Whats your neighbors worth? Wise old Grandaddy said- - - -

[Skytramp]

     Seems as tho the past looks better than the future lately, with all the hate crimes going on and all, got me to reminicing back to more simple times.
     I can remember back when neighbors helped neighbors and this forum sorta reminds me of those days.  I can remember back (way back) when I was a kid we were adding on to our house and one weekend people showed up from all over and darn near built the thing in two days.  The men would work on the house and the Womenfolk kept them fed and watered and a job was turned into a comunity event, enjoyed by all.
     I spent a lot of time with my Grand dad in those days and I owe my woodworking and survival skills to him.  He was considered a wise man in those days and lots of people would come to him for advice on a host of problems.
     I remember once a new arrival to the community asked him, "What are the neighbors like around here?"  He replied "what were they like where you came from?"  "Most likely be the same here."  He also used to say "If you are going to have a neighbor, you gotta to be one."  Another one was "Your neighbor isn't allways the one that lives closest to you."
     There was a lady lived up the road aways(few years back)  Put her property up for sale to go live closer to her kids.  She lived in a small but well kept trailer, on 20 acres of rocks and a run down hog barn.  She priced it at $125000.00, she said that it was $25000. for the property and a hundred thousand for her neighbors.  I have the good fortune to know exactly how she felt.
     A few years back I erronously thought I had had enough of sawmilling and logging (Bad partnership and low market prices) so I took a job with a sub-contractor, building displays in Home Depot and Lowes stores.  I traveled virtually all over the U.S.:  An aquaintance, knowing how much of a HillBilly I am, asked me if in all my travels I had found any other place that I thought I could live.  I told him that, Yes I had found a few places that I could be comfortable in, but had talked to the neighbors and they didn't want to move, so I guessed that I would just stay where I was at.
     I just thought that there were probably some interesting neighbor stories out there that would reaffirm what a trully wonderful country that we live in.
     I also have a hilarious tale of a family that moved in close by (Too close by) and was going to live off the land, which computed down to, living off the neighbors, but I will save it for later;
By The Grace of God and One Day at a Time;
SkyTramp
     

[breederman]

Your grand father was a wise man.I have a neighbor that I call "if it's free,it's for me,Tom! You couldn't ask for a better neighbor or friend.We take care of each others house and animals when one of us is away,only problem with that is,we can't go away together. :D When one of us needs something like matierial for a project or a tool we both go to "the hardware store"that is, the other ones house, and look around.Between us we can usually find what ever we need.
  Life is good in the country! _grin

[Engineer]

I'm just building now, but my closest neighbors are my folks.  The rest of the neighborhood have known me for my entire life.  I can put up with 'em.   ;D

Sky, you gotta tell that story - it's Friday afternoon and I need some good readin' fo the weekind.  8) :P

[Burlkraft]

I'm pretty jealous of you guys. My neighbor broke into my house and stole money, food and of course a bottle of vodka. Her dog does his duty in my yard EVERY morning...even though he has to travel 1/8 mile to do it >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( The police, the town chairman and myself have all threatened her. She spent 5 days in the pokey for breaking & entering but it just continues. 4 1/2 more years when Jill's youngest kid is out of school we can move to our land in the boonies. For now I have to lock everything. I even had to put a 6' fence with a locked gate around my garden. There was a path through the woods from her back door to right to my garden smiley_fused_bomb smiley_fused_bomb smiley_fused_bomb smiley_fused_bomb smiley_fused_bomb smiley_fused_bomb smiley_fused_bomb

[Fla._Deadheader]

Geez Burlcraft, no Video camera ??  I would LOVE to have a neighbor like that. Can't tell ya what I would do on the Forum, though  ;) :D ;D

[breederman]

I feel  for you. When my stuff comes up missing i just gather up some of Toms stuff and take it down and trade for mine. ;D

[Burlkraft]

Ya Know..........

I guy REALLY shouldn't need a video camera to watch his stuff while he's not around, now should he :'( :'( :'( :'(

I guess I like the times when you could actually trust people. Maybe I was born a few years too late.

