Background:

There's a contractor that has his warehouse/office/yard behind my property and has deeded right-of-way down my drive. All good, he's a good guy.

I've mentioned him before, I do a lot of repair/maintenance work for him on various bits of equipment, including his plow truck. When he hooked up his plow this fall, it had multiple issues and I spent a fair bit of time troubleshooting it, but didn't solve the problem so I didn't bill him. (Turned out to be a bad control module for which I had no schematics or data).

The Issue:

I have my own snow-removal equipment in the form of a cabbed and heated tractor with a snow blower. When there's enough snow to bother moving, I fire it up and actually enjoy the process. When there's just a skiff of snow, I don't feel it's worth bothering with, so I don't.

This year for some reason (I suspect as a Thank You for attempting to fix his plow)he's apparently decided to plow me out every time the ground turns white. I really do appreciate the gesture, but I don't like the way he pushes the banks all the way across my lawn and on top of my flowerbed(s). No real harm being done, it ain't like I've got a putting green lawn, but it's not the way I want it done. Lack of piles of snow is why I like blowing it so much.

Of course, I can't really say anything without giving offense and it doesn't (quite) bother me enough to go there, but it is somewhat annoying.

I know exactly how you feel about your lawn- I have a helpful neighbor that likes to shove all the snow back across our back lawn, removing that protective, insulating cover. Last year he wiped out our solar lights along the edge of the garden by the house. Crushed them. Pisses me off, but I know it’s all with the best intent. I keep my front gate shut as often as possible.

Maybe exactly how you told us.

"Hey Friend, I enjoy firing up my equipment, I really appreciate you plowing for me, but you are taking away my only hobby".

Make a joke out of it, he'll understand.

I like matthews advice. I actually had a very similar situation this year. My property has a community well & underground treatment pit on it. Every day of the year we have someone from the water company come to my property to take readings, make sure everything is OK, etc... He usually parks on the street, then walks down my driveway (about 1/2 way) and then walks on the grass to get to the pit.

When it snows he plows my entire driveway. I appreciate it, but there are some times when I do not want it plowed. My driveway is about 35 years old and is deteriorating rapidly. I don't need to scrap the blade across the driveway when we get 2" of snow. Also, since he comes in from the road, the snow gets pushed toward my house and makes large berms that don't melt until Spring. When I plow my driveway, since I am starting at the bottom, I push it to the half way point, then over an edge.

I had 2 talks with him this winter telling him he doesn't need to plow my entire driveway. He can plow up to the point where he needs to go (half way), and be done. He is a very, very nice guy and we get along great. He tells me he "doesn't mind" plowing my entire driveway.

I think he got a little offended when I told him last week not to plow my entire driveway again. It was hard reminding him not to do it anymore, but I think he got it now. We'll see...

Well sounds like it's an easy to solve problem, just clear the path at first dusting of snow.

So you get to fire up the tractor and clear it before he has it done, the roads clean, you get to drive the heated cab tractor, you get to put the snow where ya like, if he asks just tell him the wife wanted you outta the house..

First World Problem.

quote:

Originally posted by P210:
First World Problem.

True. In fact, I considered ending my OP with that.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
True. In fact, I considered ending my OP with that.

I know the feeling and have to call myself out too at times, like when it occurs to me that a car parked in my reserved spot is embarrassingly insignificant in the scheme of things.

quote:

Originally posted by matthew03:
Maybe exactly how you told us.

"Hey Friend, I enjoy firing up my equipment, I really appreciate you plowing for me, but you are taking away my only hobby".

Make a joke out of it, he'll understand.

This ^^^^^

I like matthew03 's answer.

I don't have snow and I don't plow. But I do understand there are some things I do myself and I like doing it in a particular way. There's not much that I do but those things that I do do, I don't like how others do them when they do it for me.