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HOA Cut Down My Trees for a Better Golf View — So I Built a 20-Foot Steel Wall — Transcript

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0:00Those six oaks come down Monday. I hired
0:03the crew. Done staring at your jungle
0:05from my deck.
0:07>> Those trees are on my property.
0:09>> Your property looks like a foreclosure.
0:12Whole street's been laughing at you.
0:16>> I'm asking you not to touch them.
0:18>> Six dead oaks rotting up my golf view.
0:20Stumps by noon. At least then your place
0:23might be might be worth more than that
0:24truck in your driveway.
0:26>> [snorts]
0:28>> Brenda posted the cleared fairway.
0:29View's restored. You're welcome. 11
0:31months and one permit later, something
0:33went up. It was on my property line. Her
0:35next meeting did not end the way she
0:37planned.
0:38>> Have you ever watched someone lose their
0:39prize golf view to 20 ft of solid steel
0:43because you were about to hit subscribe.
0:45You do not want to miss what happens to
0:47her. I grew up in the kind of house
0:49where the front door never locked,
0:50right, and nobody cared. Ranch style,
0:52half-acre lot, end of a cul-de-sac in a
0:55subdivision called Pinehurst Greens. One
0:58of those neighborhoods built in the
0:59early '90s right up golf course because
1:02somebody in a suit decided proximity to
1:04a fairway added 30 grand to a listing
1:07price. My dad bought the place in '94
1:10with cash from 22 years at a pipe
1:12fitting company and a separation package
1:14that was more insult than reward. First
1:17thing he did before he even patched the
1:19roof, he planted six oak saplings along
1:22the back property line, red oaks. One
1:24for every person in the family, he said,
1:27plus one extra because he liked even
1:28numbers. That was 30 years ago. By the
1:31time I inherited the house, those oaks
1:33were tall enough to block out the sun at
1:35noon and wide enough that you couldn't
1:37wrap your arms around the trunks without
1:38a buddy helping. The bark had gone rough
1:41as concrete. I used to press my palm
1:43flat against the biggest one every
1:45morning just to feel something solid
1:47before I drove to the fabrication shop
1:49where I welded steel beams for
1:51commercial buildings. 12-hour shifts,
1:54sparks, face shields, the constant hiss
1:57of argon gas. I'd come home smelling
1:59like hot metal and sweat, sit on the
2:02back porch, and listen to the wind move
2:04through those oaks. That sound, that low
2:07rustling, like the trees were breathing,
2:10was the only thing that could unclench
2:11my jaw after a bad shift. My daughter
2:14Ellie was 16 then. She'd set up a lawn
2:17chair under the biggest oak every
2:18afternoon with a paperback and a glass
2:20of sweet tea, and she'd sit there until
2:22the mosquitoes got too brave. That was
2:25her spot. Our spot, really. The whole
2:27back half of the lot smelled like damp
2:29leaves and earth after a rain. That
2:31heavy sweet rot of acorns breaking down
2:34in the soil. If you've ever had a yard
2:36full of old trees, you know the smell.
2:38You don't forget it. Now, let me tell
2:40you about Brenda Caldwell. Brenda had
2:42been president of the Pinehurst Greens
2:44Homeowners Association for three
2:45consecutive terms. Nobody ran against
2:48her. Not because she was good, because
2:51she was mean. The kind of mean that
2:53smiles at you while she's filing your
2:55violation notice. She lived four houses
2:57down, same side of the fairway. And her
3:00back deck looked straight out onto the
3:01seventh green. That view was her whole
3:04personality. She talked about it at
3:06every block party, every board meeting,
3:09every encounter at the mailbox. "Lloyd
3:11and I bought for the view," she'd say,
3:13like it was a credential. My oaks
3:15bothered her. From her deck, the tree
3:17line cut across the bottom third of the
3:19fairway. Not much, honestly, but enough
3:22for Brenda to treat it like a personal
3:23attack on her property value.
3:26She'd mentioned it twice at board
3:27meetings. She dropped hints at the 4th
3:29of July cookout. And then one Tuesday in
3:32March, I found a letter in my mailbox.
3:35"Dear Mr. Turner," it read. "Your trees
3:38along the eastern property line exceed
3:40HOA maintenance standards and must be
3:42trimmed to an appropriate height within
3:4430 days. Sincerely, Brenda Caldwell, HOA
3:47board president." I read it twice. Then
3:50I pulled out the CC&Rs, that stack of
3:53photocopied bylaws they hand you when
3:55you close on a house and you shove in a
3:57drawer and never read. Sat down at the
3:59kitchen table with a cup of coffee that
4:01went cold before I got through the first
4:02section. Flipped every page. The thing
4:05was thicker than my welding manual and
4:07half as readable. There was nothing in
4:09there about tree height, nothing about
4:11trimming, nothing about golf course
4:13views, not a single clause. Here's the
4:16thing I learned that night, sitting at
4:17my kitchen table with a cold cup of
4:19coffee and 63 pages of legalese, an HOA
4:23can only enforce what's written in the
4:25CC&Rs,
4:26the covenants, conditions, and
4:29restrictions recorded with the county.
4:31If the president tells you to do
4:32something and it's not in those
4:34documents, she's bluffing. She's got the
4:37same authority as your neighbor's dog. I
4:40called Brenda the next morning. I read
4:41the CC&Rs, I said, "There's no tree
4:44rule." She didn't pause. "I don't need a
4:46clause, Colton. I'm the board." Two
4:49weeks after that phone call, I found a
4:51notice taped to my front door, not
4:53mailed, taped, like a parking ticket on
4:55a windshield. Brenda had called an
4:57emergency board meeting. Three members
4:59attended, herself, Lloyd's golf buddy,
5:02Dale Finney, and a retired woman named
5:04Patrice, who'd voted with Brenda on
5:06every motion since 2019.
5:09Together, they'd passed a brand new
5:11resolution. Any trees exceeding 15 ft in
5:14height within 50 ft of the golf course
5:16boundary must be removed for safety and
5:18aesthetic purposes. Safety. That was the
5:21word they used. Six healthy oaks that
5:24had stood for three decades and suddenly
5:26they were a safety hazard because Brenda
5:28Caldwell couldn't see the seventh green
5:30from her wicker chair. The notice gave
5:32me 30 days. After that, $250 per day in
5:36fines. And at the bottom, in Brenda's
5:38handwriting, "I will send my own crew
5:41and bill you if necessary." I stood on
5:43my porch reading that thing and And
5:45smell fresh cut grass drifting over from
5:47the golf course. The sprinklers were
5:49going. That rhythmic
5:51tsk tsk sound hitting the fairway.
