haley hill folks

so about these neighbors i mentioned. we had been here about a week when people started dropping by. the first was mary, who lives up the hill and around the bend with her spouse creature (i mean that in a very complementary way) and son, lots of rhode island red chickens, three dogs, two cats, some guinnea hens, a bunch of beautiful gurnseys, and some fish. that's not mentioning the finches and hummingbirds, but they're another blog altogether.

mary was driving up the hill in a very large, white truck, with a water tank in the back big enough to swim in, but she stopped anyway. apparently the steepness of our hill didn't worry her enough to prompt conserving momentum. she introduced herself and cody, her son. we chatted a bit about her job at the high school, and my disdain for the price of local phone service, and then she amazed me for the first of many times. this dear woman had known me for a grand total of 7.38 minutes, when she offered to watch my two year old "any time i needed a break." i think she can be absolved of suspicion of insanity by the fact that she did not, as yet, have any idea how energetic my son is. i feel justified in viewing her offer as something which should make her eligible for sainthood.

over the following weeks, i found out just how deep her charity went. it was probably a week later when i made the mistake of putting charlie to bed in just his diaper and a tee shirt. this is a mistake because he has figured out, by now, how to take off his diaper. what he hasn't learned yet is that his bed is not a good place to go poopy. and we didn't have a washing machine, or a car in which to drive to the laundromat before bedtime. what to do?

the only thing i could think of was to call up mary and pray she was sincere in her offer of friendship. after all, i think letting an almost total stranger wash baby poop-smeared sheets qualifies as the acid test of charity, don't you? and she said yes. not only did she say yes in a heartbeat, but she offered to drive down and pick us up. i declined in favor of walking up the hill for some excercise. all i can say is there were no extenuating circumstances to absolve me of suspicion of insanity.

when we got to mary's house, she interrupted her own laundry to wash my poop sheets, offered us drinks, and let charlie terrorize her house with amazing good will. but what follows is the real clincher: upon learning that we didn't have a washer and dryer, mary offered me her old units which she said had just been "sitting in the old house because we didn't know anyone who didn't have their own." and when i gladly asked her how much she would like for them, she wouldn't hear of it. she told me to call it a housewarming present, then promptly went out and cleaned the units up. she had her hubby load them on the back of the tractor, and he drove them down to the holler and hooked them up within the hour.

then they invited charlie and me to stay for homemade pizza.