Sometimes it's good to do favours

Sometimes a good deed has it's rewards. A former client of mine who is retired but also has a love of timber as I do, asked a favour....he had a huge lump of Cedar, 120mm wide, 180mm high & 1100mm long that he wanted to cut into 20mm thick boards to be used for a set of shelves. He didn't have big enough equipment to mill it so he gave me a call a while back and asked if we could use my gear at the shed....no problems....so we spent the morning having a great time..plenty of laughs and talking about timber and family. After a few hours we had cut the Cedar into boards on my bandsaw and then finished them in the thicknesser.

He also brought over a couple of Blackwood pieces 120x50x1800 and asked if we could throw them through the thicknesser. He was pleased as punch and asked what I wanted for my time & effort. I said I didn't want anything as I had worked closely with him for over 30 years but he insisted that he was going to buy me a nice bottle of Dalwhinnie Scotch for my troubles. 😁😁🥃🥃

I told him not to go overboard but we shall see what turns up.

I would hold him to that!

He was true to his word.....

Attachment 457994

Oh my! I'm not a Scotch aficionado but that is GOOD scotch.

We have a neighbor that at best can be described as a pest. She will weed half the gardens on the street, unasked. She will come by the shop and would you cut this or mill that.

One day she comes by and asks me to build a trellis for dragon fruit bush/tree whatever. I tell her I have no idea what a dragon fruit whatever is or needs. A few days later she comes by with a diagram / Plan.

So I tell her this is the wood I need. Buy California Redwood. (Not "red" wood from the home center.) Termites don't like California Redwood. In a week or so I have about $150 of California Redwood in my shop. I build the trellis, put it in the back of my pick up (F-150) truck and back it into their driveway. Her husband helps me un load the trellis.

I'm done, period, done.

A few months later the pest comes by with a couple of dragon fruits. I have to accept. She tells me that these go for about $7.50 each in the Vietnamese grocery store. SWMBO and I try a piece from one of the fruits. To be honest, neither of us know what to do with the second dragon fruit. For our taste they are horrible.

A few months later the pest comes by and asks what I thought of the Dragon fruit. I told her that neither of us cared for the fruit. I don't know if she was hurt or not but she has not offered any addition fruit nor darkened our doorway.

I guess that is enough pay for now.

Bear in mind that “No good deed goes unpunished.”