A minor hiccup

It’s been a year since we have moved out into the country from a city. It’s been mostly positive and peaceful. We have spent long hours reburbishing the house and land, which is hard work but also very rewarding. there’s a great sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

We had planned a party with friends to celebrate a year of living in the countryside in our new house, but then we had a gatecrasher turn up a few days beforehand in a the form of a tornado.

We were at home at the time. It was nightime with just a bit of rain and wind outside. Suddenly the wind started howling and the rain was hammering down like I’ve never heard before.

Then there’s several big flashes outside  when tree branches hit the powerlines outside, which put us in the dark along with the neighbours.

It was all over in about within 2 minutes.

I checked out our chickens who were just fine as if nothing had happened. In contrast, it was a neighbour who was going feral screaming at anyone within hearing range. That in itself was a precursor to what would happen the next day.

I spent half the night helping to clear the road and all sorts of other stuff with neighbours

The next day had contractors running around cleaning up the mess. The feral neighbour had lost their own powerlines on there own property which are there responsibility.

Unfortunately, it was one of our trees that took them out, so they decided that it was our fault and kept hassling us to admit liability. I simply told them this was an insurance issue.

It turns out they had organised contractors to repair their powerlines, these guys had demanded that they be paid on the day. The neighbour admitted at one point that they didn’t have any money to pay them.

It came to a head, when they sent their contractors over to us, with initial demands that we pay half the bill in their name, and that they wont leave until paid

Apparently, it was too hard for these contractors to put the bill in our name, so a standoff ensued while my wife checked with our insurance company to check weather we should actually pay it.

After they overheard my wife’s conversation with our agent explaining that half the bill would need to be in our name with the correct amount, they miraciously produced the correct paperwork!

I cant say my wife was impressed. Technically, she could of just trespassed them off our property, and had their vehicle towed, since we never employed them and they had no paperwork signed by us. My wife had to handle this alone, because I rushed off to get a new waterpump before the shops closed for the weekend.

It was all over by the time I got back, and I put the new waterpump in as the sun was setting down.

The next day, everything was back to that typical country serenity and we had that party as we had planned.

As for the neighbours, they are basically wiggling around a lot, and we have people that would like to talk to them.