Stay out of Brainerd, MN!
Posted on 05/19/2009 2:48:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Twice a year, in the spring and again in the autumn, six families on Vicki Matranga's tree-lined Oak Park block go to one neighbor's garage and bring out the $1,200 woodchipper they all pitched in to buy. Then they gather around and feed it dead branches gathered from their yards.
"We chip up our branches and make our own mulch out of it," Matranga said. "There are a couple of passionate gardeners on our block. Many of us who contributed to this machine, we've lived on this street together for 20 years."
Financially, it was worth it for Matranga and her neighbors to pool their dollars and buy a big-ticket item that none would use regularly but all still needed yearly, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
It makes sense in that they’d love for us serfs to get used to the idea of communal property and lowering our expectations.
Be even more cheaper chipper chap!
Just saying...LOL!!!
We live, along with four other families, on a two mile long gravel road in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The county does not maintain it (even though we pay the taxes....that’s another story). Fifteen years ago, we pooled our resources and bought a snow plow to keep our road open during the blizzards. No reason for each of us to own one..............our one and only venture into Communism.
This isn’t all bad. We should be talking with our neighbors and regaining our sense of community. A wood chipper for common use makes common sense. Maybe there are community picnics, community worship, a sense of community.
You know, those things that when the left sees an indigenous tribe embracing they cheer:
The ebo meebos look to elders for wisdom, are welcoming, but mistrustful of western influence, wish to live in concert with their god, do not want the government to intrude on their land, have a tradition of oral history to pass on knowledge...
When people have these values in a rainforest someplace, liberals cheer them and say we should learn from them. When people have these values in “flyover country” liberals condemn them as closed-minded bigots to be re-educated.
I am planning to get some kind of manual bus to run this place in case of power problems. It has been on the backburner for a while.
If we have any real outages, I want to be able to provide power for essential services. Saying that, I can just imagine what kind of crazy and mean thoughts that my old hippie neighbors would have when they are in the dark and cold. They can burn their precious weeds or live in a hotel somewhere. I predict they would do neither since they are eco-wackos and too cheap.
The good neighbors in need would be welcome to whatever I could provide to help them.
Whatever happened to the individual? Seeing old reruns of The Prisoner as a teen reinforced my desire to stay an individual.
I heard a bum in a store today say you can go to the Chicago Public library and check out a fishing pole.
“Even better...why not have everyone pitch in and RENT the wood chipper.....”
...amen....the trouble with communal stuff like that is that there’s always one user who won’t check the oil or abuses the machine....last week I rented a wood splitter and worked up a cord and half of firewood...cost me $30 for the day...that’s lot cheaper than a new $1400 unit from Lowe’s.
Think about the coffee pot at work. We all know the guy who leaves just a tad so he can justify not making fresh. There’s always one.
You know what?? If it takes a bad economy to make neighbors start acting neighbors again, so be it.
You mean like the last person to use the woodchipper forgot to clean out Steve Buscemi.
“Why each buy something like this that nobody needs but every now and then.”
We do this within our family and circle of friends. Power washers, air compressors, campers, pick-up trucks, a cider press, a big carboy for making beer, canners, a cookie press, a Nesco roaster (like the biggest Crock Pot you’ve ever seen, LOL!)...to name a few.
“We all know the guy who leaves just a tad so he can justify not making fresh. There’s always one.”
You work with my Husband? LOL! He also leaves a few dribbles of ‘anything’ left in the container... so he doesn’t have to walk the four feet to the sink or the recycle bin to throw it out, LOL!
Problem is everyone has to use it during the same time period. So you've got guys standing around. Someone brings the beer. Someone else brings a radio to listen to the game.
Next thing you know the wives are trying to stuff the guys into the chipper.
Actually, that’s really NOT funny...it’s ANNOYING. However, not grounds for divorce in Wisconsin. As a ‘Communal Property’ state he’d get ‘half me fortune’...which would be whatever dribbles are left in containers in the fridge!
Stay out of Brainerd, MN!
We spend less than $80 per year for Cypress mulch @ 2.75 per bag (current prices). It has far fewer weed seeds than “homemade” mulch and is easier to distribute one weekend at a a time over the spring season.
Even if my neigbors contribute to buying the chipper/shredder, it will take some time to recoup the costs, and it sounds like more work.
Kind of a desperate retro-fit on the story. The wood chipper people have clearly been doing this since before the economy got bad, and it’s not necessarily an economic driver. Lots of people share stuff, whether it’s pitching in to buy something expensive that is infrequently needed or borrowing something for a one shot kitchen project, doesn’t necessarily mean the economy is bad.
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