Posted

I think we've pretty much confirmed that what we suspected was going on with Stella is actually happening.

Stella owns quite a bit of the land surrounding her house, including the woods behind her house through which we cut across to get to the street on the other side. If not for that path through the woods I would have to walk a small child and a newborn down a busy highway just to take a stroll or to walk to Jacob's favorite ice cream place. When we moved in Stella told us (and has repeatedly told us over the years) that we should cross her land to safely take a walk because it's not safe to walk on the road we live on.

When I mow the lawn I usually mow one strip through the fields that lead to and away from the wooded area so that we can easily walk through. I haven't mowed since before Sabine was born so last week when Zach was mowing I asked him to mow in there as it had gotten pretty overgrown. He did.

The next day Zach saw Stella dumping something back in the field area. This is what it was:


That's the path he mowed with two little piles of grass clippings at the start of it. Are those piles intended as a physical barrier to keep us off her land or just a passive-aggressive message? Kinda seems to me she's marking her territory.

Stroll down the path a bit and you see this:

That's four large pieces of watermelon rind equally spaced apart (ie, intentionally placed) that she layed down the day after she started with the grass clippings. The smaller white pieces are chunks of bread that she put down yesterday after I watched her walk out back, in an increasingly awkward gait, with a bag in hand.

Is she just being creative with her compostable material or trying to gross us out enough so we leave her land alone? Either way, all she's going to do is attract some pretty good sized wild animals.

Round the corner out of the field and into the woods and you'll see this:

That's all the confirmation we needed. So it's clear we're no longer welcome on her property. The only questions left are will we abide, and what is the cause of Stella's odd behavior? I'm not sure
I want to know the answer - I don't think it's a happy one.