Perhaps the term “neighborhood” doesn’t truly fit the area where I live. Several miles from the highway, and several miles from the nearest town, we live, as we like to say, “In the sticks”. There are two houses within sight of my place, both belonging to the same family, but they’re a comfortable distance away. The furthest is across the county road, and about a hundred yards down the road from my place. The nearest home’s land borders mine on the same side of the road, minus a narrow right-of-way strip belonging to another family that may someday become a driveway. In the meantime, my neighbor and I each mow the strip from time to time.
The neighboring family is just a father and son, with the son occupying the nearest home on my side of the road. These folks are well aware that I’m a naturist, and have seen me nude outside on many occasions, although I usually keep my nudity fairly discreet at home. Still, the back of my property is not completely shielded from view, and if I’m doing something back there, I’m fairly easy to see from the place next door, and that property goes back as far as mine. We have a privacy fence that hides our “front back-yard”, and it also hides our above-ground swimming pool from direct view from the house next door, but not from the back part of the land. They have a close friend, the same age as the son, mid-thirties, who spends a lot of weekends with them. He’s probably heard about my naturism, but as far as I know, he’d never seen me nude.
This past weekend, I had been working in my garden most of the day, nude as usual. Like the pool, the garden is visible from the back of the next-door neighbor’s property. In the afternoon, we spent some time in the pool, mostly relaxing on air mattresses, getting some sun, and chatting. My girlfriend was wearing a bikini, as usual, and I was nude, as usual. After all, why would I get dressed after nude gardening, to get into the pool?
As we were sunbathing and relaxing, the family friend drove up next door, fired up the riding lawn mower, and started mowing. They hadn’t mowed the back part all season, so we didn’t expect him to be mowing anywhere he’d have a clear view of us in the pool. We were mistaken, and soon after starting, he drove right along the fence in plain sight…and all of me was in plain sight to him, stretched out on the air mattress. He didn’t show any reaction at all, and I wasn’t interested in interrupting our relaxation time together or my cold beer, so we just kept on doing our thing while he was doing his.
After a while in the sun, my girlfriend decided she’d had enough sun, and went inside to cool off. Getting out of the pool requires climbing a double-sided ladder, with a platform at the top. Since the guy had obviously seen me many times as he mowed, I nonchalantly climbed up, turned around on the platform, and climbed down the outer side, in full nude view all the way. I had intended to return to my gardening after the pool time, and since my nudity seemed to a total non-issue, that’s exactly what I did.
After putting on my sunglasses, a rolled-up bandanna around my head to catch the sweat, and boots on my feet, I went into the garden, lit my weeding torch, and spent the next half-hour or so flame weeding a section of my garden, the entire fence line between the garden and pool, and our outdoor fireplace area, all of which was in plain sight of the area he was mowing. It was like the two stereo-typical neighbor guys, each working in our yards with nothing but a wire fence between us, the only difference was that he was wearing coveralls, and I was wearing nothing but sunshine!
So, while I’ve never been terribly concerned if I was seen nude briefly, I have usually tried to stay out of direct sight, even if that required a change in my outdoor work plans. In the future, I’ll be a lot more confident about being seen nude, and will do my best to just go about whatever I’m doing, no matter what’s going on next door. Who knows…maybe some day, there’ll be one of those stereo-typical neighborly chats across the fence, with one neighbor properly attired in sunshine, and the other wearing uncomfortable work clothes!
Here, we call the 2-strap article “over-alls”. What we refer to as “cover-alls” is a one-piece article with long sleeves and long trouser legs, like a shirt and trousers, only made together in one piece. Still easy to get off, if naked underneath.
Yes, I think the new neighbor and I will get along fine. He actually is the new neighbor, as he now owns that property, having bought it from the family that had lived there. He seems like he wants to have a good neighborly relationship, as we’ve talked a few times since the mowing/nude gardening day. Next time I’m nude out back and see him, I’ll make a point of waving, and see how things go from there.
We do require fencing, due to animals, both ours and those that roam freely. We like to allow ours plenty of space to run and enjoy, while keeping them away from trouble, and keeping trouble away from them. My privacy screening fence is mostly to keep nudity from public view, to prevent legal issues. If the neighbor truly isn’t bothered by my nudity, then I’ll not worry about whether he sees me or not.
Jim