If someone asks me for help and they're decent, I go out of my way to do so. Pretty much, unless it is someone who is a jerk or a thief, I'll help. But, I've gotten burned over the last few years, and I rarely volunteer. If someone asks, I'll help. But usually I don't volunteer.
I live on a gravel road that feeds into a paved road. On the paved road, most roads that lead "off" it are unpaved. Very few paved drives, and most are up hills of varying degrees of ascent.
I was following this older lady on the paved road, I stopped to see if my bottom pasture had started to dry any, and the old lady had gone on. I got back on the paved road and started driving on around to where the state line is. I notice up a hill, a few miles on around the road, the old lady's car had gone into a ditch going up the hill to her house.
I've got an old GM CUCV and I was driving it, so I found a turn around spot and I stopped and against my better inner cynic, I volunteered to help.
She seemed so appreciative, and it didn't take me 4 minutes to chain her and pull her up hill. At the top of the hill, beside her house she had two huge loads of gravel and it had never been put out.
I asked her about the gravel and she told me her husband had bought it, but he passed away and the road to the house had just kept getting worse. She told me how much everyone had quoted her to spread it out with a dozer, and they were trying to take advantage of her(in my opinion).
For whatever reason, I told her I would bring over my little dozer and my small Case backhoe and put out the gravel- and I told her I did not want anything or need to be paid. I told her I would do it for free.
I actually drove them over there once at a time, and I ended up finding a pallet of dust suppression granules. I used a fertilizer spreader to put it out(dozer has 540 and 1000rpm PTO) and then I used the dozer to put down the gravel. I went home, got the baby Case and took it over and used the front 6 way blade to clear her ditches and the backhoe to fix where the culvert had gotten stopped up.
When I got done, she could now easily make it up and down the hill in her little RAV4 or her Camry wagon.
She was extremely grateful, and she asked if she could pay me or do anything. I told her no, and she kept asking, and I finally figured I'd make it clear we would have different enough interests as to not have anything in common as far as anything she could offer. I politely told her that unless she had a large tree saw she wanted to sell, I did not need anything else.
Before I could say anything else, she popped in her house and get a set of keys out and opened her shed by her garage. She says "My husband has a saw so big I can't pick it up."
I still didn't know what it would be, I was half expecting to see a Polan, but much to my surprise, it was orange.
It turned out to be a 575XP commercial saw, the paint on one of the bars was a little rough, but the saw was in excellent condition, and she had another 34" Oregon bar and chain for it. I saw where she had marked the price at $300 at her estate sale, and no one had bought it.
I offered her the $300 for it, and when she would not take it, I tried offering $250 and then $200. She told me to take it, that everyone who had looked at it at the estate sale told her it was a cheap saw.
I took it home, put fresh 30:1 mix in it, and it fired off the second pull.
Does it look new ? No, the shiny orange paint and plastics are a little faded. I've seen a lot worse for a lot more than $400 before, so I feel good.
Will it help me ? YES.
I did not do that for her with the intent to get something out of her. I have parents in their 60's and I thought, what would I want someone to do for them if they needed help and could not do something for themselves ?
I would have been happy to pay $300 for the saw, too. I wasn't going to take it for free, but she was about to break a hip trying to carry it.
I know she appreciated the road work, but she almost seemed happier to get out her photo album and show me pictures of her late husband and her daughter and grandchildren. The saw was her husband's last chainsaw, and he looked to be somewhere between 6'4 and 6'6 and looked to be a bear of a man, even in his 70's in the most recent picture.
And yes, before anyone says it- I will make my next post a few pictures of the chainsaw.
Any suggestions on how to remove $300 written in sharpie on the air cleaner cover ?
Thank you guys.
I live on a gravel road that feeds into a paved road. On the paved road, most roads that lead "off" it are unpaved. Very few paved drives, and most are up hills of varying degrees of ascent.
I was following this older lady on the paved road, I stopped to see if my bottom pasture had started to dry any, and the old lady had gone on. I got back on the paved road and started driving on around to where the state line is. I notice up a hill, a few miles on around the road, the old lady's car had gone into a ditch going up the hill to her house.
I've got an old GM CUCV and I was driving it, so I found a turn around spot and I stopped and against my better inner cynic, I volunteered to help.
She seemed so appreciative, and it didn't take me 4 minutes to chain her and pull her up hill. At the top of the hill, beside her house she had two huge loads of gravel and it had never been put out.
I asked her about the gravel and she told me her husband had bought it, but he passed away and the road to the house had just kept getting worse. She told me how much everyone had quoted her to spread it out with a dozer, and they were trying to take advantage of her(in my opinion).
For whatever reason, I told her I would bring over my little dozer and my small Case backhoe and put out the gravel- and I told her I did not want anything or need to be paid. I told her I would do it for free.
I actually drove them over there once at a time, and I ended up finding a pallet of dust suppression granules. I used a fertilizer spreader to put it out(dozer has 540 and 1000rpm PTO) and then I used the dozer to put down the gravel. I went home, got the baby Case and took it over and used the front 6 way blade to clear her ditches and the backhoe to fix where the culvert had gotten stopped up.
When I got done, she could now easily make it up and down the hill in her little RAV4 or her Camry wagon.
She was extremely grateful, and she asked if she could pay me or do anything. I told her no, and she kept asking, and I finally figured I'd make it clear we would have different enough interests as to not have anything in common as far as anything she could offer. I politely told her that unless she had a large tree saw she wanted to sell, I did not need anything else.
Before I could say anything else, she popped in her house and get a set of keys out and opened her shed by her garage. She says "My husband has a saw so big I can't pick it up."
I still didn't know what it would be, I was half expecting to see a Polan, but much to my surprise, it was orange.
It turned out to be a 575XP commercial saw, the paint on one of the bars was a little rough, but the saw was in excellent condition, and she had another 34" Oregon bar and chain for it. I saw where she had marked the price at $300 at her estate sale, and no one had bought it.
I offered her the $300 for it, and when she would not take it, I tried offering $250 and then $200. She told me to take it, that everyone who had looked at it at the estate sale told her it was a cheap saw.
I took it home, put fresh 30:1 mix in it, and it fired off the second pull.
Does it look new ? No, the shiny orange paint and plastics are a little faded. I've seen a lot worse for a lot more than $400 before, so I feel good.
Will it help me ? YES.
I did not do that for her with the intent to get something out of her. I have parents in their 60's and I thought, what would I want someone to do for them if they needed help and could not do something for themselves ?
I would have been happy to pay $300 for the saw, too. I wasn't going to take it for free, but she was about to break a hip trying to carry it.
I know she appreciated the road work, but she almost seemed happier to get out her photo album and show me pictures of her late husband and her daughter and grandchildren. The saw was her husband's last chainsaw, and he looked to be somewhere between 6'4 and 6'6 and looked to be a bear of a man, even in his 70's in the most recent picture.
And yes, before anyone says it- I will make my next post a few pictures of the chainsaw.
Any suggestions on how to remove $300 written in sharpie on the air cleaner cover ?
Thank you guys.
