Is It Me?

Boy the news cycle changes fast these days, doesn’t it? From a virus, to lockdowns, to opening/closing schools, to chaos in city streets, to wildfires, to hurricanes, and the sad death of a Supreme Court Justice. Whew. I’m out of breath.The sun photo above was taken a week ago when smoke haze from the fires drifted out here to the Midwest.

I have my own personal-life-news-cycle changing as well. Nothing big, mind you, but we have a couple of health issues to deal with. Not to mention, my husband’s job having a dramatic change. Fingers crossed for a smooth transition so his job and position remain in tact.I’ve also had something pop up in my neighborhood recently. You see, we live in suburbia where we have yards with fences. Our homes aren’t on top of each other like in the city, but we are fairly close, about 25 to 30 feet apart.

We used to have a back yard neighbor’s dog outside barking incessantly for hours at a time. It went on for two or three years, and I even posted about losing my temper over it once. Our dog, Max, had much more patience with the barker than I. After Max passed away at the first of this year, while I was grieving, my own patience wore off. The police took care of that matter. The dog still barks, but for shorter periods now, twenty minutes at the longest.

So now it appears I’m doing something to annoy a different neighbor, and I’m not sure if it’s me, or that neighbor. I know what it’s like to have rude neighbors who don’t take into account how to be considerate of others close by. I don’t want to be inconsiderate, so I’ll share this here and see what you think.I’ve been posting some photographs of the beautiful birds and cute critters I’ve had in my yard since putting up a bird feeder. We put out a feeder because of the emptiness without Max and being stuck at home for months due to the virus. The birds and critters gave us something to smile about. We don’t have a single tree in our yard, so we rarely saw any birds, squirrels, or chipmunks here before.It turns out, our neighbor with two huge trees do not like our bird feeder. Apparently the squirrels and chipmunks are swarming their trees since our feeder’s been up. I’ve been told there is concern they will burrow into the basement or under their shed. Rabbits have enjoyed the shelter underneath their shed (right next to our property) for years now.

Should I feel guilty about this? Should I take down my feeder?

This same neighbor’s tree has branches that cover one side of our yard, and we have to clean up those leaves every year. Never once complained. Trees do that. It’s part of life.

Bird in neighbor’s tree that hovers over our yard

I’m a person who is always trying to be aware of others because I don’t want to be inconsiderate. Am I being inconsiderate with a feeder and no trees?