I was just saying that as an example. 8 inches is nothing though.

You should cut it, rain or not. Take pride in your lawn! Chicks dig a good manscaper lawnscaper.

This thread = WIN!

Made me chuckle.

On point. I wouldn't cut it till the rain stops. Or the beer was cold. Hell, I've gone months without cutting my lawn. Seriously, I think I mowed the lawn twice last summer. But I have two things working for me: 1) I'm lazy. 2) I just don't give a flying ... what my neighbors think. I hate them all.

Blocking their view of your house, which I guess is what they spend all their time staring at, watching the grass grow. My brother had to move his (broken) car off the driveway under threat of law once. I really don't understand these laws, especially the grass one. If people can call the cops over someone else committing some intangible crime of ultra-mild annoyance, I should be able to sue them for not baking me muffins every morning. The cads.

They'd lose their bragging rights if they couldn't see how bad his lawn is compared to theirs. How could you deny them of that?

I mowed the lawn (the shorter half that won't clog up the lawnmower, anyway), but I like watching the discussion about neighbors, so continue... or face the threat of fines/jail time.

The only danger with operating a lawn mower during the wet is you doing your back in because wet lawn clippings is about 3 times as heavy as the dry stuff. Either way, there's no inherent danger but it does svck that you live in a HOA (or seem to in any case).

The only gardening problem I have at the moment is a case of blackberries. That stuff won't go away - creeping in under our fence from our neighbours - its getting to be like a case of herpes.

What is an HOA?

I have the solution for that. Eat them.

Home Owner's Association. Unless you actually live in a town that has grass restrictions by law. In that case, get the hell out of that place.



If you want neighbor discussion . . . There is a French guy who lives across the street that apparently has lived here since my part of my town was purely agriculture. I believe he is the reason we have an HOA. One time, we had a trailer and one of our cars at the side of our house for a couple hours because we were loading some tree clippings and other debris into it to go to a wood chipper. He complained to the HOA. It was of no consequence, but . . . damn.

I don't live in the USA so I don't really feel threatened.

*threatens*

HOA's rarely produce anything good. It can sometimes legitimately help some really annoying ish from happening. Then there are other ways to address that as well. But I don't think they have ever done anything good.

Except maybe that block that has a HOA about http://www.blogcdn.com/www.citysbest.com/media/2010/11/candy-cane-lane-seattle.jpg

Some random neighbor has mowed my lawn twice in the last 4 years, when my grass was really, really long. I still have no idea who mowed it or if it was even the same person both times.

It's times like these, that make me glad I live in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I could stand listening to some idiot neighbor whine because my grass is getting to long. I'd certainly have more then a few choice words for him. If I ever move, it certainly won't be into any place that forces you to join the local HOA(Do you have to join an HOA just because you move into a specific neighborhood? Do you even have to actually listen to them? I mean, they are just a group of normal people without any specific rights to tell you what the hell to do). In the end, I just don't understand HOA's.

I'm not even sure there is a HOA, but the threatening letter I got was something official from my town. My town has grass restriction laws, it seems.

Pretty sure that's the HOA talking.

Yeah, normally the only laws towns/cities have, are about Keeping your sidewalk clear of obstructions, not keeping vehicles without license plates on your property, obeying sound laws and what not. I don't think I've ever actually heard of a town/city that has a Grass restriction law. Well, actually, Texas/Cali/Florida I think all have laws that basically tell you not to water them during droughts or suffer a fine, but that's the opposite of what you got. Honestly, I don't think Legally an HOA can tell you to do jack-crap, even if you joined it when you moved there. Again, it's just a bunch of people who consider themselves to be "The property police of the neighborhood". Granted, you already mowed your lawn, but if it happens again, I'd contact your local town council and/or Mayor and ask if the letter came from their office. If not, feel free to ignore.

The problem is how fascist your town is in enforcing that rule.

Yeah, 8 inches is too long to start with, but if you've had non-stop rain, you'll need 2-3 days of no rain for the lawn to dry enough to be cuttable. Maybe, and I mean maybe, if it is a dry day and hot enough, at the late afternoon the grass will be dry enough to cut without gumming up your lawn mower.

Wet grass not only gums up in the mower, forcing you to turn it over and manually pull out clumps of wet grass, but it is not safe to cut...especially if your lawn involves slopes or hills. Grass can be slick when wet...never mind mud underneath.

I'd contact the code enforcement office and talk with someone there (since it sounds like they already have a complaint on you). Ask them what can be worked out because the weather is not productive to going out and mowing the lawn. Most people have some measure of common sense and will note on the complaint that you agree to cut the grass but need a couple days of dry weather for it to be both cuttable and safe to cut. If they won't budge, hire someone who will do the work for you or endure the nonsense and do it yourself.

Put your complaining neighbor on your poop list...they've earned it.

I had a landlord that required that I cut the grass regularly. I didn't mind that, but I really only had a short window of opportunity in any given week to do it with my work schedule (and I had to go to my parent's home to borrow their mower). I always let it grow enough to make mowing worth the hassle, and if it rained when I had the chance to do it, I couldn't (electric mower). The landlord came out and did it during the week when I was at work and complained about it. Ultimately, I just started paying my neighbor to do my lawn as well as his own since he was home most all the time. It was a lot faster, easier, and regular than trying to do it myself.

Here is another annoying neighbor story.

My neighbor whom is across the street and a good 300 yards from my front lawn likes to watch and make comments to us on occasion. She's definitely crazy. So, last Christmas my wife and I decided to host and I had planned all kinds of festivities.

I smoked a turkey. And had a small fire under the maple tree in my pit. My neighbor came out of her house and started yelling at us. She feared that the small fire in my pit that also had a metal cover on it was going to actually set her propane tanks on fire and burn her house down. Not only did she fear this but she believed it. For an hour she screamed that she was in fear for her life and that if we didn't extinguish the flames in our legally ok fire pit she'd call the cops.

Now, I've yelled at this woman before and proceeded to lay into her to mind her business and go back into her house. Eventually, my friend stepped in and put the fire out because I was not about to let this woman tell me what to do.

She also feeds all the stray cats in the neighborhood and the trash from her feedings tends to end up in our yard. Does she come over and pick it up? Nope. I do. And when I mention it to her she shrugs it off. I hate that woman.

If only you had an armored core. That'd clear up your neighbor problem.


As for questions of membership in HOA's, in developments where there is a HOA, membership would be a requirement for buying aproperty from the Developer. If buying from an individual and not a developer when the property is currently subject to a HOA, HOA membership comes with the land and it's burdens must be undertaken as part of purchasing the property. This doesn't excuse them from being evil demonic entities that should be purged with fire.