5:54Somewhere out there, some guy in plaid
5:56shorts was lining up a putt, completely
5:58unaware that a woman four houses down
6:01was starting a war over his sightline.
6:03I'm not a lawyer, I'm a welder, but I
6:05knew enough to count, and I counted the
6:07board members. The CC&Rs required five
6:10board members for a quorum vote. Brenda
6:13had three. I'd read that section at my
6:15kitchen table 2 weeks ago. Article 4,
6:18section 3, right there in plain English.
6:21Three out of five is not a quorum, which
6:23meant the vote was garbage. I wrote a
6:25letter, certified mail, return receipt
6:28requested, stating that the resolution
6:30was void due to lack of quorum. I cited
6:33the article number, I kept it to one
6:35page, mailed it on a Wednesday. Thursday
6:37morning, I found a survey crew in my
6:39backyard. Two men in orange vests, one
6:42with a transit level on a tripod, the
6:44other hammering a wooden stake into the
6:46ground 6 ft from my biggest oak. No
6:49knock on my door, no phone call, no
6:51permission. "Can I help you?" I said.
6:53The one with the tripod looked at his
6:55clipboard. "Ma'am, at the HOA office
6:57sent us. Said we need to mark the
6:59removal zone." "This is my property." He
7:02shrugged. "We just go where they tell
7:04us." I told them to leave. They did, but
7:07not before I counted four stakes in the
7:09ground and three strips of orange
7:11flagging tape wrapped around oak trunks
7:13like tourniquets. The tape was that
7:15cheap plastic kind, the color of traffic
7:17cones. Bright enough to see from the
7:19street. Bright enough for every neighbor
7:21walking their dog to notice and wonder
7:24what Colton Turner did wrong now. I
7:26pulled the stakes myself, left the tape
7:28because I wanted photos first. Took a
7:31picture of every ribbon from three
7:32angles, date stamped on my phone. Three
7:35days later, Brenda emailed back. One
7:37line, "The fine stands." That was it. No
7:41acknowledgement of the quorum issue, no
7:43response to the certified letter, just
7:45four words and a period. The first fine
7:48arrived the following week, $250 printed
7:51on HOA letterhead, stamped past due in
7:54red ink with a note at the bottom,
7:56interest accrues at 1.5% monthly. I
8:00stuck it on the refrigerator with a
8:01magnet, right next to a crayon drawing
8:03Ellie made in second grade, a purple
8:06house with a yellow sun and four stick
8:08figures. I looked at the drawing, then
8:10the fine, then back at the drawing. "At
8:12least your art was free," I told Ellie
8:14when she came downstairs. She didn't
8:17laugh. She looked at the paper and said,
8:19"Dad, can they actually take our house?"
8:22"No, baby," I said, "they can't." But
8:24standing there in my kitchen, I wasn't
8:26entirely sure that was true. Day 22,
8:29that's how long Brenda waited, not 30,
8:3222. She didn't even give me the full
8:34window she'd put in writing. I was at
8:36the shop, halfway through a weld on a
8:38crossbeam for a warehouse project in
8:40Decatur, when my phone buzzed. A text
8:43from my neighbor across the street, Phil
8:45Weston, 70 years old, barely texts, so
8:48when he does, you read it. "Colton,
8:51three guys with chainsaws on your lot.
8:53They're cutting your trees." I drove
8:55home in 19 minutes. Should have taken
8:5725, but I didn't care about the speed
8:59limit. Pulled onto my street and smelled
9:01it before I saw it. Sawdust. That thick
9:05green, almost sweet smell of fresh-cut
9:07oak. It hit my nose through the open
9:10window and my stomach dropped before my
9:12brain caught up. All six oaks were down.
9:15The crew had cut them flush, not stumps
9:17sticking up, not ragged tops, flush with
9:19the dirt. Professional job, clean cuts.
9:23The trunks were already sectioned and
9:24loaded on a flatbed. Sawdust covered my
9:27backyard like yellow snow. The ground
9:29where 30 years of roots had held the
9:31soil together was torn and rutted from
9:33boot prints and equipment tracks. And
9:35the light, that was the thing I wasn't
9:37prepared for. The sun hit my back porch
9:40full force for the first time in three
9:42decades. No shade, no filter, just raw,
9:46flat, ugly sunlight on dead grass and
9:48bare dirt. I stood at the edge of my lot
9:51and pressed my palm where the biggest
9:52trunk used to be.
9:54Nothing but a smooth, sticky circle of
9:56sap and sawdust. The bark I used to feel
9:59every morning,
10:00gone.
10:02Cut into logs on the back of some truck
10:04headed to a landfill. Ellie came out the
10:06back door. She stood on the porch
10:08holding her paperback against her chest
10:10and looked at at the empty space where
10:11her reading spot used to be. "Dad, where
10:14are my trees?" I didn't answer. I pulled
10:16out my phone and started documenting.
10:18Photos of every stump, six total. Video
10:21pan of the entire back lot. Measurements
10:24from each stump to the property line. I
10:26shot 42 photos in 10 minutes. My hands
10:29were shaking, but the images were
10:30steady. That evening, I called the
10:32county sheriff's office and filed a
10:34report. Criminal trespass, destruction
10:36of private property.
10:38The deputy who came out, a young guy,
10:40maybe 30, walked the lot, took his own
10:43photos, wrote up the report, and said
10:46what I already knew. "You'll need to
10:47prove she authorized it. Get the crew's
10:50invoice if you can." I didn't need the
10:51invoice. Brenda gave me something
10:53better. That night, she posted on the
10:56Pinehurst Greens HOA Facebook page. A
10:58photo of the cleared fairway taken from
11:01her own deck. Her iced tea visible in
11:03the corner of the frame. Golf course
11:05stretching wide and unobstructed. The
11:07caption, "Views restored. You're
11:10welcome." 43 likes in 2 hours. Eight
11:13comments.
11:14Most were polite. "Looks great, Brenda."
11:17One was from Phil Weston's wife.
11:19"Brenda, that's his yard." Brenda
11:21deleted that comment in 4 minutes. I
11:23know because I was refreshing the page,
11:26and I screenshotted it at the 3-minute
11:28mark. I printed the screenshot, the
11:30post, and the timestamp. Put them in a
11:32manila folder on my kitchen table. Then
11:35I sat on my back porch in full sun, no
11:38shade. The sawdust still thick enough to
11:40crunch under my boots and stared at the
11:42golf course I could now see perfectly.
