Relative Something

Yesterday we were planning to get out and introduce ourselves to the rest of the neighbors that border our property. Cyndie baked apple pies with a crumble of oatmeal and brown sugar for top crust to go along with our greetings.

As so many of our projects go lately, before we could start that effort, we needed to clear the counter space of the pile of electronic cables and mini devices that needed to be dealt with. Among them was Cyndie’s Sirius Satellite Radio device, which I offered to get set up so she could enjoy music from it while she was baking. Cyndie headed into the basement to search though boxes to find her apple peeler.

Once I became engaged in the challenge of locating and orienting the antenna, I began to sense that level of insanity where I found myself trying the same thing, over and over, expecting different results. How long do you wait for it to connect, before you determine you have waited too long? After that indeterminate amount of time, adjust the antenna again, a fraction over, and wait some more.

Meanwhile, Cyndie was coming upstairs with bundles of things discovered in the basement, which she wanted for use upstairs, but none of which were the apple peeler she originally set out to find. Both of us eventually gave up trying, and moved on. She cut apples with a knife, and I put up an outdoor thermometer that could be read from inside the sunroom.

Once the pies were in the oven, we headed out in attempt to document, on paper, the location of our buried utility routes. An extension of that effort was to get some measurements of the existing fence lines. We wandered about with paper and pencil and drew maps of the trails and paddocks as they are now. We dragged a 25′ tape measure around, flip-flopping past each other to determine a variety of distances.

After that, we were ready to head out to deliver some pies and meet our neighbors. The house smelled fantastic, filled with the enticing aroma of fresh-baked deliciousness. Cyndie was off hunting for something to use for a greeting card to provide our contact information on each pie when I heard a knock on the back door.

Our next door neighbor to the south had beat us to the punch. He saw us out wandering the property and decided to seize the opportunity to come meet us, with the added incentive of needing to check in on our opinions about the impending deer hunt season, due to begin next Saturday.

He let us know that he had previously owned this land, and had been hunting here for a long time. He made it clear there would be plenty of people staged on all sides, engaged in the hunt, and he didn’t want it to be a surprise to us.

He was clear to let us know, as owners, we had the option to “post” our 20 acres as ‘no hunting.’

Neither Cyndie nor I felt that was the best choice at this time.

Similar to the time we met our neighbors to the east, across the road, we ended up spending most of the remaining daylight swapping stories and telling tales. The moment when he finally said that he had better get going because people would be wondering where he was, happened about midway through the duration of his visit.

The remaining pies will need to be delivered today. We know to start early, and leave plenty of time for long goodbyes.

We also know that next weekend, and the following, we will need to be wearing blaze orange any time we are wandering around our property!