Country Life

[Trey45]

A few weeks ago I came home from the store to find a 10 pound box of sweet potatoes on my back porch table, a friend had dug them and cured them in his 'tater house. Man they were some kind of good too.

The week before Thanksgiving I came home from buying a turkey and found a 10 pound bag of fresh cut collards on the back porch table from another friend, I mean fresh, cut that morning and bagged up, I cooked them down that same day and froze them so all I had to do was thaw and reheat for Thanksgiving dinner with my mother, my kids and my favorite cousin and her husband. They didn't last long.

Today I get back from the store to find a huge box of pecans on the back porch table, this time I have no idea who they came from. I have a 5 gallon bucket full from when I went pecan picking a week ago and this is probably another half bucket worth.

When I lived in town several years ago I had to worry about people coming onto my back porch and stealing from me, not so much here, now I wonder "What's going to be back there this time?"

Life really is good.

[oneokie]

Aren't you glad squash season is over with?[smilie=s:

[Houndog]

There's a bunch of difference between country folks and city dwellers! The country folks look out for each other and share what they have generally, and as for city folk, well let's just say it's a SAD situation.

[Trey45]

HA! Yes! SOOOO much yellow squash this year. We had a surplus of banana peppers too. I made a triple batch of yellow squash pickles this year we had so much. What I grew in the beds, and what friends and neighbors brought gave enough for 30 jars of them.

[starmac]

You can't have too much yellow squash, it's impossible. lol

[shooter93]

Be thankful you're not near Nolan.....he'd fill the porch with figs.

[Trey45]

Can't have too many figs either!

[**oneshot**]

Aint it grand.

[Jim]

City folk ain't got a clue what it's like to hear a good tree dog burnin' it down.

[Hamish]

Trey, you can't fool me, bub. To have good neighbors, you've got to *be* a good neighbor.

Many years ago, building kit log homes on elevated pilings in the Norfolk area, the only station we listened to was ZAM 11/ K94, from the heart of the Great Dismal Swamp. (Oh, to be that young and strong again)

[waksupi]

Be careful, Trey. Next thing you know, they will be leaving zucchini!

[x101airborne]

My neighbor and I are like that. He is a Cuban immigrant and a wonderful person. We trade all kinds of stuff. He is an electrician by trade so he helps me out and I work for him. This morning he called me at 0630 to tell me he needed to pull his well. I helped him do that and he went to my dads and installed a RV outlet for him. I love belonging to a "community". I think I would suffocate in the city.

[Trey45]

Be careful, Trey. Next thing you know, they will be leaving zucchini!

I'll send them to Nolan :)


Trey, you can't fool me, bub. To have good neighbors, you've got to *be* a good neighbor.

There's the key to it all.

[Idaho Mule]

Sounds like here where I live. All of us neighbors help each other all the time, it's a great way to live. I feel sorry for city folk that will never have that. JW

[oneokie]

I'll send them to Nolan:smile:

Be a good excuse to get back in the hog business.

[bearcove]

I'm not "country" right now but a neighbor has a piece in the Jemez and we are getting fire wood free for the getting and he had some that was already down to town to give away.

[WILCO]

Today I get back from the store to find a huge box of pecans on the back porch table, this time I have no idea who they came from.

Tell Boo Radley I said "Hey!". [smilie=s:

[geargnasher]

I'm not "country" right now but a neighbor has a piece in the Jemez and we are getting fire wood free for the getting and he had some that was already down to town to give away.

Trees on the Jemez? You have to be kidding! I thought those folks burned rocks for heat.

Gear

[Aces an Eights]

If you buy a farm where I live, the locals stay aloof for about 6 months to see whether or not you are an idiot. :razz:

[Superfly]

Used be nice and neighborly here to Until the City idiots moved. Arghh what a mess

[smokeywolf]

I'm a city dweller who's never liked the city. Had to stay here because of my profession. Retirement is right around the corner. Soon as I can, the only thing these California libs will see of me is my vapor trail.
I have to admit, I do have a couple of good neighbors. We keep an eye on each other's houses and kids. I've helped them with their cars, repaired fences, cabinetry, plumbing. Once in a while when I'm smokin' meats or seafood I send the kids over with a plate. This last Thanksgiving I got a fine homemade pecan pie from one of them.

When I was actively working with and training horses. I was always invited to a town picnic & barbecue in Somis. A little town in an agricultural area of Ventura County, Ca. I don't know that Somis has added more than a couple of hundred to it's population of 2900 in 100 years.
The event would take place in the middle of a field, about 6 or 8 hundred yards off the 2 lane road that serves as Somis' Main Street. They would have a half dozen bbq trailers and a few other smokers set up. Horseshoes for the grownups and a few ponies for the kids to play with. Usually about 1200 or so people would show up throughout the day. There would be a hundred or more chickens, at least 70 or 80 racks of ribs, a couple of whole pigs BBQed, hundreds of ears of corn, oceans of potato salad and macaroni salad, bean salad, pies, cookies, cakes, churros. Kegs of beer plus Pickup truck beds filled with beer, soda, and milk on ice. Always somebody playing guitars, banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and jew's harps. There was never a hint of trouble. Everybody arrived happy and left even happier.

