As a child growing up, Mama would always tell me to stay within my lines as I was learning to color, and she watched my lines closely.
Now as an adult, I am still watching those lines but in a totally different way. One of the responsibilities I have with our family business is to keep property lines painted on a regular basis. Still putting color right up to a line just like I did growing up!
When I paint property lines that have been established for a while, I will typically continue to use the same color that has been previously used. Unless I am painting trees that are right on the line, I normally put the paint on a tree near the line with the paint blaze facing the adjacent property so it is easy to see by the neighbors. I know where the line is, but they may not without my help. One line I painted last winter was in red paint, and most of my marks were about eye height, 5 to 6 feet above the ground. You would think that red paint five feet off the ground would be easy to spot.
Well, as you can see in the picture, someone must not have been
taught how to stay within the lines or they did not do a good job of checking out the location of the property line before this dirt was piled up! Not only did they get a little bit over the line, but enough to almost cover up a mark I made last winter. This tree is on the property line so not only is dirt piled up about five feet on the tree, it spilled over on our property by more than five feet. This was just one of many pictures I took to document this issue.
A neighbor informed us of this “trespass” because he knew we kept our lines maintained to try to prevent just such an occurrence. We really appreciate neighbors who are willing to keep us informed when we cannot be on our property every day. I would encourage you to develop such a rapport with your adjacent landowners.
I am working to get this issue resolved. Meanwhile, hopefully all of you and anyone working near your property will watch and stay within their lines.
Image © NMS, 2012
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