Good Neighbors
You know you live in the country when your neighbor offers you fresh mountain lion scat. Word is, if you sprinkle it around the border of your yard, coyotes will stay away. Our cats, small dogs and chickens can cluck in peace. What a great (and rare) gift!
This same neighbor hops our fence every other month to trim the horses’ hooves. Also a blessing, but the thing I’ve been most grateful for has been their allowing me to ride the horses on dirt tracks between their fields. They’re keenly aware of liabilities, (which is why most farmers post No Trespassing signs) but I’m not the suing sort (if something were to happen) and I have good insurance. If not for her and her husband’s fields, I’d have nowhere nearby to ride and for that, I’m deeply grateful.
In return, I don’t complain when they park their irrigator with the loud motor along our back yard or dust our house when harvesting their crop. In August, when the monster tractors arrive in the fields, it’s a race to get all the windows closed and lawn chairs folded before the dust billows across our lawn. It’s a good time to drive to the beach. There’s nothing to be done about the dust, but they gave us a feather duster as a birthday gift all in good fun.
They are giving people, these neighbors. One year, Heidi gave me a shopping bag full of fresh cut broccoli from the field by our house. It’s one of my favorite veggies with a sprinkle of shredded sharp cheddar. In the years that I don’t grow pumpkins, she gives me as many as I want and shares their home-roasted pumpkin seeds. It turns out, Heidi is a master pumpkin carver. It’s real art. Each year she sets up the straw bales to arrange a fantastic display of Jack-o’-lanterns. Sometimes they share their excellent homemade beef jerky and, at Christmas, I look forward to Heidi’s crispy gingersnap cookies.
I love that she comes over in July to pick blueberries for their smoothies. Picking blueberries can be a meditative pause during their busy season. By the time they finish the hop harvest, they’re exhausted and need a vacation. I set them up with good books to read while their bodies rest. It’s what we do for great neighbors.
Photo Below: My favorite of all Heidi’s pumpkin carvings— this of her beloved dog.
