Update on the neighbor situation...
So yesterday afternoon the property owner's son in law shows up to bush hog his field. Two of the owner's buddies show up about 15 minutes later and they sit there and watch the guy bush hogging from the tailgate of a pickup truck. I don't think these people have any lives... A little later I see one of the guys riding around on a UTV pulling out my property boundary stakes that I have along the property line so I went outside to confront him. As soon as I approach I see another guy walking toward me from my left, the guy is running his mouth so I turned my attention to him and started running my mouth back. He was trying to provoke a fight but I refused to go on my neighbor's property and he refused to come onto mine, so that showed me that he didn't really want to tangle with me and he just wanted to run his mouth. He called me a tough guy and told me that he wasn't intimidated by me. I stood my ground initially, but once I realized it wasn't going to escalate any further I walked away and came inside my house. They all stood along the property line and stared up at my house. It was all I could do not to grab my AR-15 and go down and take them all out, but I refuse to go to jail over these assholes. After the fact my wife, who's never on my side, said that I should not have gone outside to confront the man about pulling my stakes out of the ground. She always seems to be a Monday morning quarterback...
Brother, from the jump this was just a set up.
I can't say I wouldn't have done the same as you but, I agree with your wife.
Think about this from a point of view watching from the porch. Given the history, looking back, do you think the guy was ever gonna say "yeah my bad, I'll put those back"? No. He wants to prove a point and isn't going to back down Eben if he's wrong. Playing chess with a pigeon man.
I think your best option is to have a law enforcement officer handle any situation going forward. You don't need to get yourself in a bind over an asshole neighbor. You get sent to the clink and all this arguing about property lines means dick cause then, he'll have free reign.
Alternative, drive railroad spikes through 2*4's and bury them a Foot inside your property line. Won't be no more galavanting around on atvs lol