Egg'n on the Neighbors

Rhiannon and I went out for a buggy ride and egged houses yesterday morning.  No, not egging as in winging them at residences, but delivering eggs to a few of the neighbors.  Namely, those who live right around the pasture where we keep Ms. Melman and Nugget. 

Earlier in the week, our neighbor up the road drove down here to tell us that Nugget was out of the pasture; the least I could do was give him a dozen eggs (and he’ll probably be getting more).  And since we were wheeling around the neighborhood, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to drop off some eggs to the other neighbors along with our phone number just in case they saw one of the equines outside of their pasture.

As much as we like to think of ourselves as self-proclaimed hermit wanna-be’s, we also know that good neighbors are priceless.  Even if your closest neighbor is a half-mile or more up the road it pays to be friendly.

We’re lucky to have great next-door neighbors.  Before we even officially moved in here, they came down to say hello and introduce themselves when they saw my vehicle come down the road.  Although I guess it’s not only being neighborly, but making sure there wasn’t any funny business going on.  There are only two houses down this stretch of road, so if the neighbors don’t catch somebody going down the road, we do as we’re at the end.  Most people are just driving around and either don’t realize (or don’t care) that this is our driveway and not a county road. 

We’ve also traded farm duties with our neighbors when one of us manage to get away for a day or two.  They know our animals and we know theirs, so it isn’t much trouble at all to walk up the road and take care of everyone.  And as anyone who has livestock or pets knows, having a dependable pet (or chicken) sitter is priceless.

Do you know your neighbors?  Shouldn’t you know more about your neighbors?  I’m not necessarily suggesting that you have to be all buddy-buddy with them because goodness knows there are always “those” kind of people you don’t really gel with or just plain can’t stand.  But that’s still not a reason to have no idea who they are.  Know thy “enemy”, right?

I’ve heard it told by many people who’ve moved from the city to the country that they knew less about the neighbors that lived fifteen feet away from them than their new country neighbors that live a mile away.  Strange, isn’t it?  Maybe it’s because when you live in such a crowded environment you subconsciously try to find that seclusion by “hiding” from the city neighbors instead of socializing with them.

Or it could be that country folk are just so darned starved for non-animal company that they’ll latch onto any other Homo sapien within a five-mile radius.

Or they'll start a blog.  Hmmmmmm.