The neighbor

There are many kinds of neighbors, yet we all seem to know "the one." We are all very different in my neighborhood here in the woods, yet most of us also have a lot in common. I am searching, albeit not too hard, to find the commonalities with my neighbor to the south.

There is a little cabin to the south. One that S2 fantasizes about buying someday. I love the idea!! Anyway, it is a rental and has seen a varied number of renters in the seven years I have been here. Most have kept to themselves, which has been quite nice. The last two renters have been interesting. The one before the current renter was a "kid." I never saw him, but certainly heard him. He was a motocross rider. That would be cool, but he also was a party kind of guy. I remember a few years ago we were in a drought. I live IN the woods. He and some of his friends were having a party and setting off fireworks. Not the silly safe and sane version, but the monster ones that made my house rattle. Worrying about him setting fire to my house or the woods I finally called the fire department when the bottle rockets started flying. I remember one 4th of July driving home from S2's house and seeing a house in the woods engulfed in flames. I really didn't want that to be my house. The fireworks stopped and the dirt bikes started...at 3am!! He is gone now, but not before he had brought in a dozer and plowed himself a dirt bike track in the "tree farm" behind the property. He cut the gate lock to get in. Not a good thing. I heard later that he had spent some time in jail after breaking into the golf cart shed at the new golf course down the road. He and some buddies took off with a couple of carts and got caught. I am sure they were having fun and didn't consider the consequences, not unlike the bottle rockets in the dry woods.

Now I have a different neighbor. "Jim" is a trucker. Go ahead. Picture a trucker in your mind. Yep, that's him. Dirty white T shirt with open flannel atop. Grubby baseball hat. Big belly. Foul mouth. You've got it. My neighbor "Jim." He likes to wander over and plant his rear on a stump and talk. He is an incredible negative Nellie. The down slide of the economy took a toll on poor Jim, but gave him much to moan and groan about. At one point he told me to listen for a gunshot and then check on him. He would be dead. He lost his logging truck because he couldn't make the payments, and he got five months behind in rent. He referred to his landlord in very colorful language that, when translated, meant something along the lines of: "That girl dog's male pup is sitting behind a desk doing nothing as HIS (expletive) money pours in. He has no clue what is happening in the (same expletive) REAL world. Now he is demanding that I pay my rent and I haven't worked for three months. Does he think I can just pull it from my..." uhmmm, you get the idea. Then he failed his drug test and was losing his CDL. How dare they spring a drug test on him. NOW what's he going to do? By now I am wanting to insert my fingers into my badly charred ears and begin singing "lalalalala." Instead I continued digging rocks from the pasture, splitting wood, moving the pavilion tent over the trailer, cleaning the pool, etc. etc. Now I guess we have become "buddies." I talked to my neighbor to the north about the whole gunshot thing and was reassured that he would deal with it, and that I was NOT to go over. (Thanks, Scott!) So, fast forward to the day before yesterday. He decided to mow a path through the woods to my yard. On his riding lawnmower. Through the woods. Over downed trees. Through nettles that are now reaching seven feet tall. I kept hearing the lawn tractor starting, he would gun it, and it would jam against a small fallen tree and die. Restart, rev it a few times, it would back fire a few times, and then again die. I hadn't a clue what he was doing and really didn't want to find out, so left him to whatever the heck it was. (Now that I know it is a bit frightening, the idea of a path between our houses. I would save that one for S2 and daughter, and only them.) So while I was busily cleaning house my poor neighbors to the north were awaiting a phone call from me. They had to have thought that Jim was a terrible shot. With every backfire of the lawn tractor they envisioned death. Husband would ask wife if she heard that, and she would ask him on the next. There must have been three or four. That would not be a good way to go! I chuckle when I think of the colorful language as poor Jim realized he was still with the living. He was just here offering help on any "fix it" projects. I am thinking that I would have nothing to do save it be sit on a stump if he took over my chores. I had someone take over my projects; for 28 years. I can swing a hammer just fine and rather enjoy the good feeling I get when I complete a project all by my gimpy self. So I smiled and told him I would let him know if I needed any help. I wish him no ill will; in fact I wish him much success on his job search!! Very much success. Extreme success. Please, someone, hire this guy that has been driving trucks for over twenty years. You don't need to see his CDL do you? ARRRGH. The world is full of colorful characters. I seem to get my share up here in the woods.

I promised S2 some pictures of my "gardens." Here are my salad veggies: (All are quite happy in their bales of straw.)

Arthur's smoke tree is also doing well
And my grape/clematis arbor.

There appears to be a bumper crop of blueberries

For the first time since I have lived here, this rhodie shows its colors

G2