If good fences make for good neighbors, I am the worst.

So the fence situation hasn't gotten any better.  The part that I propped up will not stay that way, so I finally just removed it to another corner of the yard.  I've been hunting for fence designs on Flickr and, man, people are building some really lovely fences these days.

But back to reality.  I finally met with the neighbor behind me to talk about the fence.  He's really very nice but I got the sense that he felt like the fence wasn't his. 

I spent way more time than I really wanted researching Oregon boundary fence laws and turned up this state statute that explains that responsibility is 50/50.  I wrote a letter explaining everything I was proposing and included a copy of the statute and the city's recommendation for building.  I really didn't know how they would receive it so I tried to temper the formality by including a bit at the end about how I feel very warmly toward them and I really want to keep everything friendly.

And you know what? I got a super nice email that night in response. Huzzah!  He even thinks he might prefer a horizontal board fence.  DOUBLE HUZZAH.

So right now we're planning for May and then I can start focusing on camouflaging the fence on the west side where there's so little privacy it might as well be a window.  I have a litmus test for how private I'd like the yard to be but I won't write it here since my mother is reading this.

Okay, it's gardening with the short shorts.  Nobody wants to see that.