I am not a confrontational person by nature. I work from home. I do consulting work for small manufacturing businesses, inventory systems, supply chain logistics. It is quiet work. It suits me. I wake early, make coffee, and usually spend the first hour of the day on the porch watching the light come through the trees.
That is the thing about those trees. They were not decoration. They were not a hobby. They were part of the reason I bought this land in the first place. The eastern edge of my property had a natural stand of mature paper birch and red maple. 11 trees in total. The oldest ones were probably 60 or 70 years old. They were not planted by anyone.
They grew there on their own. Over decades, the way trees do when no one disturbs the soil. In the fall, they turned orange, red, pale, yellow. You could see the color from the road. My uncle used to say those trees were the best thing on the property. I agreed with him. They also provided shade along my eastern fence line and a natural buffer between my land and the Varner property.
I had never thought of them as a barrier. They were just trees. my trees on my land. The Varners and I had a civil relationship in those early years. We waved when we passed on the access road. Once their dog got loose and wandered onto my property, and I walked it back without complaint. We were not friends, but we were decent neighbors.
I had no reason to think otherwise. I took no special precautions. I posted no signs on that side of the property. I had a survey on file from when I purchased the land, but it lived in a folder in my office drawer. I knew where my lines were. Roughly most landowners do, that was, I would later understand, a mistake, not a legal mistake, a practical one, because when someone decides they want something that belongs to you, the absence of visible markers makes it easier for them to pretend the lines were never clear. I did not know
any of this was coming. The autumn before it happened was a good one. The birch and maple turned early, bright and sharp. I photographed them on a Saturday morning in October. I remember doing it because the light was right and the color was strong. Those photographs would later become evidence. I did not know that yet.
