How Do Good Neighbors Impact Rural Community Life?

[turbo]

I have been having a lot of trouble breathing and sleeping during all this humidity and heat (83 in the shade and rising today, still) so when we get a load of firewood, my wife ends up doing the bulk of the work getting it into our woodshed. We got our last load for the season last night. Our neighbor was driving back from physical therapy (he had a knee replacement) and saw that pile of wood out there. He went home and got his wife, then she drove back and got their daughter's boyfriend, too. I slept in as long as I could breathe, then got up to take a shower. When I got out of the shower about 11:15, Duke was woofing, so I got dressed and let him out to show him that there was nobody out there, and all the wood was in the shed, neatly stacked. Wow! There was nobody around, but I had suspects.

We took a ride to the "suspected wood-fairy" house, and sure enough, they had stacked that load of firewood (1-1/4 cord). Nice folks. I have been planning to take my tractor down to their place to till a recently-cleared plot of land for extra garden-spots, so they can plant stuff that typically takes up a lot of room, like potatoes and sweet corn. I'm waiting for a day when my wife is here to keep Duke company - hopefully when the humidity is bearable.

 

[rootX]

What could you wish for more in life when you live with really nice people

But it certainly been so bad for past few days, I have been taking showers like 3 times a day.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Very nice, Turbo!

 

[turbo]

Very nice, Turbo!

We are always paying each other back. Not in cash, of course, but being willing to lend a hand when needed. I have spent many days on his sawmill sawing out wood for the addition he wanted to put on the house for his daughter and grand-daughters, then many more days actually building the addition. What goes around...

 

[Gale]

I have been having a lot of trouble breathing and sleeping during all this humidity and heat (83 in the shade and rising today, still) so when we get a load of firewood, my wife ends up doing the bulk of the work getting it into our woodshed. We got our last load for the season last night. Our neighbor was driving back from physical therapy (he had a knee replacement) and saw that pile of wood out there. He went home and got his wife, then she drove back and got their daughter's boyfriend, too. I slept in as long as I could breathe, then got up to take a shower. When I got out of the shower about 11:15, Duke was woofing, so I got dressed and let him out to show him that there was nobody out there, and all the wood was in the shed, neatly stacked. Wow! There was nobody around, but I had suspects.

We took a ride to the "suspected wood-fairy" house, and sure enough, they had stacked that load of firewood (1-1/4 cord). Nice folks. I have been planning to take my tractor down to their place to till a recently-cleared plot of land for extra garden-spots, so they can plant stuff that typically takes up a lot of room, like potatoes and sweet corn. I'm waiting for a day when my wife is here to keep Duke company - hopefully when the humidity is bearable.

This is really awesome. I've always moved around so much that I've never even gotten to know most of my neighbors. When I finally moved to a suburb in Georgia, I was really tickled when one of my neighbors would call out "Hi neighbor!" every time he saw me. And his kids came over once to stare at me while I hung Christmas lights. But that was the most neighborly I've ever gotten...

Now I live in NYC and yeah...

But its nice to think that when I settle down someday, maybe I can end up somewhere with nice neighbors like yours. I'd probably be to too shy to start stacking someone's wood, but maybe I can find some other neighborly thing to do... My dad always makes his neighbors margaritas!

 

[turbo]

But its nice to think that when I settle down someday, maybe I can end up somewhere with nice neighbors like yours. I'd probably be to too shy to start stacking someone's wood, but maybe I can find some other neighborly thing to do... My dad always makes his neighbors margaritas!

I'd like to think that when I shuffle off this mortal coil, my wife would have some support from our neighbors. We are mostly acquaintances as opposed to friends, but it all works out. My wife loves to make bread, so the neighbors end up getting bread (garlic/herb, beer-barrel rye, or just plain French artisan bread, usually), and neighbors get the extra loaves. She also buys juices and healthy snacks for the little kids on our road when she can get them on sale. Luckily for our budget, there are only 4 little kids on our road.

Our nearest (physically) neighbors are an older couple. He gets up before dawn, and in the case of a snow-storm, before he even plows out his own place, he will come plow out the end of our driveway, so it might be easier for my wife to get to work. I head to his place with my tractor (with front-end loader) to move back the snow banks at their place when the weather looks to get nasty. The first few times, he was a bit nervous about the possibility of damage to his wife's flower beds until he realized that I have a pretty deft touch with that loader. My wife has flower beds too. Snow-plows are unforgiving (lots of scraping), but properly-operated loaders can be pretty gentle on the substrate.

Anyway, we all get along. My organic-gardening neighbor has a tractor, as does another close neighbor who is our fire-chief. If one of us gets stuck or hung up with our equipment, there is always somebody minutes away that will provide a quick tow.

I didn't mention the dogs, but Duke LOVES to visit. Except for our nearest neighbors (who are older and can't bear the thought of putting down another pet) every house within 1/4 mile of here has at least one dog. Duke looks as tough as nails, but he is so gentle with little dogs...

Gale, if there is any chance that you can move into a remote rural setting, take it. My wife and I have moved a lot while I was chasing jobs, and sometimes we didn't get to know our neighbors too well. I got to know many of the neighbors in our last place because I was always flying off somewhere doing troubleshooting on paper machines, boilers, etc, and wanted my wife to have some good back-up in case of problems. That was a dense development on a cul de sac. This place is WAY better.