World's Best Neighbor

[webbie]

Daniel, this guy seems like a candidate for sainthood.

Being good is good - and it feels good. It beats the other choices by a long shot. It might be hard to understand, but his helping you is probably making HIM as happy or happier than you. And it's pretty obvious that you are not a "charity" case being as you are working your butt off to survive day to day...including wood burning, etc.

I strongly suspect that someday your or members of your current family will be sitting on top of the heap and helping others in the way this guy helps you.

If we each just took care of a little bit of what is around us (shovel the walk for the older neighbor, etc.), the world would be that much better.

As I said before, any woman who would move from California to upstate NY has to do nothing more to prove her love.

 

[HalJason]

Have a next door neighbor here in suburbia (wood burning in suburbia comes with its own challenges) ...

... if he was upset about the wood pile before, he wasn't going to be happy about it growing on his dime!

One of the reasons I stack my wood into a holz hausen is to head things off at the pass. I have about 5 cords of wood out back in an upscale, suburban neighborhood. If it was all stretched out in rows, I suspect my neighbors would be conspiring against me. As it is, I get comments like, "We enjoyed watching you and Mrs. Mo Heat build that thing", and "I told several people at the school about your unique wood pile", and "Our visitors asked us about that thing. They thought it was cool". All better than, "You sure have a lot of wood out there...".

The holz hausen is an important part of my complete "suburban stealth wood burning system".

Sounds like you and I are in similar situations.

Maybe I'll try that for my winter of 2008-2009 wood. The 2007-2008 wood is already stacked in a neat row about 2 feet off of the fence that separates our yards. The 4' tall fence in 8' long sections makes it VERY easy to eyeball how much wood is there, and how much wood is left throughout the winter.

In the end, I still think that the best way to keep my neighbors happy is to let them know that when the stuff does hit the fan, they're welcome to our place to stay warm and fed. It only has to happen once for them to see the value in it

-Hal

 

[Mo Heat]

In the end, I still think that the best way to keep my neighbors happy is to let them know that when the stuff does hit the fan, they're welcome to our place to stay warm and fed. It only has to happen once for them to see the value in it

Good point. Survival is more important in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Still, where would we be without art.

 

[Mo Heat]

Do you think part of it could be that round is more friendly than square?

This sounds like one of those riddles that takes you to the next level. I'm not really sure what you mean by it, either, but...

Round, or cylindrical shapes are much more "friendly" as far as volume goes, that's for sure. Compared to a square, a cylinder saves about 25% of the perimeter measurement, and then allows you to double the height, and thus the volume, for even more volume per space savings.

It saves enormous perimeter space, or reduces the foot print, if you will, compared to a common firewood row, which might otherwise be described geometrically as a 4 or 5 foot tall, very narrow rectangle, perhaps the absolute worst of the volume per footprint geometric shapes.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

People usually end up with the neighbors they deserve. I'll bet he's got a pretty good neighbor too.
Dan.

thats a great quote, and true, bet you got some good neighbors too, i have myself , we generally swap out favors a lot , i put a woodstove in his house after looking at what he was going to put in when he moved in he was putting in an old clunker he picked up somewhere, i looked at it at his request and told him to junk it, i had an 18-pc cat stove sitting in the garage that was doing nothing , now its strumming along next door and im sleeping better knowing he has a good unit that wont have the FD showing up( the old one was an accident waiting for a place to happen) it wont happen here. he's alway around when i need a hand as am i , works out pretty well. good neighbors are essential for good living. i came out pretty lucky

 

[Gooserider]

We have some good neighboors as well, and swap favors back and forth as needed... We tend to call on each other when we need to move heavier stuff than one of us can get alone, keep an eye on each other's places - We feed their cats when they travel - (they can't reciprocate as we don't have pets) This last storm I've been fighting a real bad cold so I didn't want to be out blowing snow, so he did our main drive and cut a minimum path to the woodshed... I've done their drive a few times when their snowblower quit, etc.

One that is real cool is that they put in a bunch of raspberry and blackberry bushes that are now producing more than they can eat, so they've invited me to help harvest, last year I got about 8 quarts, which are currently sitting in a fermenter.... They'll get some of that back once it's done of course, but it will be nice to have a mead that I know where everything in it came from.

Gooserider

 

[sparksalot]

dang! that made me tear up a little.....the older we get the more we all have our ups and downs you will get your chance....to help out sometimes .Just accepting a gift is a gift in itself....