"badgolferman" wrote in message
...
Have had these neighbors for 7 years. Retired USAF guy and active USAF
wife. Two teenage daughters of wife and an adopted 7-year-old girl.
The guy is very hard working and went into construction after
retirement. I helped him build an addition onto his house, but of
course he did almost all of it himself. We build a fence across the
back of my property to keep the kids from cutting through and I
extended it into his yard to block all access. He helped me build my
deck, which I paid him for. We've gotten along fine for years.

Two months ago his wife got transferred to Texas for 18 months. During
that time I was cutting the grass and made the mistake of mowing over a
dead bush on the edge of our property that prevented access to an area
that I have to mow. No excuse, I just did it.

Upon his return from Texas he confronted me about it and expressed his
anger. The bush was dead, but it was a gift from the mother-in-law and
they were keeping it. He didn't give me a chance to apologize and
walked away.

Over the next few days I tried coming to his door to talk with him and
he wouldn't answer the door. I gave his daughter a letter to give him
expressing my regrets and admitting fault. I also offered to replace
it with five more bushes if he thought that was acceptable. No
response. A week or so later I bought a replacement bush and with
another letter left it on his doorstep. The bush died from neglect and
was thrown out.

Since then a privacy fence has been erected between us by him and his
other side is open. He avoids me whenever I pull into the driveway and
pulls his young child inside the house when my children are outside.
He used to hang outside constantly and socialize with neighbors. This
is completely out of character for him and I wish there was something I
could do.

I feel I have done all I can and must let it run its course. Obviously
his animosity toward me has been accumulating over time and this was
the incident that did it, or there is something else going on. What do
you think? How can I REPAIR this HOME life problem? It sucks to have
neighborly problems.

Whatever his problem it probably isnt you. You've done enough. Give your
friend some time. Remember there is more going on in his life than you.