11:45Somewhere on the seventh green, a
11:46sprinkler kicked on. Tskt tskt tskt. I
11:49never wanted to see that fairway less in
11:51my life. Brenda's next move came in the
11:54mail, an invoice for $800 printed on HOA
11:58letterhead labeled tree removal service,
12:01authorized landscape maintenance. She
12:03expected me to pay for the destruction
12:05of my own property. There was a due date
12:07in red and a note about liens. A week
12:09later, a petition showed up. 12
12:12signatures from the neighborhood or what
12:14Brenda called the neighborhood. "Colton
12:17Turner's property is a documented
12:18eyesore. We, the undersigned homeowners,
12:21demand full compliance with HOA
12:23standards." I read every name. Most of
12:25them I recognized, quiet people, the
12:28type who sign things because the
12:29alternative is having Brenda Caldwell
12:31knock on their door at 7:00 in the
12:33morning. But three names at the bottom
12:35didn't belong to Pinehurst Greens at
12:37all. I checked the HOA directory twice.
12:40Margaret Soul, Dennis Fry, Joyce Cutter.
12:43None of them lived in this subdivision.
12:45I found Margaret Soul tagged in a photo
12:47with Brenda at a church fundraiser two
12:49months earlier, friends. Brenda had
12:52padded her own petition with ringers. I
12:54set the petition aside. I wasn't going
12:56to fight her document with another
12:58document. I was done writing letters.
13:00The following Monday, I took a half day
13:02at the shop and drove to the county
13:04zoning office. The building smelled like
13:06old carpet and toner. That recycled air
13:09government smell that tells you nothing
13:11in here has been updated since 2006.
13:14I took a number, sat in a plastic chair,
13:16and waited 40 minutes. The clerk who
13:19called my number was a woman named
13:20Donna, late 60s, reading glasses on a
13:23chain, the kind of person who's been
13:24behind that counter long enough to know
13:26every code by memory and every shortcut
13:29through the system. I want to build a
13:31structure on my residential lot, I said.
13:33Not a house, not a garage, a free
13:35standing steel structure along my back
13:37property line. She looked at me over her
13:39glasses. How tall? 20 ft. She didn't
13:43flinch. Residential fence limit is 6 ft.
13:46But if it's free standing, not attached
13:48to a dwelling, not enclosing a habitable
13:50space, it's classified as an accessory
13:53structure, not a fence. Different code.
13:56What do I need? Structural permit,
13:58engineering stamp from a licensed PE,
14:01site plan showing setbacks. She pulled
14:04up my parcel on her screen, squinted at
14:06it, typed something. Your lot's R1.
14:09Setback from rear property line is 5 ft.
14:12Max height for non-habitable accessory
14:15structures in R1. She scrolled. No
14:18specific cap. Just needs to meet wind
14:20load and the PE has to sign off. No
14:23specific cap, I sat with that for a
14:25second. 6 ft for a fence, no cap for a
14:28structure. The difference between a
14:30fence and a structure was whether it had
14:32posts in the ground or a foundation and
14:34engineering behind it. My dad would have
14:37laughed. He spent his whole life working
14:39with his hands and the one thing he
14:41always said was that the building code
14:43doesn't care what you think is fair. It
14:45cares what you can prove on paper. Get
14:47the paper right and the code is on your
14:49side. One more thing, Donna said. If
14:51your HOA has architectural review
14:54requirements CC&Rs, they might try to
14:56block it. They don't, I said. I've read
14:59every page. She gave me a half smile.
15:02Most people haven't. I filed the permit
15:04application that afternoon. Structural
15:06permit for a free standing non-habitable
15:08accessory structure, 20 ft tall, steel
15:11frame, corrugated steel panel cladding.
15:14I listed the setbacks, attached a rough
15:16site plan, and paid the filing fee, 340.
15:20Then I waited. 2 weeks later, Donna
15:22called. "Mr. Turner, your permit's been
15:25flagged. Someone filed an objection." I
15:28didn't need to ask who. A Mrs. Caldwell
15:30submitted a letter stating the structure
15:32would, and I'm reading this directly,
15:35"Destroy the aesthetic character of the
15:36neighborhood and violate the spirit of
15:38community standards." "Does she have
15:40standing to object?" Donna paused.
15:43"She's not an adjacent property owner to
15:45your rear lot line. Her house is four
15:47doors down. And spirit of community
15:50standards isn't a code vision." Another
15:52pause. "The objection has no legal
15:54standing. Your permit is approved. You
15:57can pick it up Thursday." I drove to the
15:59shop that afternoon with the windows
16:00down. The air smelled like pine mulch.
16:03Somebody in the neighborhood had just
16:05spread a fresh load. I called my buddy
16:07Ray Scofield from the parking lot. Ray
16:10was a welder like me, same shop,
16:12different shift. But before he'd picked
16:14up a torch, he'd spent 11 years as a
16:16structural engineer. Bad divorce, career
16:19change, long story. The point is, he
16:22could read blueprints, calculate wind
16:24loads in his sleep, and he owed me a
16:26favor from the time I covered his shift
16:28for two weeks straight when his mother
16:29was in the hospital. "Ray," I said, "I
16:32need you to help me build something."
16:34"What kind of something?" "A wall, 20 ft
16:36high, 80 ft long, all steel." He was
16:39quiet for 3 seconds. Then, "You know,
16:42most guys build a fence after a divorce.
16:44You're building a monument." "Call it a
16:46privacy screen." "I'll bring the
16:48blueprints paper Saturday," he said.
16:50"And beer, you're buying." Ray and I
16:52started drawing up the wall design that
16:54Saturday in my garage. But before we
16:56could pour the first footer, I needed to
16:58know exactly what Brenda had taken from
17:00me. Not emotionally, legally, dollar
17:03amount, court admissible. I called a
17:05certified arborist named Wade Prescott.
