No good deed goes unpunished

[stocky]

Thought I was doing something helpful and have spent the last couple of days in a hornets nest. I have a hillside with a couple of hundred scattered hardwood trees that were not good enough for logs. They spaced real good for lightning attractors for a cattle death trap. I was going to clear it, but decided to cut rings and deaden the trees last year and people could have them for wood this winter.
I told 3 neighbors that they could come in and cut all the wood they needed for their homes this winter for no charge, just pile the brush. Today has been a nightmare with phone calls and people stopping by complaining about certain people cutting the best trees or cutting too much, or whatever they can complain about. It seems that each of them have told their brothers or sisters or children or even grandchildren that I gave them all the wood they could cut.
I gave the wood away because people need it. I don't care who cuts which trees, I just want the trees cut. I finally started telling them that "I don't blame you. I would just stop cutting and that will show those other guys"
The funny thing is everyone of these people are related to each other. They are all cousins of the actor Don Johnson. There were 18 of these brothers and sisters and their father was a brother to Don's grandfather. So, it is a family fight that I want nothing to do with, but seems I am in the middle of the hornet's nest for trying to help.
Anyone else have some attempted good deeds cause headaches?

 

[jedstivers]

Almost the same thing with deer hunters. I have a few places that are ok but just nothing great to hunt. I let a few people that have no where else to hunt have them and in no time they are trying to lease it from me and keep everyone else off.
Had one place that had a old stand put up 20 years ago by another man, fella I was letting hunt up there decided that was his stand. It was about to fall down but had a metal frame, another man ask me if he could get it and move it. I said that's fine it's no good like it is, anyway fella that was using it starts calling the law and complaining to me and just won't let it go. Just almost made me tell everyone to clear out.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

We have had the same kind of thing when we let people cut wood on some road job's we have done. And we have had it happen when letting people go thru our place to get to national forest land to hunt. What get's me is when you let them cut wood or go thru your place and then they tell you how it wasn't good enough or act like you owe it to them.

 

[Grandpa]

On my 190 acres, there is one 42-acre patch of thick timber, mostly post oak. I can barely walk through it with the trees and briars and don't even consider going in during the summer. A guy who is a church elder and has a firewood business asked if he could cut some. I said yes, it would thin it out and get some grass back in there; even showed him what trees to cut, basically 2 of every three trees. He promised to clean it up and stack the brush where I could burn the piles. He did that faithfully until his last load, then conveniently left the brush scattered where it was cut. I got that mess cleaned up. The next year he came back and asked to do some more, so I chewed him out about his workers' mess and he promised to make it right (Yes, I'm a slow learner). This time he put a non-English speaking hand to work and told him to "stack the brush", which the guy did, right under the trees. Burning the brush there would have started a forest fire. Took me a week with my tractor and loader to get that straightened up. Don't know how many dozens of cords he cut and hauled out for free, but I didn't ask for my key back; I changed the locks. :dunce:

 

[plumber_greg]

My best, stupidest, good deed was done for a former friend (he is a former friend because he went religous after an affair, and couldn't run with trash such as me). His son was building a house in a new pole barn about 35 miles from me. I went there, roughed in the plumbing for the concrete floor, got it ready to sheetrock, put in septic system, ran 250' of waterline, all for the wholsale price of the materials. No Labor, no machine hire. Got accused of charging too much, and instead of arguing, just took some off the part bill!! That was years ago, now tell each friend how I don't want to work for them, but will if they insist. I will never plumb a house for a friend, just the smaller jobs. gs

 

[pdfangus]

ALL OF THE ABOVE.......
is why I generally don't do much of anything for anybody....
most people won't let you be nice to em....

 

[Alan]

ALL OF THE ABOVE.......
is why I generally don't do much of anything for anybody....
most people won't let you be nice to em....

:nod: :nod: :nod:

When I was younger I have reached out a helping hand to have it bitten.