[Burlkraft]

Hey Deadheader,

Ya wouldn't want to buy a nice 5 acre piece with a log house in the snowbelt now would ya

[Fla._Deadheader]

YES I WOOD8) 8) 8)

  How many Containers do ya reckon it wood take to ship that to CR ???  ;)That's exactly what I want.  Just scrape dat white stuff aside before ya start packin the place up.  What's the Price  ;) ;) 8) 8) 8)

  I agree with you comment about the Video Camera. Shame you have to put up with that neighbor. But, on the bright side, '' LET the GAMES BEGIN'' :D

[Burlkraft]

It's a package deal............

The house
The wood
The snow
The next door neighbor

What you do with her after that is up to you................. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

Do you think the snow would melt before ya get 'er unpacked :D :D :D :D :D

[Fla._Deadheader]

  UUuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
  Might hafta wait until Summer (July) before ya start packin that up, EH ???

[PawNature]

I can remember back when neighbors helped neighbors and this forum sorta reminds me of those days. 

When I was in the 4th grade we lived on a farm way out in the county Little place called Blaine, Ky.  Well our house burnt down one day. Luckly ther was another old house on the acerage, but there was nothing to put in it. The Blaine school was a 1 through 12 and they (I hate using that word "they" but I don't know who was responsible.) shut school down at 12 noon and had Mom and Dad a household shower in the gym with all the students and folds from the community. Will never forget that.

[sawguy21]

WOW. Sure is wonderful to have people like that around in time of need. And no one asked for recognition, they just did it. 8)

[Burlkraft]

Hey Deadheader,

Have I got a deal for you  8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

I'll pack it in shipping containers.........If I can come too

I just got done with a pot of C.R. coffee after going out to move piles of the white stuff out of the way cuz we got more comin'.............................I love C.R. coffee............you lucky dog

[Fla._Deadheader]

SOLD
  Now, all we gotta do is sort out the logistics.  ;) 8) 8) 8) ;D ;D

[Burlkraft]

I don't know nuthin about logistics

I hate details......I just like to go ahead and do stuff. Are you tellin' me I just can't call the moving company and make it happen?????? :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :'( :'( :'( :'(

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...I'm gunna go make more coffee

[Burlkraft]

Oh by the way.........it's snowin' so DanG hard right now I can't hardly see the woodshed............


I better start brushin' up on logistics

[Skytramp]

Hi BurlKraft;
     Thanks for your post.  Over the years I have had several people work for me, some real good ones and some not so good.  I had hired this one guy that was continually using my shop to work on his old truck, I kept missing small tools, thought I was just misplacing them, I am bad at that.  Then one day I missed a 12 volt dewalt drill and one battery. after about a week the guy wanted to borrow my new one, wasn't interested in any extra batterys, just the charger, he was putting a roof on a barn he was building.  Even me being as slow as I am kept adding 2 & 2 and coming up with 3 so I loaned it to him, told him that I had two others,( chargers) failed to mention that one didn't work.  When he brought them back, I hid the two good ones in the house and left the bad one out, You guessed it, the thing dissapeared.  I bought some of those fake cameras with the only thing inside being a blinking light  put them up in my shop and around my house, he noticed them right away and I havn't missed anything since, except a handy man jack after he had hauled some slabs for firewood.  I no longer allow him on the property, the addition of a 90 lb german Shepard has proved to be worth his feed also, ha.
SkyTramp;

[Burlkraft]

Skytramp,

I feel your pain man................

It's too bad you can't trust anybody anymore :( :( :( :( :(

I own a real business that keeps this wood working thing afloat. I have had some employees that have done nothin' to make me feel any better about mankind, but then again I have some eployees that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I've gotten real good at sortin' them out. It doesn't take long either. After 30 years I've learned that your intitial gut feeling about people is more often than not your correct one. But being the compassionate guy that I am you think at times that this one is going to be different. About 1 in 50 works out......but if that 1 works I feel it was all worth it!!! ;) ;) ;) ;)

[Skytramp]