17:08Found him through the State Arborist
17:10Association. ISA certified, 20 years of
17:13field assessments, expert witness
17:15experience in four counties. He showed
17:18up on a Tuesday morning in a
17:19mud-splattered truck with a tape measure
17:21around his neck and a soil probe in his
17:23back pocket. Wade spent 3 hours on my
17:26lot. He measured every stump, diameter
17:29at cut height, counted the growth rings
17:31on the cleanest cross sections, pulled
17:33soil samples, checked root flare
17:35patterns. The man got on his knees in my
17:37sawdust and pressed his face close
17:39enough to the wood grain that I thought
17:41he was going to kiss it. "These weren't
17:43sick," he said, standing up and brushing
17:45yellow dust off his jeans. "No fungal
17:48pathways, no heart rot, no beetle
17:51galleries. Whoever told you these were
17:53dead oaks lied to your face. These were
17:56healthy red oaks, 30 to 35 years
17:59mature." He ran the numbers using the
18:01ISA trunk formula, a standardized method
18:04for calculating the replacement value of
18:06mature trees based on species, trunk
18:09diameter, condition, and location. Each
18:12oak came in between 12 and $16,000.
18:15Six trees, total replacement value,
18:18$84,000.
18:20$84,000 of healthy trees cut down for a
18:23golf view. I took Wade's signed report,
18:2612 pages, stamped, dated, photographs
18:29included, and drove it straight to a
18:31property attorney named Glenn Hartwell.
18:34Glenn had a one-man office above a
18:36hardware store on Main Street, the kind
18:38of lawyer who keeps a fishing rod behind
18:40his desk and a copy of state property
18:42code on the toilet tank. He knew dirt
18:45law. Glenn read the arborist report,
18:47then he read the sheriff's report, then
18:49he opened his laptop and I showed him
18:51Brenda's Facebook post, the photo from
18:54her deck, the iced tea, the caption. He
18:57read it twice, leaned back, and took off
18:59his glasses. "She authorized destruction
19:02of $84,000
19:03worth of healthy trees on your private
19:05property and bragged about it on social
19:07media," he said. "That's not an HOA
19:10dispute, Colton. That's conversion and
19:12criminal mischief. Then he told me
19:14something that changed everything. Most
19:16states have what's called a timber
19:18trespass statute. When someone
19:20intentionally cuts down trees on land
19:22they don't own, the court doesn't just
19:24award the replacement value, it
19:26multiplies it. In our state, the
19:28multiplier is three, treble damages.
19:31Take the $84,000 Wade documented,
19:34multiply by three, and you get $252,000.
19:38Glenn let that number sit in the air for
19:40a moment. Then he asked, "Did she use
19:43HOA funds to pay that crew?" I didn't
19:45know, but if she had, that was a whole
19:47separate problem, misappropriation of
19:50homeowner dues for unauthorized work on
19:52private property. And there was a way to
19:54find out. State law requires HOA boards
19:57to provide financial records to any
19:59homeowner who requests them in writing.
20:01Brenda couldn't hide the books forever.
20:03I drove home with the windows down, the
20:05late afternoon sun hitting my windshield
20:07so hard I had to squint. My lot looked
20:10bare and ugly in that light, flat dirt,
20:13sawdust ghosts, six round scars in the
20:16ground where 30 years of shade used to
20:18live. But now I had a number, $252,000,
20:22and a plan that was starting to take
20:24shape. Here's where everything came
20:26together. I had four people in my
20:28corner, each one holding a different
20:29piece of what was about to happen. Let
20:31me walk you through the team because
20:33none of this works without them. Glenn
20:35Hartwell, the attorney. His job was
20:38two-pronged. First, prepare the timber
20:40trespass lawsuit, $252,000
20:44in treble damages against Brenda
20:46Caldwell personally. Second, file a
20:49formal written request under state law
20:51for full disclosure of HOA financial
20:53records, every check, every invoice,
20:56every line item from the last three
20:58fiscal years. Brenda was required by
21:01statute to hand them over within 30 days
21:03of receiving the request. If she didn't,
21:06that was its own violation. Ol' Wade
21:08Prescott, the arborist. His 12-page
21:11report was already signed and stamped.
21:13He agreed to serve as an expert witness
21:15if the case went to trial. Wade told me
21:18he'd testified in six tree cases in the
21:20last decade, and in every single one,
21:23the person who cut the trees lost.
21:25"People underestimate trees," he said,
21:28packing up his soil probe. "They think
21:30it's just wood. The court thinks it's
21:32property." Donna at the county zoning
21:35office. She'd already confirmed my
21:36permit was approved, and Brenda's
21:38objection was dead on arrival. But she
21:41also flagged something I needed to know.
21:43Once construction started, any further
21:45complaints would go through code
21:47enforcement, not the HOA.
21:49That meant Brenda's cease and desist
21:51letters were worth exactly as much as
21:53her courtesy letters. Nothing. And then
21:56there was Ray. Ray Schofield came over
21:58that Saturday with a roll of engineering
22:00paper, a mechanical pencil, and a
22:03six-pack of Coors that was warm by the
22:05time we cracked the third one. We spread
22:07the paper out on my garage floor,
22:09concrete still stained with oil from my
22:11dad's old Dodge, and he started
22:13sketching. 20 ft tall, 80 ft long, steel
22:17I-beam frame anchored to concrete
22:19footers, clad in corrugated galvanized
22:21panels. The kind of wall you'd see on
22:24the side of an industrial warehouse, not
22:26in a suburban backyard. That was the
22:28point. "Wind load's your main issue,"
22:30Ray said, drawing cross braces between
22:32the vertical beams. "20 ft of flat steel
22:35in a crosswind is a sail. We need
22:38lateral bracing every 10 ft, and the
22:40footers have to go 36 in deep." He
22:42calculated the load on a napkin first,
22:45then ran it through proper software on
22:47his laptop the next day. Stamped the
22:49engineering drawings himself. His PE
22:52license was still active, paid up every
22:54year, even though he hadn't used it
22:56professionally since the divorce. We
22:58sourced the steel through our shop
22:59supplier, wholesale pricing, delivered
23:02to my driveway on a flatbed. Total
23:05materials cost, $11,200
23:08for the steel, $1,300
23:11for concrete, $640
23:14for hardware and galvanizing compound.
23:17Labor was free. Ray and I would do it
23:19ourselves, evenings and weekends. The
23:22first footer went in on a Friday night
23:24in September. I dug the holes with a
23:26rented post hole auger. The thing
23:28vibrated so hard my teeth hurt. While
23:30Ray mixed concrete in a wheelbarrow that
23:32had one flat tire and a crack in the
23:34basin. We poured four footers that night
23:37under work lights, the concrete slurping
23:39into the holes like gray pudding, while
23:41moths the size of quarters dive-bombed
23:44the lamps. By the second weekend, we had
23:46the first four vertical beams welded and
23:48standing. The arc welder crackled
23:50blue-white in my garage at 9:00 p.m.
