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The railroad grade crossing bell by our place started going off at 6:30am, and when I went out to find the number to phone the railroad company I discovered that someone had taken the sign which has the phone number on it and laid it across the tracks. I guess that if there's a certain amount of conductivity between the two tracks it sets off the alarm not only at that grade crossing but at least the two on either side of it, because as soon as I removed the sign post I could see cars begin passing again at the next grade crossing.
So I phoned the railroad company to let them know their sign was down and. Later on the bell started going off again, and my brother trotted out to see if the sign was back across. Nope, they had a huge machine on the rails, something like a backhoe. The guy drove it right up to our berry patch, and I stood and looked at him, and he seemed to be looking back at me for a moment... or maybe he was assessing where the railroad property line was. After a moment he reached out this backhoe arm and ripped up a bunch of our blackberries - they are just starting to ripen, too - and then proceeded to whack a tree limb which was reaching toward the track. This machine seemed to have something like a wood chipper in place of where the scoop of a backhoe would be, and it scattered pieces of tree limb all over our garden. He then continued on up the track, eating tree limbs all over the place, but nowhere did he bite as far in as he did on our berry patch.
I saved a couple of canes and stuck them in water on the deck, where they're still ripening berries and providing me a tasty treat every time I step out the kitchen door. Eor is, understandably, rather pissed at the way the guy did that, taking such a chunk from us when he didn't seem to care about the trees further on near as much.
So, another case of no good deed going unpunished, I guess. I'm wondering if I should write a letter to the railroad company, or if they'll just get more defensive about their property line? Yes, the berries WERE across the line, but we were keeping the area neat and not letting anything grow right up to the tracks. Previously they've only seemed to care about what's overhanging the rock that edges the track, and those berries weren't.
So I phoned the railroad company to let them know their sign was down and. Later on the bell started going off again, and my brother trotted out to see if the sign was back across. Nope, they had a huge machine on the rails, something like a backhoe. The guy drove it right up to our berry patch, and I stood and looked at him, and he seemed to be looking back at me for a moment... or maybe he was assessing where the railroad property line was. After a moment he reached out this backhoe arm and ripped up a bunch of our blackberries - they are just starting to ripen, too - and then proceeded to whack a tree limb which was reaching toward the track. This machine seemed to have something like a wood chipper in place of where the scoop of a backhoe would be, and it scattered pieces of tree limb all over our garden. He then continued on up the track, eating tree limbs all over the place, but nowhere did he bite as far in as he did on our berry patch.
I saved a couple of canes and stuck them in water on the deck, where they're still ripening berries and providing me a tasty treat every time I step out the kitchen door. Eor is, understandably, rather pissed at the way the guy did that, taking such a chunk from us when he didn't seem to care about the trees further on near as much.
So, another case of no good deed going unpunished, I guess. I'm wondering if I should write a letter to the railroad company, or if they'll just get more defensive about their property line? Yes, the berries WERE across the line, but we were keeping the area neat and not letting anything grow right up to the tracks. Previously they've only seemed to care about what's overhanging the rock that edges the track, and those berries weren't.
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