Hi Engineer;
     I could tell stories about those people that move in to live off the land (Neighbors) for a week but won't bore you that long.
     They showed up in the spring, A thirtyish man named Russ and two boys 9 and 11. They were originally from Chicago, had moved to Huston and had expidited their decision to move here after a road rage incident, and I found out later that a persistant bill collector had been a contributing factor.  They had bought 120 acres that joined me on the west side.  The only road to their property was through my property, an old logging road in pretty bad shape.  They arrived in a 1 ton International truck loaded to the max, they were pulling two trailers hooked in tamdam, fully loaded also.  He brought a building that could be bolted together with him to live in.  He must not have brought a level as that was the saddest looking structure that I have ever saw before or since.  It was spring thaw and he got stuck of coarse, tried to pull the whole train in at once.  I spent the rest of the evening pulling all of it down with a tractor.  He put  the house together where he got stuck the second time.  The woman showed up two weeks later.  She was a lab technition and got a job right away at a hospital 50 miles away working straight through every weekend from fri evening to monday morning.  She was the only one that ever had a paying job.  He found some traders, or they found him  and started trading for livestock.  A milkcow couple of pigs, some goats and a bunch of chickens. no fence, had animals tied everywhere.  One of the chickens laid an egg on the couch and they thought that was so cute that they made her a nest on the couch, aparently no-one had informed them about mites, ticks, fleas and all the other critters that we have in the woods here.  How they kept from getting snakebite I will never know.  Within a short time that was the saddest looking bunch you have ever saw.  There was an old dug well on the property but no usefull drinking water, also no electricity. he rigged up a solar heated shower, gravety fed, they hauled drinking water from my house and the woman would take a bath at our house once a week before going to work.  I'm telling you when she would leave you would almost have to use dynamite to get the ring out of the tub.  They actually lasted a year.
     They had an old hound dog named Roude and when they came to the house old Roude would just come right in with them, ticks falling off and all.  Were actually insulted when I asked them to leave him outside.  Someone had dumped an old yellow TomCat on me (we named him Ole Yeller)  Well Ole Yeller hated dogs.  Had scars from numerous fights.
     One day They arrived with their 250 gallon  tank to get water, old Roude was laying on the back of the truck.  Russ said "you better put your cat up,  Roude don't like cats", I told him that I didn't really like the cat either, about that time old Roude spotted the cat, dropped down off the truck bed and just mosied on over to whup the cat.  Well that was not the cats first rodieo, That cat landed on old Roudes head and went work like an octapus with switchblades, poor old Roude made his second mistake that day and retreated to under the truck, where the cat had more room to work than he did, his third mistake was to jump inside the truck cab where it looked somewhat like a yellow and blackand tan whirlwind, Russ grabed the cat which was almost as bad a decision as Roudes.  I have never seen a dog so bloody in my life.  They gathered up the dog and took off like going to a fire, didn't even turn off the water hose.  Of course I couldn't resist a comment about Roude not likeing cats.  I recieved a vet bill a few days later, Don't know who paid it, I certaintly didn't.  From then on When I wanted them to go home I would just mention something about Roude and old Yeller and they would leave, wasn't bothered with old Roude anymore after that either.  Sometimes fact is better than fiction.
     Will tell you about Russ and his ultra light sometime, enough for now.
SkyTtamp

[PawNature]

Great Story smiley_hillbilly_tub_base :D :D

[Sprucegum]

 ;D ;D ;D Go Cat Go  ;D ;D ;D

Good pets and good neighbors go hand in hand.

I once asked an old feller down the road from us what he thought of a new neighbor. All he said was

"He's mean to his horse"

[sawguy21]

 :D :D :D :D :D That must have been a sight. With a little advance notice, you could have printed tickets and charged admission. ;D

[Engineer]

Good story.  My folks had a cat that was anti-dog, would hold her ground against any dawg that came along.  She put all three of my brother's German Shepherds in their place when he came to visit.   Evn funnier though, they have a parrot in the house.  Cat tried to put a paw in to see if the parrot was good eatin', and the parrot done took a bite out of the cat.   Should have seen the vapor trail the cat left behind, leaving the room.