23:53That sharp electric sizzle followed by
23:55the smell of hot metal and flux. Sparks
23:58bounced off the concrete floor like tiny
24:00orange fireworks. Ellie watched from the
24:03kitchen window with her phone out,
24:04filming.
24:05"For the time capsule." she said.
24:08Simultaneously, Glenn filed the timber
24:10trespass lawsuit at county court.
24:12$252,000.
24:15Brenda was served at her front door on a
24:17Wednesday afternoon. I wasn't there for
24:19it, but Phil Weston told me she read the
24:21first page, went back inside, and didn't
24:24come out for 2 days. Glenn also mailed
24:26the financial disclosure request,
24:28certified return receipt. The clock
24:31started. Brenda had 30 days to open the
24:34books. And then the quiet part. Three
24:37neighbors, people I barely knew, found
24:39me in my driveway one evening while I
24:41was unloading steel panels from my
24:42truck. They came separately, within an
24:45hour of each other, like they'd been
24:46waiting for a signal. Each one had a
24:48story. Fined for the wrong shade of
24:50mailbox white. Fined for growing
24:52tomatoes in a front yard. Fined for
24:55parking a work truck on a private
24:56driveway. All by Brenda. All without
24:59proper board votes. None of them had
25:01fought it because fighting Brenda meant
25:03Brenda fighting back harder. "If you're
25:05going after her," one of them said, a
25:07retired electrician named Hank Moore,
25:09"we want in." I told them Glenn would be
25:11in touch, and I told them to keep it
25:13quiet until the board meeting. Brenda
25:15saw the first steel delivery. Hard to
25:17miss. A flatbed truck backing into a
25:20residential cul-de-sac at 7:00 in the
25:22morning loaded with 20-ft I-beams that
25:25clanged against each other like dull
25:26church bells every time the driver hit a
25:28bump. Within 48 hours, I had a cease and
25:31desist letter from the HOA in my
25:33mailbox. "No exterior construction may
25:36commence without prior written approval
25:38from the HOA architectural review
25:40committee." I checked the CCNRs one more
25:43time. There was no architectural review
25:45committee. There never had been. The
25:47CCNRs mentioned exterior modifications
25:50to dwellings, paint colors, roof
25:52materials, attached structures. A
25:55free-standing steel wall on my own lot,
25:57permitted by the county, didn't fall
25:59under any of it. I didn't respond to the
26:01letter. I welded another beam. Brenda's
26:04second move was smarter. She called
26:06county code enforcement and reported
26:08illegal construction on my lot. An
26:10inspector showed up 3 days later, a
26:12tired-looking man named Garrett in a
26:14county polo shirt, clipboard in hand,
26:17clearly not thrilled to be standing in
26:18someone's backyard on a Thursday
26:20afternoon. He checked my permit. He
26:23checked the setbacks. He measured the
26:25distance from the nearest footer to the
26:26property line, 6 ft, 1 ft more than
26:29required. He looked at Ray's stamped
26:31engineering drawings, nodded twice, and
26:34wrote "compliant" on his form. "You're
26:36good," he said. "Permit's valid,
26:38setbacks are met, engineering's stamped.
26:41I'll close the case." Brenda must have
26:43watched him leave from her kitchen
26:44window because 20 minutes after Garrett
26:46drove away, she was on the phone with
26:49the Pinehurst Greens golf course
26:50management office. I know this because
26:53the course manager, a guy named Tom,
26:55called me that evening out of courtesy.
26:57"Mrs. Caldwell asked us to file a formal
27:00complaint about your construction," Tom
27:02said. "I told her the property line is
27:04yours. We don't have standing to tell
27:06you what to build on your own land. Just
27:08wanted you to know she tried."
27:09"Appreciate it, Tom." "For what it's
27:11worth," he said, "I've met her. I
27:13understand." That weekend, Brenda
27:16shifted to sabotage. I was working a
27:18Saturday shift at the shop. Came home at
27:206:00 p.m. to find two of my steel
27:22panels, already welded to the frame,
27:25already galvanized, spray painted in red
27:28block letters, "Tear it down." The paint
27:31was still tacky. Whoever did it hadn't
27:33even waited for it to dry. But here's
27:35the thing about having your trees cut
27:37down by someone who brags about it on
27:39Facebook.
27:40You learn to install cameras. I'd put up
27:43four wireless units the week after the
27:45oaks came down. One on each corner of
27:47the house, motion activated, cloud
27:50stored. And camera three, the one aimed
27:53at the back lot, had captured
27:54everything. At 11:14 p.m. the previous
27:57night, a dark-colored SUV, a Buick
28:00Enclave, same model and color as Lloyd
28:03Caldwell's, had parked at the top of the
28:05cul-de-sac with its headlights off. A
28:07figure in a gray hoodie walked down the
28:09sidewalk, crossed onto my lot, and
28:11sprayed two panels in under 3 minutes.
28:14The figure walked back to the SUV. The
28:17SUV left. No plates visible.
28:20But the make, model, and color were
28:22clear as day. I didn't confront anyone.
28:25I saved the footage to two separate
28:27drives, emailed a copy to Glenn, and
28:30filed a police report for vandalism. The
28:32deputy who came out was the same young
28:34guy from the tree cutting report. He
28:37watched the footage on my phone, wrote
28:38down the vehicle description, and said,
28:41"I'd get a lock on that gate if I were
28:42you." I didn't get a lock. I got more
28:44cameras. The next morning, Sunday, I ran
28:48into Lloyd Caldwell at the mailbox. He
28:50was getting his paper, robe still on,
28:52coffee in hand, the picture of
28:54innocence. "Heard you're putting up
28:56quite the project," he said, real
28:58casual. I looked at him. "Yep,
29:00galvanized, won't rust." I paused.
29:03"Won't wash off, either." His smile
29:05dropped about 2 in.
