Email tom@muellerlandsurveying.com "Did I ever tell you about the time....." George Washington used a chain to mark out property several hundred years ago. There is evidence that the Egyptians used lengths of rope to make measurements several thousand years ago. From these humble beginnings, the surveying profession has evolved in a parallel pattern with hi-tech. Lasers, computers, electronic measuring equipment and satellites are tools used by the modern surveyor and have made the one-man survey crew a reality. However, as interesting as all these expensive, hi-tech toys are, the real fun usually is not associated with the technical side of things. WHAT HAPPENED? It was somewhere west of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, in Isabella County, but almost to Mecosta County, almost heaven. We were looking for property corners off the road and my helper and I were walking through a thick hay field on that beautiful, early summer’s day. It was cool enough so one could walk at a fast pace through the overgrown field and not break a sweat. At the same time the warmth of the sun on my back was a pleasant change from the long winter and cool spring. It was clearly a central Michigan day. The hay hadn’t been cut for several years. It was just old farmland that somebody had given up on farming. The hay was thick and it tangled around our feet and legs as we walked. After several hundred feet of hiking, my jeans had a bunch of grass stains up to the knees. It could have been worse, some days are “wet foot days.” That’s when you get your feet wet first thing in the morning and go the rest of the day with wet feet. The good feelings brought on by the warmth of the sun and knowing that I had escaped the corporate culture, suddenly and quickly came to an end. Something was drastically wrong, and I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. One certain thing about life is that conditions and circumstances are always going to change. What’s that they say about the weather? The beauty of the day quickly departed and suddenly I was struggling, trying to figure out what had happened. A wave of nausea came over me and I became disoriented. For a split second, I thought I was having a heart attack. There was something moving through the hay in front of me, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Never saw what hit me, but apparently there was some little critter in the hay in front of me. Greg, who had been walking slightly behind me and to my left quickly took off on a run yelling, “Skunk, skunk!” “What happened?” I responded. “Did you get sprayed by a skunk?” “No, you did.” “No, I don’t smell anything. I’m just feeling a little sick right now. Must be coming down with something.” “You got sprayed by a skunk, can’t you smell it !!?” He was yelling from over a hundred feet away. As I walked on and came back to reality, I realized there was a strong skunk smell in the air. It was clearly…, going to be a long day.
THE BOTTOM LINE The project was near Tiffen, Ohio and we were staking the location for a new petroleum pipeline. I had a bunch of right-of-way agreements for the route, and for the most part, they were pretty straightforward. However, one was a little odd. In this particular case, common sense told me that I should get in touch with the property owner, the person who had granted the right-of-way. The owner, a farmer, was an organic grower. He fed his beef cattle only organic grown feed and raised organic tomatoes in his greenhouses through the winter. As we discussed the location on the pipeline across his land, he said, “Ya’know, I’m get’n paid a lot of money for you boys to come out here and put this pipe in the ground.” “I’ll bet you are.” “I wanna be sure it’s right, but I’ll probably be ripped off on this deal too,” the farmer said. “When my parents died, I got ripped off by my brothers on the split up of the farm. They got all the best land. I got a bunch of rocks, but I worked hard and everything is fine now. But you know what? People are willing to pay for healthy, organic grown food. They’re tired of chemicals and pesticides.” “You’re right, people need to be careful of what they eat.” “There’s more to it than that,” said the farmer. “This pipeline company expects to make a lot of money after they get the oil flow’n through it. You’d think the world revolves around money. That’s why so many people keep getting burned, the debts, credit cards, big mortgages…. Have you ever seen a Brinks truck in a funeral procession!!?” “No.” “There ya go. That’s the bottom line. Now, I want you to stake this pipeline 500 feet from my greenhouse and when you get down to the creek….”
FENCES, CHAIN SAWS & NEIGHBORS I believe the plat was called “Deerfield Estates,” or something like that. My impression was that the developer was looking for a quick buck with a minimum investment when he subdivided the land. The lots were very unimaginative, long and skinny, “bowling alley” type lots. Topographically, the area was rolling and for the most part, you couldn’t see from one corner of a lot to the other corner. I completed my survey, and at the owners request placed intermediate line stakes along the North side of the lot. The area was rural and the owner wanted to fence in his land. As we were packing up our equipment, the owner said, “I’ve got a truck load of cedar fence posts coming in the next few days. I’m gonna put them right on the line.” I became a little concerned, “You might want to be sure it’s ok with your neighbors to build a line fence. Technically, half the fence post will be on their land if you center it on the line. If they don’t want a line fence, you should keep it on your side a little.” “Well, by gawd, what’s mine is mine and if I want to build a line fence, I will,” growled the property owner. “Please, just listen to me for a minute. If you center those fence posts on the line, half the width of the post will be on your neighbor’s land. That’s an encroachment. Talk to your neighbor and make sure it’s ok . Better yet, talk to an attorney and get a written agreement with your neighbor for a line fence.” “I’m not talk’n to that idiot….” And then the epithets began to fly. Looked to me like neighborly good will had got up and went. I was glad the job was done and obviously there was no reasoning with this guy. Every day I drove down that same road to get home from work. It wasn’t long and the posts were put in. Several days later, before the wire could be put up, I drove by again. I had to look twice! Half the posts were missing.., the long way. Looked like chain saw work to me. Apparently the neighbor had decided to cut the half of the posts away that were on his property. The laughter quickly burst forth. “Hold it on the road, Tom,” as I talked to myself. However, the neighbor apparently forgot about the part that was in the ground. That would have taken a little more effort and a resulting dull chain saw. What’s that saying about good fences and good neighbors? LINKS TO THE ANCIENT ONES “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark.” - Deuteronomy 27:17 “Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.” - Proverbs 22:28 HOME PROFILE ESTIMATES sURvEy TaiLS © Copyright, 2002, Thomas J. Mueller
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