Please Remove Your Pine

We have good neighbors, no great neighbors. They're nice, they watch out for us, they invite us to their functions, etc. BUT they're entirely responsible for their property, and we're entirely responsible for ours (like it should be). The neighbor on the right takes great care to ride his mower just to the property line, and it's been that way for as long as I can remember.

Now he wants to extend the parking in his driveway by adding a stone space adjacent to his blacktop. It would cross our property line. He said we could use it too, as needed. We have no problem with it, and told him to go ahead. Challenge is, now he wants the at least 40 ft. Pine tree at the end of that space (on our property) to be removed, and he asked if we'd pay half. Um no, we like our huge trees, that one included.  

That conversation ended with the neighbor saying, 'Well, I'll check around and if I get a good deal, let you guys know.'

I suppose he addressed the topic with me because my husband is entirely direct and not inclined to be nice about, 'no.' I did say no, but it was politely, "No, I don't want to have that tree taken down. I don't want any of our trees taken down, I like them all.'

Okay, so mow day.  We mowed the yard, and we don't have the cool grass/leaf holder/dumper on the back of the rider, so if there's remnants, I go rake them to the burn pile.  Like I said, we do our yard, the neighbor does his. It's been that way the whole (7) years we've lived here. Sunday, after we mowed, the neighbor who wants the tree down rode the acres of our yard with his mower, picking up our grass remnants with his cool contraption that makes such things easy.  

I was mooooooooooooortified. I don't want him doing nice things for us, getting his hopes up that we're going to take down that tree (or rather pay half to take down our tree).

Hubby was the opposite. He was cheering...said, "I think we should mow again so he can run across our yard one more time."  -_-

It's silly to be upset, but I know the neighbor has his heart set on us letting him take down that tree (and us paying half, lol). And I know we're not going to do it.  I hate rifts where rifts have never existed, and I suspect he's going to have hard feelings.  *sigh* Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Either way, this too shall pass, but phooey dangit, darnit, phoo!