One that comes to mind was my ex MIL. She had devorced in the past year and needed to move again. So once again I offered to help, well this time my wife and I and my pickup pulled into her driveway and her car was gone. I asked my wife where here mom was, I could see there was things untold. Turns out her mom, my MIL, flew down to see her mom while my wife and I moved her by ourselves. Went into the house and not one box to put things in not one thing packed. I was not easy to live with that weekend and it killed the relationship with my ex MIL.

I soon learned :bang: :bang: :bs: :bs: :stop:

 

[jedstivers]

ALL OF THE ABOVE.......
is why I generally don't do much of anything for anybody....
most people won't let you be nice to em....

:nod: :nod: :nod:

When I was younger I have reached out a helping hand to have it bitten.

One that comes to mind was my ex MIL. She had devorced in the past year and needed to move again. So once again I offered to help, well this time my wife and I and my pickup pulled into her driveway and her car was gone. I asked my wife where here mom was, I could see there was things untold. Turns out her mom, my MIL, flew down to see her mom while my wife and I moved her by ourselves. Went into the house and not one box to put things in not one thing packed. I was not easy to live with that weekend and it killed the relationship with my ex MIL.

I soon learned :bang: :bang: :bs: :bs: :stop:

You sure missed a opportunity to do some schooling.

 

[3waycross]

I also have a moving nightmare story. My sister moved back to town about 15 years ago. She like another family member can't stand to live anywhere for more than a year or two. I must have moved her 5 times in 10 years and the last time i got hit in the parking lot of her apartment complex. It cost me hundreds of dollars in insurance rates and the deductable and she never offered to pay me a penny. She did however complain bitterly to my Mom that i never did anything for her.

She has now moved back to Az and taken my parents with her........They are now busily guilt tripping my brothers who live there :banana: :banana: :wave:

 

[Jogeephus]

Where do I start?! I was given a semi-truck load of mineral and cattle supplies on the condition I had all of the pallets of mineral and feed removed from the property by closing time on Friday. Unloading the semi was no trouble since there was a forklift on site but unloading it from my trailer was labor intensive and then there was the problem of where to put it all. So after unloading two goose neck trailer loads of mineral at my barn I got the great idea that I would be neighborly and give the other two trailer loads of mineral to other cattle producers in the area so I called everyone I could think of. The first fella was thrilled and wanted a whole trailer load and just asked me to stack it on the back side of his barn and he even went out of his way to unlock the door for me. :???: The other phone calls weren't much different. Those that did show up to get the mineral were all older people who appreciated a good deal but were too old - in my opinion - to load their trucks themselves so I loaded 3 for 1 for them. Needless to say I broke my back that day. I did learn a valuable lesson though. I don't think these young pups know how to get out of their trucks.

 

[jerry27150]

tried to help people all my life & it seems they all take it as a sign of weakness , very cautious anymore

 

[dun]

I've had it stuck in me so many times from helping people but bad habits die hard. I still help when and where I can. I figure if I get it stuck in me again it's their problem not mine. Years ago the road we lived on was windy and straight up on one side and traight down on the other. Coming home after dark there was a truck sitting in the uphill lane with a shredded tire. I stop to see if I could give him a hand but was told they had already sent someon on ahead on foot to get another truck and tire. I threw out road flares as a warning both up hill and down. The guy asked me where I lived and if we used fire wood. I told him and said that was all we used for heat. 2 days later 3 dump trucks full of cut and split oak showed up in the yard. I figure that one deal made up for a lot of screwings.

 

[cow pollinater]

Just last month I re-learned why I keep to myself as much as possible.
I let a couple of guys cut wood at the ranch because there's more down than I can use and they're not bright enough to know how poor they are. I was real specific about showing them my property lines and I was real specific about closing gates behind themselves as they were crossing the neighbors place to get to mine. Aperently, I wasn't specific enough about telling them to close gates after themselves on MY property.
They left a gate open and a bunch of cattle got into the summer pasture that I'm letting rest for the winter and I spent a day kicking cattle back to the other pasture. I was nice about it and didn't tell them that they'd wasted a days work for me but I chewed on them some and told them that that gate needed to get shut before they left. They felt really bad so I figured it was done and let them come back to finish cutting.
The next time they went up they did just what I'd told them, they shut that gate right before they left and were so proud of it that they called me to tell me... nevermind the fact that it stood open all day while they were in there cutting wood. :bang:
The next morning I saddled a horse and headed up because I JUST KNEW... Sure enough, I had cows pacing the fence trying to get back to the calves they'd stashed the day before when they went out to graze.
I can't be mad, they didn't do anything wrong on purpose and that makes them alot better than most people I try to help.