If Somis was in Texas it would be a great place to live; or actually live near.

smokeywolf

[winelover]

My brief experience with "Country Life" in Arkansas has been far from neighborly. During our build, a battery was removed from a Bobcat and small items were stolen that weren't locked up, overnight. Construction debris was dumped at the bottom of my private drive. Builder suggested that we put up a locked gate.:holysheep

One day, during working hours, the lock and chain were stolen. :mad: After it was replaced, we started locking the padlock and chain to the gate.

The icing on the cake happened just last week when we had our wheeled garbage can (Toter) stolen during the night. Friday is pick-up day so we set it out early. Went into town and back, by noon, but it hadn't been emptied as yet. Wife and I both went out for the evening hunt but neither of us remembered about putting up the empty container. Saturday morning, the misses goes up to get newspaper and discovers the theft.:shock:

The replacement now has our address on all four sides and is cable locked to the gate post. We escaped from Detroit, after 60 years, and never once experienced this sort of thing.:veryconfu

On the plus side, the thefts were petty. The weather is awesome and the populace is generally friendly.[smilie=w:


Winelover

[Crawdaddy]

I'm not "country" right now but a neighbor has a piece in the Jemez and we are getting fire wood free for the getting and he had some that was already down to town to give away.

You need to move east about 25 miles. We will treat you right!

[bearcove]

My brief experience with "Country Life" in Arkansas has been far from neighborly. During our build, a battery was removed from a Bobcat and small items were stolen that weren't locked up, overnight. Construction debris was dumped at the bottom of my private drive. Builder suggested that we put up a locked gate.:holysheep

One day, during working hours, the lock and chain were stolen. :mad: After it was replaced, we started locking the padlock and chain to the gate.

The icing on the cake happened just last week when we had our wheeled garbage can (Toter) stolen during the night. Friday is pick-up day so we set it out early. Went into town and back, by noon, but it hadn't been emptied as yet. Wife and I both went out for the evening hunt but neither of us remembered about putting up the empty container. Saturday morning, the misses goes up to get newspaper and discovers the theft.:shock:

The replacement now has our address on all four sides and is cable locked to the gate post. We escaped from Detroit, after 60 years, and never once experienced this sort of thing.:veryconfu

On the plus side, the thefts were petty. The weather is awesome and the populace is generally friendly.[smilie=w:


Winelover

During my time in Arkansas I found the people nice and the ditches full of trash. After they mowed or burned it was solid trash left.

[Boerrancher]

Used be nice and neighborly here to Until the City idiots moved. Arghh what a mess

Yeah that is the problem with city people. They want to move to the county to get away from the city, and then they bring their city ways with them. Lucky where I live folks have large families, and one of the kids or grand kids ends up with the old home place so it stays pretty much the same. I hate having to lock my gate up in the summer to keep the neighbors from filling my front porch with produce when I am not around.

Best wishes,

Joe

[starmac]

Living in the country and you have garbage pickup, No place I have ever lived had it in the country.

[TCLouis]

REAL AMERICA still exists.

My hope for all here is that one may be lucky enough to live there.

[winelover]

Living in the country and you have garbage pickup, No place I have ever lived had it in the country.

Sure. You can have anything you want, if your willing to pay for it. We currently have three contractors, that are vying for the business of the fourth, that is going under. Isn't Capitalism grand?

Winelover:coffee:

[Trey45]

No trash pickup here, we drive ours down to the county "convenience center" where recyclables go in one dumpster, household waste in another, yard debris in another, appliances and construction debris in another. we even have a swap shop there, suppose you have an old chair or something usefull you just don't need anymore, put it in the shop and whomever wants it, takes it. If there's something you want in there, take it. Kind of like our Pay It Forward here on the forum except with instant results.
To give you an idea of how people think out here, before I moved here it was discovered that the owner of a small junk shop was going to the swap shops at the convenience centers and taking everything he wanted and putting it for sale in his shop. People spread the word, people stopped buying from him. Even after he brought some items back to the convenience center swap shops he still had so little business that he ended up closing his doors. I call that justicve served.

[blackthorn]

As to your pilfering problem---get a 5 gallon can with about 4 gallons of gas and a pound of sugar in it and leave it by the gate!

Years ago in Manitoba no one locked their doors etc. My Dad started to lose gas from the drum we kept for the tractor, so he left about 4 gallons of sugar treated gas in it. About a week later the neighbor's tractor siezed up----AWWW--what a shame!

[Trey45]

Blackthorn, I call that justice served too!

[popper]

People are people,attitudes change. Lived in the city all my life. Used to have neighbors, now just the people next door, some I don't want to know. A big grid of Princess Palaces, the the gold plated carriage pulled by 6 white horses in the 3 carriage garage. Vagabonds roaming everywhere. Yuk, but when your hitched to one of them, you have little choice. Funny since she grew up in rural NE. Guess the pasture is always greener somewhere else. Yes, I'm looking for 50 acres someplace rural.