Neighbors and favors.

[300UGUY]

I've always had great neighbors here. One thing, I will not loan out any power tools or a tractor to anyone. If I break my machine, I can pay for it, but I am pretty good at not operating out of my envelope. And if a tractor breaks, it can get stupid expensive to fix. Most folks have no idea how much it could cost, and would resent paying for it. So I do jobs for friends and neighbor's, but I go with my machines. One older woman kind of got on my nerves, she wanted me to fix a lot of things on her house, but didn't want to pay for matierals. I didn't mind a few little things, but when it got over $100, I asked her to pay for it, and she told me that that was too expensive. I said never mind, but I refused to go back. He husband and I had been really close, but he had died, and her kids didn't live nearby. She was hard to get long with, even her daughter apologized. She sold out last year, moved into town and a condo. Btw, she had plenty of money.

 

[sldva00]

I help out neighbors whenever they ask for help and refuse to accept money. I'm blessed with a good life and firmly believe that being a good neighbor has something to do with it. i also realize that the work that I do when helping others is relaxing for me. I enjoy it and don't mind one bit. After all, its not my livelihood. I don't sit on a tractor all day. I'm not a professional welder. These are my hobbies. I do see the point of view of the person who makes a livelihood from the task being asked and being reluctant to do it for free.

I had a good friend who was a mechanic and would help his in-laws and cousins repair their vehicles after putting in a days work or on weekends when he was off. He would tell me that he would help them out because they were family, but was never up to it because the last thing he wanted to do after work or during his days off was work on another vehicle. He never had time to just relax and enjoy life. He passed away about 10 years ago and I do miss the few times we went hunting or fishing together. Wish we'd spent more time doing so because he really enjoyed it.

 

[ror105]

Agreed! He is the kind of neighbor that would return the favor in a heartbeat.

3 years ago I was out in the middle of the Hood Canal in Dabob Bay for work and it was snowing pretty good at home. I gave my wife an indoctrination on how to plow the driveway prior to leaving and she was out giving it a shot. He saw her struggling with the end of the lane and he stopped her and said you finish your lane and I will finish the end of our road we share.

I'm not usually gone too often, but I definitely take comfort knowing people I have helped are watching out for the wife and kids while I'm away.

His parents (my other neighbors) 50th wedding anniversary party is this weekend. We're rather excited to go. It's nice being out in the country with good neighbors

Rob

 

[check]

Yup. The neighbours up at the cottage are pretty good a about helping each other out. Gives you a pretty good feeling, and makes me want to belp out with the tractor whenever I can. Makes me pretty popular, too! Like when I clear out a winter's worth of snow from the cottage neighbour's driveway, just before he returns from his Snowbird sojourn to Florida for the winter.

 

[Cord]

I usually ask for a favor going forward. Never know when you'll need help with something and it's nice have something you can cash in. Put in a lawn this past spring and it was too big of a job for the mrs and I. Neighbor wanted his lawn replaced so I donated my skid steer, fuel and time and he brought over 5 friends to help with our lawn. It was freekin' awesome!

 

[4570Man]

I have done quite a bit of work for the x next door neighbor. He paid me $40 for tearing down a tree house, but most of it was volunteer work. I also dug a 200 foot trench for another neighbor. He paid me $20. After a recent ice storm I happily hauled home all the wood within about a 1/4 mile radius for free. Only one neighbor was a PITA to deal with. No more volunteer work for them.

 

[tractchores]

I am happy to help my neighbors (whether I know them or not) for anything that's related to weather / something out of their control. For example helping them if there's a big snow storm, or if a bunch of trees fall. If its something that they're choosing to do then I take that on a situation by situation basis depending on what it is, whether they're just trying to save a couple bucks and on whether I have the time. Generally I do it for free or don't do it at all, too much trouble to charge people and then you end up with someone not being happy or liability.

 

[STx]

I would be happy to help my neighbors if they would stop steeling from me, trespassing and vandalizing my place when I'm not there...

We haven't had as much of a problem since we prosecuted the one guy we were able to catch on camera and he got state jail time but last weekend when I got there, I found one of my pipe fence posts ripped out of the ground (it's 2" Sch 40 pipe, set 3' deep with 80# of concrete) and another one laying over. Nothing was stolen this time, just the vandalism, so I guess that's progress. I've now got a camera on the new gate, I didn't have the welder or metal working tools with me so I set a couple of 8" wooden posts 40" deep with 80# of concrete each where access could have still been possible and installed a new gate. So far so good, just got a picture texted to the phone from the camera a couple of minutes ago (wind sets it off a lot) and it's all the way I left in on Monday...

 

[Garycw]

They'll steal your cameras next. Hope they're recorded on a big hard drive. The time we had mower stolen, wife had fiddled with it and was off. Would have been a perfect shot of them. Just my luck. Our best neighbor runs cattle on our pasture and cuts the hay in hayfield. I turn he bush hogs pasture once a year and puts hay out for our horses that spend time in his pasture too. Have done this for years and everybody's happy ... I think

 

[STx]

I use the Covert 3G game cameras to monitor stuff, they send pictures to my cell phone. Where they're installed you kind of have to be looking for them to see them and they're tough enough to get down that by the time they did so, I'd already have a picture of them on my phone. They could shoot them, though.

I know I can't stop them if they're really determined, I'm just trying to make it enough of a hassle for them that they decide it isn't worth the effort anymore. The chance of getting sent to jail helped a lot, this recent deal with the gate was the first issue we've had in almost 2 years.