 

[dun]

Just last month I re-learned why I keep to myself as much as possible.
I let a couple of guys cut wood at the ranch because there's more down than I can use and they're not bright enough to know how poor they are. I was real specific about showing them my property lines and I was real specific about closing gates behind themselves as they were crossing the neighbors place to get to mine. Aperently, I wasn't specific enough about telling them to close gates after themselves on MY property.
They left a gate open and a bunch of cattle got into the summer pasture that I'm letting rest for the winter and I spent a day kicking cattle back to the other pasture. I was nice about it and didn't tell them that they'd wasted a days work for me but I chewed on them some and told them that that gate needed to get shut before they left. They felt really bad so I figured it was done and let them come back to finish cutting.
The next time they went up they did just what I'd told them, they shut that gate right before they left and were so proud of it that they called me to tell me... nevermind the fact that it stood open all day while they were in there cutting wood. :bang:
The next morning I saddled a horse and headed up because I JUST KNEW... Sure enough, I had cows pacing the fence trying to get back to the calves they'd stashed the day before when they went out to graze.
I can't be mad, they didn't do anything wrong on purpose and that makes them alot better than most people I try to help.

You can;t fix stupid!

 

[cow pollinater]

I figure that one deal made up for a lot of screwings.

We have a specific family that I let glean after harvest. Most gleaners just show up and assume that they can glean your orchards without asking. This guy came up and asked and I said yes since it's going to go to waste if someone doesn't get it. The first year they sent me a thank you card. The second year when farm prices were really good they tried to pay me for what they'd gleaned and I wouldn't let them. This year the wife overheard me on the phone talking about my wife, who has been having some health issues, and a few days after they got done gleaning she showed up with food and cleaning supplies and was insistant on helping us because we'd been so kind to them :shock: . They've pretty much singlehandedly kept me from turning into the grinch that stole christmas.

 

[dun]

I figure that one deal made up for a lot of screwings.

We have a specific family that I let glean after harvest. Most gleaners just show up and assume that they can glean your orchards without asking. This guy came up and asked and I said yes since it's going to go to waste if someone doesn't get it. The first year they sent me a thank you card. The second year when farm prices were really good they tried to pay me for what they'd gleaned and I wouldn't let them. This year the wife overheard me on the phone talking about my wife, who has been having some health issues, and a few days after they got done gleaning she showed up with food and cleaning supplies and was insistant on helping us because we'd been so kind to them :shock: . They've pretty much singlehandedly kept me from turning into the grinch that stole christmas.

For me, the good ones pretty much make up for the turds.

 

[slick4591]

For y'all it's wood and cattle. For me it's pulling drunk men off their woman while they're beating them, then to have the woman jump on me for handcuffing the guy. Gotta say the only one that was really bad tho was when she used that dam'd nine iron. :shock:

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Thanks CP and Dun for the GOOD stories of people. There is good folks out there, and sometimes we never know where it will come from. We try to teach that to our kids...

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Yes, I'm a sucker. I would rather help someone and get screwed (pardon my French) for possibly the ONE that appreciates it. Just ONE person that appreciates what you do makes up for all the bad.
But, I have to admit, MOST of my dealings have been totally appreciated.

 

[I luv herfrds]

There is a couple out here that are super nice people. When they first moved here I hired them to help me put up a new metal section of our corral.
Well over the last few years we have been swapping work with them in exchange for feed for their stock.
This Christmas with me too sick to make alot of goodies they showed up with a bunch of candies and a fruit cake for us.
They have also offered to help us work on our house when we need the help.

We have been burned before by people but this couple are the only 2 I can think of right now.