you live in such close proximity during the summer months, you’ve got to try to make them happy. Bending over backwards to make them happy. No one wants trouble.
Yes, I know they got annoyed last summer at my barking dogs and confronted me solo. And yes, barking dogs are annoying.
But then again, I found it annoying when their dog ran over to our yard biting my dog till he bled. At least my dogs were just barking! Come to think of it, using the word “muzzle” with me didn’t create any warm and fuzzy feelings either in the confrontation.
They keep such unpredictable hours.
And are so bizarre when it comes to mowing the lawn.
I don’t dare even share the half of it.
But I have to say, when visiting the downstairs loo several times at night I have made this observation. They are still watching t.v. at 2-3 a.m. in the morning when the rest of us are at least pretending to sleep.
Different strokes for different folks, of course. By 4, I notice the lights and t.v. are usually out. I assume this means they have finally turned in.
Totally fine.
Except this.
Then my kids are up at 6 or 7 a.m. Problems. I try to contain them inside for as long as possible. But the opening and shutting of our doors, the incessant giggling and even the smell of bacon wafting over could all potentially wake them up.
No doubt they want to sleep till noon or longer to get 8 hours of shuteye for best function.
Imagine firing up the lawn mower before noon? Is that a good idea? Probably not. We don’t dare!
Our home policy on mowing the lawn
On a rider, it takes about 20 minutes to mow the lawn. With a push lawn mower? About 2 hours. Bleh. That can add up to some serious racket. I can hear mowers as far as 8 houses down the street.
During the daytime, I don’t think there’s a moment when there’s not at least one mower going. Of course, some people have lawn mowing services and those guys are quick since there’s a bunch of them on the job.
Still, most of us mow our own lawns. Once or twice a week. The super picky people mow 3 times a week. So lots of noise on the street. Factor in that infernal weed wacker and there’s no peace to be had. Not to mention the noise a log splitter or tile cutter make. Guilty is charged!
But before 9 a.m.? Never. After 9 a.m. seems fair game. But after 9 p.m. Please no. How about peace and quiet? Stranger still, I’ve observed some mowing services mowing after 9. Yes, they gotta job to do, but yes, we’d all like a little peace and quiet. It’s about balance.
And how about those Sundays? Are they ever off limits?
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