29:07He took his paper and went inside. That
29:09same week, Brenda played her biggest
29:11card yet. She sent out a formal notice
29:14to every homeowner. Emergency meeting in
29:1730 days. Agenda: a special vote to amend
29:20the CC&Rs, adding a new provision, "No
29:23freestanding structure exceeding 8 ft in
29:25height shall be permitted on any lot
29:27within Pinehurst Greens." Passage
29:30required a 2/3 supermajority, 67% of
29:34homeowners voting yes. She was trying to
29:36rewrite the rules after the fact, change
29:39the code to outlaw something I'd already
29:40been permitted to build. Ray saw the
29:42notice and laughed so hard he almost
29:44dropped a beam on his foot. "She wants
29:47to pass a law against your wall," he
29:49said. "That's like banning umbrellas
29:51because you don't like the rain." I
29:53didn't laugh. I knew Brenda was good at
29:55getting people to sign things. She'd
29:57gotten 12 names on that petition, three
29:59of them fake. What could she do with 30
30:01days, a mailing list, and a grudge?
30:04Brenda spent those 30 days like a woman
30:07running for office. And in a way, she
30:09was, except the only platform was spite.
30:12First, the email blast. Every homeowner
30:15in Pinehurst Greens got a message with
30:17the subject line, "Urgent: Protect Your
30:20Property Values." The body was three
30:23paragraphs of fear. "Colton Turner is
30:25constructing an illegal industrial wall
30:28that will destroy the character of our
30:29neighborhood and reduce your home's
30:31value by 20% or more. If we don't act
30:34now, every lot adjacent to the golf
30:36course will suffer." Illegal. She used
30:39that word knowing the county had already
30:41approved the permit. Knowing the
30:43inspector had stamped it compliant, she
30:45didn't care. She was betting that most
30:46people wouldn't check. Second, she hired
30:49her own appraiser, a man I'd never heard
30:51of from two counties over. He produced a
30:53four-page report claiming that a 20-ft
30:56steel structure within 50 ft of a golf
30:58course would reduce adjacent property
31:00values by 15 to 20%. He didn't visit my
31:04lot. He didn't measure the wall. He
31:06based his estimates on comparable
31:07scenarios, none of which involved an HOA
31:10president who'd illegally cut down
31:12someone's trees first. Third, and this
31:15was the move that mattered, Brenda took
31:17her appraiser's report to the local
31:18newspaper. She wanted press. She wanted
31:21a headline that said, "Homeowner builds
31:24eyesore. Neighbors furious." She got a
31:26reporter, but not the kind she wanted.
31:28Casey Moore was a staff writer at the
31:30County Weekly, mid-30s, sharp, the type
31:33who actually reads court filings before
31:35writing a story. Casey called me for
31:38comment. I gave her one sentence. "She
31:40cut down six 30-year-old oak trees on my
31:43property without my permission."
31:45I'm building on my own land with a legal
31:47permit. Casey said, "I'm going to look
31:50into this a little further, Mr. Turner."
31:52That was a Thursday. By Monday, Casey
31:54had pulled the sheriff's reports, both
31:56of them, the tree cutting and the
31:58vandalism. She'd found Glenn's timber
32:00trespass filing at the courthouse. She'd
32:02requested the same HOA financial records
32:05Glenn had demanded, and she'd called
32:07Brenda for comment. Brenda declined.
32:09Meanwhile, the wall was getting
32:11finished. Week nine of construction. Ray
32:14and I had been working every evening
32:15after our shifts and every Saturday
32:17since September. My hands had blisters
32:20on top of calluses on top of older
32:22blisters. My shoulders ached in places I
32:24didn't know had muscles. But panel by
32:27panel, beam by beam, the thing went up.
32:30The last panel went on a Sunday
32:31afternoon in late November. Ray held it
32:33in place while I ran the final weld, a
32:36clean bead along the top rail, the arc
32:39welder crackling and popping, sparks
32:41raining down onto the dead grass below.
32:44Ellie stood in the backyard filming on
32:46her phone. Phil Weston watched from his
32:48driveway across the street with his arms
32:50crossed and a grin I could see from 80
32:52ft away. 20 ft tall, 80 ft long,
32:56corrugated galvanized steel, industrial
32:59gray, running the full length of my rear
33:01property line. From my side, it looked
33:04like the back wall of a warehouse. From
33:06the golf course side, it looked like God
33:09had dropped a sheet of metal across the
33:10seventh fairway. And from Brenda
33:12Caldwell's deck, where she used to sit
33:15with her iced tea and admire her
33:16precious golf view,
33:18it looked like the end of everything
33:19she'd fought for. The entire fairway,
33:22every inch of green, every flag, every
33:25sand trap, gone. Replaced by a flat gray
33:28wall that reflected the afternoon sun
33:30straight back at her house with enough
33:32glare to make you squint. That same
33:34week, Glenn called with the financial
33:36disclosure. Brenda had been forced to
33:38open the books. 30 days had passed, and
33:41her attorney had advised her that
33:43further refusal would compound her legal
33:45exposure. Glenn's forensic accountant
33:47found it on page six of the expense
33:49ledger, $4,800
33:51to Prestige Lawn and Tree, dated March
33:5419th, filed under authorized landscape
33:57maintenance. She'd used HOA funds,
34:00homeowner dues collected from 34
34:02families, to pay for cutting down trees
34:04on my private And she'd buried it in the
34:07books as routine landscaping.
34:09Misappropriation of HOA funds, not just
34:12a civil problem now. That's the kind of
34:14thing a county prosecutor takes an
34:16interest in. Three days later, Brenda
34:18was served with the lawsuit papers at
34:20her front door for the second time.
34:22Amended complaint, timber trespass plus
34:25misappropriation.
34:27$252,000
34:29in damages. Glenn told me she read the
34:31papers on her porch, went inside, and
34:34called her own attorney. And then the
34:36three neighbors, Hank Moore and the
34:38other two, called Glen. They wanted in.
34:40Their fine disputes, their complaints
34:42about Brenda's unilateral decisions, all
34:45of it. Glen told them to come to the
34:47board meeting with their paperwork.
34:49Casey Moore's article ran on Wednesday,
34:515 days before the emergency meeting
34:53Brenda had called. The headline read,
34:56"HOA President Accused of Cutting
34:58$84,000
35:00in Trees on Neighbors' Land Using
35:02Association Funds." It ran on the front
35:05page of the county section with a photo
35:07of my wall and a photo of the stumps.
