O.K. What about neighbors that make thmselves easy to love. I got one, tell us about yours.

Mine is Farmer Shaw, he is the farmer who owns like 2000 acres around us, his son, and grandson and him and his brother all work the land. His big field of alfalfa which sweeps down into the valley is my first view in the morning and my last view at night. How I love those fields. On the hill beyond the valley his cows roam, young ones playing in the spring.

The woods to the east of us is Farmer Shaws wood lot. From these woods deer cross into the fields at dawn and dusk. Last fall I watched as a big handsome buck made his way across, antlers tall, bearing proud. This spring a doe and two little fawns made their way ,timid and shy. Farmer Shaw gave me permission to roam his woods, as long as I don't frighten his deer, he says. Owls hoot from these woods on dusky evenings, and coyotie can be heard now and then.

Farmer Shaw has a slow easy way of talking, always the complete gentleman, always with a joke for the children, his eyes are kind and brown, his hands weathered and worn, his clothes usually dirty and grey. I love him, he is always funny. Here is one of his favorite stories.

"Well I had to go to the Dr. for my yearly check up.They told me that I was in pretty good shape for my age .' he says . " Do you work out? They asked me, Work out, Lord No!I told them, I WORK!, Not doing as good as I used to though, he continues, I work about 12 hrs. then I have to take a break!"

Amough other things the Shaws raise popcorn, he comes by once a year, not always at Christmas, but he always calls it a Christmas present, as he hands me a gallon of popcorn. He always has something nice to say. "What beautiful chickens you have," he will say. Or" What polite children".

He will just do these little things, I have a flag pole at the end of our driveway on which I hang seasonal flags, last fall I hung up one of an old red barn with a John Deer in front of it. Farmer Shaw caught me out in the yard one day and he hollered at me , from his little red truck," That flag gets a blue ribbon from me!"

I have a little man that I made from flower pots, and sat on my front porch, and one day after a couple of margurities I got his arm to stay up in a wave. About a week later, Farmer Shaw stopped by , telling me that he had to meet the new member of the faimily, that had been waving to him every day.

I've never talked to him when he didn't have a joke to tell, and a laugh that rings, with the slapping of his leg, at the punch line. One day he was talking to Lea about her lessons, and he asked her if she knew about the word in the dictionary that was misspelled. After leaving her in confusion for awhile, he laughs and says, " It's misspell that is misspelled!

When Farmer Shaw drives by, off to his many duties, his smile, his wave,his warmtn, fill my heart with joy. And I thank God for him.

O.K. your turn! TRen

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

Answers

What??? Nobody has any neighbors that they love? Well, I can't match Trendle's farmer friend, but, our nearest neighbor (1/4 mile away up our little dirt cowpath) showed his true colors when we started moving in down here. We had brought down a semi truck trailer van full of square baled hay, BTW, van trailers are great to move a farm, and no sooner than we had negotiated the trailer backed down the driveway to the bank/hay barn, then Steve shows up and asks if we all needed any help unloading that van full of hay! Throwing a couple hundred bales sure goes quicker with three hands than two, let me tell you!

He is always is there to offer help, usually even before being asked, and keeps an eye out on our place/critters when we are gone overnight or away all day. He lives in a hand-hewn log cabin he built himself with hand tools, and is in the process of building a hand-hewn log barn for his horses. Never hear a peep out of him, he appreciates the peace and quiet as much as we do, and complains (just like us) when the neighbors on the far side of the road drive by too often going to the little local convienent market for beer and cigarettes!!!

Richard is an owner-operator truck driver and on the road for weeks at a time sometimes, and Steve has helped out in minor emergencies, like the ice storm that had power lines down all across the county, and the ice was threatening to pull the electric line to the hay barn out of the side of the barn into the middle of the barnyard and right on top the gas and diesel fuel tanks. Steve climbed to the top of the barn rafters and shored up the electric connections so they would hold the additional ice weight on the lines without pulling loose.

It sure is a good feeling to have good neighbors, even if it's just one, that's all that counts when you need 'em!

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

That's the spirit! Yep,I've always had some good neighbors. I have lived in a dozen rural places in 3 states.Always someone different from before that ends up being the best.You never know.

Here it's the farmer & his wife that rented our pasture.They are our age,they both hunt,and are interested in wildlife.When we had some idea for the property that benefited the wildlife,he was always supportive of it.Alot of farmers don't think that way. She is interested in heirloom flowers and veggies too.I got the brown asparagus bean off of her and gave her some flowers and cuke seed.He gave us hay for the horse in exchange for rabbit hunting privileges. If I needed to call him in the middle of the night,he would be there. This despite tremendous personal tragedy of their own over the last few years. Good baptist folks.They wouldn't lie to you or try to cheat you. Only wish they lived right next door.

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

Well my favorite of course was my wild little boy thief who gave me a lot of pleasure. He's gone by the way. His whole family up and left without paying rent. I hope an angel watches over him!

My other good neighbor was like yours Trennie. Real nasty at first but I finaly won him over. I found him passed out drunk outside his house and lifted him inside to bed. When he realized I didn't blab to all the other neighbors we became friends. Boy he had serious demons!! Real alcoholic. This winter he got smashed and went for a walk in the woods during a bad snow storm. They found him when the snow thawed. They called it an accident but I think it was a suicide. Anyway a true friend and I hope an angel is with him also.

Just a couple but its nice talking about the good ones. I've had some wonderful friends over my 2 homesteads.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

My wife and I have a really good next door neighbor . . . Javier is a prison guard at a low security prison in our county. He is married and has four well mannered kids. He is a very hard worker and has always been friendly about asking if we need help when we work outside the house.

He has always been very generous with his time, especially when dealing with weekend 'automotive emergencies', like the time my wife's electronic trunk hatch refused to work anymore (wouldn't allow the trunk to stay locked; who designs this stuff for chrissakes) at 11:00 p.m. Sunday night; he came over, and was able to get the thing to latch manually.

I could go on and on about this guy.

He is just a very good person to have around; we are very lucky to have him as a neighbor.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I love our neighbors!!! They watch our place when we are on vacation (and vice versa); swap seeds, wine, and food with us; let us cut wood on their property; share a tractor ownership with us; and are just generally wonderful people. We got lucky when we bought this place! The rest of the folks in the "neighborhood" are pretty decent, too!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Well, still being in the wannabe stage, I have no "country neighbors". But the guy next door brings me a BIG fiberboard box of his raspberries every year (I don't have any, so this is a big treat) -- probably would cost me $15 or more for that many organic berries, and these are fresh. All gone now, I ate them! I hope I have tomatoes to give them later this summer. He and his wife also VOLUNTEERED to walk my crazy dog for me when I was gone for a few days. I didn't even say I was going to be gone, he just said they'd enjoy taking care of her if I went away, and would like to take her walking.

My other neighbors haven't volunteered to do any dog walking, but they're very nice people. Where I lived before this, I had nice neighbors when I moved in, but they bought a different place and moved. The next people were WEIRD and unfriendly, the next woman was too but less so, and we had gotten on to decent terms by the time I moved.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Joy, the raspberrie fellow sounds like a country neighbor to me! grin TRen

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001