Good Neighbors

[Mom5farmboys]

Our neighbors from down the road stopped over tonight. They have horses and a 30 acre hayfield, and we have an agreement with them to cut and bale their hay and for our labor we get half of it. Works out for them and for us. They have relatives that get food boxes (commodities) and pass along to us what everyone else has rejected.

Tonight they brought over 2 3lb bags of oatmeal, 7 25.6oz bags of powdered milk, and 12 cans of evaporated milk. In addition to that they brought a box of 12 quart canning jars and 6 pint canning jars he found out in his barn and knew that I canned so he brought those along too. All the time he was here he must have apologized 10 times because the food was "picked over" and the jars were so dirty, (they are filthy but for free I will clean them cheerfully :) ) I kept thanking him and telling him we were glad to get it, but I don't think he believed me.

Also my husband was talking about the price of chipboard verses plywood and he mentioned that he had a stack of old plywood he had gotten from his work before he retired and it was just in a pile in his barn taking up room, told us if we wanted to move it out of there for him we could take as much as we needed.

I sent him home with a dozen eggs and a pint of pear jam, he seemed very happy to get it and I told him I thought we got the better end of the bargain, but he argued that he did. I am just sitting here thinking about good neighbors and being thankful for ours. If times do continue to get worse that is what is going to make things bearable.

[backlash]

Good neighbors are a Godsend.
You are lucky to have them and they are luck to have you as a neighbor.

[jen_in_southtexas]

That is a great deal of an agreement you have worked out about the hayfields. Im not too neighborly..I like to keep to myself most the time but early in the week I met my neighbors from down the dirt road. I drove down that road thinking that it met up with the country road from the other side but it was a private drive. There was no sign indicating it was a private drive. Anyhow, when I saw them outside i asked about if there was an exit down that road and thats when they said it was a private drive but they commenced to talking to me and were the most nicest people that they told me to drive on in to their property for a bit and talk. I felt comfortable with them almost immediately and when the Gramma came out to introduce herself she really really made me feel at ease. She told me that if i ever ever needed anything to be sure I go to their house first. We talked and got acquainted and they knew that I was not originally from there..lol..since its a lil bitty town and most the rural neighbors that have been there for years like they have been kinda know who's who. I even got invited to their grandsons graduation bbq party.

I've never been to keen on getting social with everyone around me but I think knowing a few of your neighbors is a good idea now. An elderly couple that lives in the dirt road beside mine keep an eye on my place and have my phone number in case something is out of the ordinary as does my neighbor in who's pasture I face. The postmaster is my neighbor as well down the road and we too have exchanged numbers. So far, neighbors I have met all keep to their own business.

Glad that you got a good neighbor as well Mom.

~Jen

[LJH]

Good neighbors are priceless. We don't see our few neighbors very often, usually just the 'country wave' as we pass on the road, but we all look out for one another and one anothers' properties.

One neighbor has a small apple orchard and a couple of cherry trees. Everybody in the canyon gets apples and cherries.

The place ajoining ours is a summer cabin and they shut the water off in the Fall. They know that they can use our outside no-freeze faucet any time they show up after that. We heat with wood and they're happy to have us cut their dead stuff in exchange for what little cordwood they use, so we stock them up first each year and don't worry about where the property line is when we're cutting wood. (Good thing too, 'cause neither one of us too sure where it is.)

We have a nice landscapers trailer with sides that's perfect for hauling wood or doing dump runs. Everybody knows it's theirs if they need to borrow it, and we always come out ahead on that deal (produce, baked goods, clothing).

The rocks for our masonry heater came out of a wash on another neighbor's ranch.

We all chipped in to replace a rickety old gate with a cattleguard so we didn't have to get out in the rain to open it. I could go on & on. I look around our place and see so much stuff we either bartered for or received as gifts, without ever leaving the canyon - did I mention that good neighbors are priceless?

[offgridbob]

I build up futures with my one good neighbor. since I'm not offgrid yet and they live about one and a half miles from my cabin , I bring things up to them on the weekends. This saves them a trip to town. in return I get a six pack of home brew on the week ends when I come up

[NCLee]

Bob, you've learned the secret to good neighbors.

Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.

Do a favor where you can, without expecting anything in return. If you indeed have a "good" neighbor, they will find a way to return those favors, when they can.

Example: This morning I called one of our neighbors and asked if he wanted some insulation that we didn't need. Needed the space where it was stored for something else. "Sure, I'll pick it up this afternoon, if that's OK."

While we were loading it, he told us to come get his tractor to disk up our garden space. (Late start because we recently had a big pile of brush removed and it's been too wet, since, to put a tractor out there.) And.... while we were helping unload it at his place, he gave us some wire that we can use in our goathouse to chicken house conversion.

Lee

[windmo]

Oh boy, are you ever lucky :)

I have the exact opposite - neighbors who don't have chickens but LOVE farm-fresh eggs, who will enter my property and help themselves when no one is home - then they have the gall to leave empty egg cartons on my front porch expecting me to fill them for free.

When they first moved in, as a courtesy I gave them a dozen eggs every now and then - I still do it with the neighbors on the other side, who reciprocate with homemade salsa which is amazing. Once those egg cartons started showing up from the "bad" neighbors, the free eggs stopped, until they began helping themselves. Now I have padlocks on the gates to keep them out.

[backlash]

I would be having a talk with those neighbors and explaining that eggs are not free.

[windmo]

I've had several talks with them - trying to be nice isn't working so far. Hence the padlocks :(