Timber...!!!

Regular readers know about the building work next door, where a little neglected 50s style house was demolished and is being replaced by 7 dwellings.

To accommodate so many dwellings on the one block has meant that the new houses are much closer to our boundary than the old house.

Note the trees at the right of the photo...they are in our property...the temporary fencing is on our land

 Two views of our western boundary, showing how close the new house at the back is to the fence line...

Both photos show that we have trees at the back of our property...

Two of them are mango trees. Every few years the trees get covered with mangoes and the fruit bats 'make a real mess' swooping in and taking the mangoes that are too high up for us to reach ...and then dropping half eaten fruit on the ground. 

Before the block next door was cleared for development, there were some mango trees at the corner of that yard too and the various tenants over the years did not complain about fruit dropping in their yard, because their fruit was dropping in our yard...or being dropped by the flying foxes or fruit bats as they are also called. 

But things are different now...there is a driveway (well it will be a driveway when the building is finished) just near our fence. 

A couple of half eaten mangoes in the building site next door. In the weeks since Christmas this area has been strewn with anything up to 30 mangoes at a time, all half eaten

We decided that we had to try to remedy this situation before people moved into this house...so DH and I called our respective brothers for help.

Firstly, my brother came over Monday afternoon...DH and he checked out what needed to be done..

 Back to the van to get the saw which is able to cut high branches...

They have tied a rope to the first branch that will be chopped...DH is in charge of the rope...

 That branch is now cut through!

 The branches start to pile up on the ground...

 The boys have decided that yet another branch should go...it's too high for the saw to reach so my brother switches saws and climbs the tree...

 he saws away with the smaller saw...

 In the next photo my brother has climbed even higher in the tree...

 Now he's dealing with that other branch...

All up, it took my brother half and hour to trim those trees...the wonders of power saws!

My brother also helped me trim back my clump of bamboo (not the bad sort of bamboo) which shades our kitchen window. Because regulations allow garages to be built a mere 20 cm or 8 inches away from fence lines, my bamboo was touching the corner of the garage and of course the leaves would drop into the guttering if it wasn't trimmed.

Then, on Wednesday morning, DH's brother came around with his trailer and he and DH took 2 trailer loads of tree loppings to the City Council Transfer Station where it will be turned into mulch and sold back to residents. 

So hopefully these actions will avert any future conflicts with our new neighbours.