35:09Casey had done her homework. Every fact
35:12checked, every filing cited, every
35:14dollar accounted for. By Thursday
35:16morning, the article had been shared 340
35:19times on local Facebook groups. Brenda's
35:22HOA page went quiet. No posts, no
35:25comments, no updates. For the first time
35:28in three terms, Brenda Caldwell had
35:30nothing to say. The meeting was
35:32Saturday. Saturday morning, 9:00 a.m.,
35:35the Pinehurst Greens Community
35:37Clubhouse, a flat-roofed building with
35:40fluorescent lights, folding chairs, and
35:42a coffee maker that had been brewing the
35:44same weak roast since 2011. The room
35:47smelled like that coffee and carpet
35:49cleaner, the kind of chemical floral mix
35:51that sticks to the inside of your nose.
35:5328 households showed up out of 34. That
35:57was the highest turnout in the history
35:58of the Pinehurst Greens HOA. A record
36:02previously held by the 2018 meeting
36:04where someone proposed banning
36:06basketball hoops from driveways. Brenda
36:08stood at the front behind a folding
36:10table with a laptop, a projector, and a
36:12stack of printed handouts. She wore a
36:15navy blazer and a smile that looked like
36:17it had been ironed on. Lloyd sat in the
36:19front row with his arms crossed, legs
36:21apart, taking up two chairs worth of
36:23space the way men do when they think
36:25their presence alone is a contribution.
36:28Casey Moore sat in the back row, notepad
36:30open, pen moving, recorder running.
36:33Brenda saw her walk in and her smile
36:35tightened by about a quarter inch, just
36:37enough for me to notice from five rows
36:39back. Glenn Hartwell sat to my left,
36:42Manila folder on his lap, calm as a man
36:45waiting for his oil change. Brenda
36:47opened the meeting the way she opened
36:49every meeting, like she was doing us a
36:51favor. She clicked through slides,
36:53photos of my wall from three angles,
36:55each one taken from the golf course side
36:57to make it look as imposing as possible.
37:00Then the appraiser's report, 15 to 20%
37:02decline in adjacent property values.
37:05Then a draft of the proposed CC&R
37:07amendment, no freestanding structures
37:10exceeding 8 ft. "This is about
37:12protecting what we've all invested in,"
37:14she said. "This wall is an eyesore. It's
37:16an insult to this community, and if we
37:18don't act now, the value of every single
37:21home on this street goes down. I'm
37:23asking for a 2/3 vote to amend our
37:25covenants and put a stop to this." She
37:27paused, looked around the room, waited
37:30for applause or at least nodding. She
37:32got silence. Glenn stood up. He didn't
37:35rush. He buttoned his jacket, one
37:37button, the middle one, and addressed
37:39the room the way a man addresses a room
37:41when he's got paperwork and the other
37:43side has PowerPoint. "My name is Glenn
37:46Hartwell. I represent Colton Turner.
37:48Before anyone votes on this amendment,
37:50I'd like to share some information
37:52that's relevant to how we got here." He
37:54opened his folder. "On March 19th of
37:56this year, Mrs. Caldwell authorized a
37:58three-man crew to enter Mr. Turner's
38:01private property and cut down six
38:03healthy red oak trees without his
38:05knowledge or consent. The cost of that
38:07crew, $4,800,
38:10was paid from HOA dues, your dues. It's
38:13recorded on page six of the
38:15association's expense ledger as
38:17authorized landscape maintenance." He
38:19held up the ledger page, 34 copies. He'd
38:22made one for every household. Glenn's
38:25paralegal passed them down each row like
38:27church bulletins. The room rustled,
38:29paper flipping, murmuring. Someone in
38:32the third row said, "That's my money."
38:34Glenn continued, "A certified arborist
38:37assessed the trees at a replacement
38:38value of $84,000.
38:42Under state timber trespass law,
38:44intentional destruction of trees on
38:46another person's property carries treble
38:48damages. Mr. Turner has filed suit for
38:51$252,000."
38:54He let the number land. You could hear
38:56the fluorescent lights buzzing. I stood
38:58up next. I'm not a public speaker. I
39:00weld for a living, and my idea of a
39:02presentation is holding up two pieces of
39:04metal and pointing at the seam, but I
39:06held up Wade's report, showed the photos
39:09of healthy cross-sections, no rot, no
39:11disease, clean white grain, and said
39:14what I'd been thinking since March. She
39:16told me my trees were dead. They
39:18weren't. She told me she had the
39:20authority. She didn't. She used your
39:22money to do it, and she put it in the
39:23books as landscaping. Then the three
39:25neighbors stood up, one by one. Hank
39:28Moore first. Fined $150 for a mailbox
39:31that was eggshell instead of white. He
39:33held up his paint receipt from the
39:35hardware store. The can said, "White."
39:38Brenda's notice said non-compliant. A
39:40woman named Darlene Fox fined for tomato
39:43plants in her front yard. No clause in
39:45the CC&Rs about vegetable gardens. She'd
39:48paid the fine because she didn't want
39:50the fight. A man named Curtis Webb fined
39:53for parking his work truck in his own
39:55driveway, a truck he needed for his
39:57plumbing business. The fine was $100 a
40:00week. He'd paid $1,400
40:02before he gave up and started parking
40:04three blocks away. By the time Curtis
40:07sat down, the room wasn't murmuring
40:09anymore. It was loud. Casey Moore raised
40:11her hand from the back row. Brenda's
40:13eyes locked onto her. "Mrs. Caldwell,
40:16did you authorize cutting trees on Mr.
40:18Turner's private property using HOA
40:20funds?" Brenda opened her mouth, closed
40:23it, opened it again. "That decision was
40:26made by the board in the interest of"
40:28"Your board vote didn't have quorum."
40:30Glenn said. "Three out of five, Article
40:324, Section 3 of your own CCNRs." And
40:36then, because I'd saved it for exactly
40:38this moment, I read Brenda's Facebook
40:40post out loud, word for word. The one
40:43she'd written the evening my oaks came
40:45down, the one she'd posted from her deck
40:47with iced tea in the frame. "Views
40:49restored. You're welcome." The room went
40:52dead quiet. Then somebody in the middle
40:54section started clapping, a slow clap,
40:57the sarcastic kind. It spread, not to
40:59everyone, but to enough. Brenda's
41:02amendment vote came first. She needed 23
41:04yes votes out of 28 present. 67%. She
41:09got six six votes, 22 against. Then Hank
41:12Moore stood up one more time. "I'd like
41:14to move for a vote of no confidence in
41:16the current board president." It didn't
41:19need a second, but it got four. The vote
41:21was fast. 22 in favor, six against, the
41:24same six. Brenda Caldwell was removed
41:27from the HOA board in the same room
41:29where she'd run it unchallenged for six
41:31years. She didn't speak. She picked up
41:34her laptop, unplugged the projector, and
41:36put her handouts back in her bag, all 34
41:39copies, the ones nobody had touched.
41:42Lloyd stood up first and walked to the
41:44door. She followed. Her heels clicked on
41:46the tile floor, sharp, fast, getting
41:49fainter. The door swung shut behind them
41:52with a soft pneumatic hiss. Nobody said
41:55anything for about 3 seconds. Then Hank
41:58Moore looked around the room and said,
42:00"So,
42:01anyone want to run for president?
42:03Because I sure don't." The room laughed,
42:06first real laugh that clubhouse had
42:07heard in years. The lawsuit settled four
42:10months later. Glenn called me on a
42:12Tuesday evening while I was sanding rust
42:14off a trailer hitch in my garage. He
42:17didn't waste words. "Brenda's attorney
42:19wants to settle. $180,000.
42:22No trial, no admission of fault, but
42:25full payment within 90 days." I leaned
42:27against my workbench. The metal was cold
42:30through my shirt. "That's less than the
42:31$252,000."
42:34"It is, but a trial takes 18 months,
42:37costs you another 15 to 20,000 in fees,
42:40and a jury's never a guarantee. This is
42:42cash in hand before Christmas." I took
42:44it. Not because I forgave her, I didn't,
42:47but because I was tired. Tired of
42:49folders and filings and deputies in my
42:51backyard. I wanted to plant trees, not
42:54sit in a courtroom. The county DA
42:56reviewed the criminal mischief referral
42:58and offered Brenda a plea.
43:01200 hours of community service, full
43:03restitution of the $4,800 in
43:05misappropriated HOA funds, and a
43:08permanent note on her record. She took
43:11the plea the same week. I heard from
43:13Phil Weston that she did her community
43:15service hours at the county recycling
43:17center, sorting cardboard in a
43:19reflective vest. The woman who used to
43:21run a neighborhood from a wicker chair
43:23on her deck, sorting flattened Amazon
43:25boxes in a parking lot.
43:27I didn't laugh. I wanted to, but I
43:30didn't. Brenda and Lloyd put their house
43:32on the market in February. The listing
43:34agent wrote partial golf course view in
43:36the description, which was generous.
43:38From their deck, you could see
43:39approximately 0% of the fairway and 100%
43:43of a galvanized steel wall catching the
43:45afternoon sun. The house sat on the
43:47market for 5 months. They dropped the
43:50price twice, eventually sold for $71,000
43:54under their original asking price. The
43:56buyer was a young couple who didn't play
43:58golf. The irony wasn't lost on me.
44:01Brenda cut down my trees to protect her
44:02view. That view was her investment, her
44:05identity, the thing she built her little
44:07kingdom around. And by cutting those
44:09trees, she set in motion the exact
44:11sequence of events that replaced a
44:13partial tree line with a solid steel
44:15wall and wiped $71,000 off her own home
44:19value. She didn't just lose the view,
44:21she built the wall herself. She just
44:24used my hands to do it. The new HOA
44:26board held its first meeting in April.
44:28Five members, properly elected, quorum
44:31present, minutes recorded. Hank Moore
44:34ran for a seat and won. Mostly because
44:36nobody else volunteered and partly
44:38because his speech was 11 words. I'll
44:41keep the books open and leave your
44:42mailbox alone. They passed three reforms
44:45in the first session. Every fine
44:47required a written board vote with
44:48quorum. Every homeowner got 30 days to
44:51appeal before any fine took effect. And
44:54the association's financial records
44:55would be published quarterly, available
44:57to any homeowner who asked. No more
45:00buried invoices. No more landscaping
45:02line items that were actually acts of
45:04destruction. Simple rules, the kind that
45:07shouldn't need to exist but do because
45:08somebody like Brenda proved they were
45:10necessary. I used a piece of the
45:12settlement money to start something. I
45:14called it the Pinehurst Greens Community
45:16Shade Fund. A small trust, nothing
45:19fancy, enough to buy and plant trees for
45:21any homeowner in the subdivision who
45:23wanted one on their own lot.
45:25Native species only.
45:27Oaks, maples, elms, the kind of trees
45:31that take 20 years to grow and a hundred
45:33years to matter. First year, we planted
45:3640 trees. 40 families who wanted shade
45:38and didn't have it. Some of them had
45:40been in Brenda's crosshairs. Some of
45:42them had signed her petition. One of
45:44them was the young couple who bought
45:46Brenda's house. They planted a red oak
45:48in the backyard, right where Brenda's
45:50deck used to overlook the seventh green.
45:52I planted six new oaks on my own lot,
45:54same species my dad chose 30 years ago,
45:57same spots measured from the old stumps.
46:00They're small now, shoulder height, thin
46:03trunks, leaves you can count. They won't
46:05give real shade for another two decades.
46:08But on a Saturday afternoon last month,
46:10Ellie brought her lawn chair out to the
46:11backyard, set it next to the smallest
46:13oak, and sat down with a book and a
46:15glass of sweet tea. The tree barely
46:17reached above her head. It threw about
46:19enough shade to cover a dinner plate.
46:21She looked up at me and said, "It's a
46:23start." Yeah, it is. The wall's still
46:26standing, by the way. 20 ft of
46:28galvanized steel catching the sun every
46:30afternoon. The new board asked me if I'd
46:32consider painting the golf course side
46:34to blend in. I said, "Sure." Painted it
46:36forest green. Looks almost like a hedge
46:38if you squint hard enough and don't know
46:40any better. The side facing my yard,
46:43Ellie painted that one. A mural. Six oak
46:45trees, full grown, leaves and all,
46:47stretching from one end of the wall to
46:49the other. She spent three weekends on
46:51it with acrylic paint and a ladder. I
46:53told her not to climb past the fourth
46:55rung. It's not the same as real trees,
46:58but it's ours. Now, if you think Brenda
47:00was bad, wait until you hear about the
47:02HOA president who tried to drain a
47:04neighbor's pond because she didn't like
47:06the frogs. That one ended with the
47:07county fire marshal and a bill that made
47:10252,000
47:11look like pocket change. But that's a
47:14story for next time. Have you ever had
47:16an HOA board member destroy something on
47:18your property? A tree, a fence, a garden
47:21you spent years building? Drop your
47:23story in the comments. You might see it
47:25in a future video. And if you haven't
47:27already, hit that subscribe button.
47:29We've got a lot more stories like this
47:31coming.

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