We rolled the stump down to the boulevard. I didn’t think that anybody driving along would see it and think “hey, we could use a big stump for something, couldn’t we?” and take it. I was hoping however that it was small enough that the yard waste folks would take it. Nope. Turns out that they’re fairly strict about that kind of thing and my Plan B of rolling it into my trash can was quashed when I saw in the garbage/recycling website that it is actually illegal to put “substantial” yardwaste into your garbage can.
YA was not tricked into thinking that chopping up the stump was a fun way to spend her time so I finally decided to tackle it myself. If I chopped it into small chunks, I could put them in my yard wastebags with my run-of-the-mill weeds. In order to make myself do this, I had to say “just 20 minutes”. It helps that our little chainsaw has a fairly short battery life so 20 minutes is about all I can do at one shot. At the rate it was taking, I figured this would be a 10 or 12 day project.
While I was working on this, I noticed a woman working on the yard kitty corner to me. She didn’t look familiar and there was a name emblazoned on her pick-up that indicated she had been hired, as opposed to living there. As I continued on other yard projects, I noticed she was coming across the street. Turns out she is the mother of the gal who apparently has just bought the place. She asked about what kind of bags the city requires and I pointed out my paper bags. I asked her if she needed a couple and I gave her two and when she asked, I gave her directions to Menards which is about as cheap as you can find the bags these days. We talked about what you could and couldn’t put out; I told her about leaving bigger branches/small logs out for people to take. I then mentioned that the city wouldn’t take my stump which was why she had seen me cutting bits off. To my surprise she immediately said she could take the stump in her truck; her home is on 30 acres in Wisconsin and she has a perfect place to dump it. I was stunned. And grateful. I almost offered her more bags.
So within 5 minutes, we had rolled the stump into her wheelbarrow, pushed the wheelbarrow across the street and gotten the little monster into the back of her pickup. After three weeks of it sitting on the boulevard, miraculously and suddenly it’s gone!
I don’t think I’ve ever had a good deed of mine reward me so quickly and so wonderfully.
Can you think of a time a good deed has paid dividends?
Trail Baboon 
Good deeds always pay dividends, though not necessarily tangible ones.
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Yes.
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Agreed and this is how I run my life so it’s kind of a nice bonus to get a tangible reward.
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It happens so often – I befriend someone, and they send me home with some of the beef stew she’s made that day. I loan/give someone a book, and they loan me two books, one that I’ve been seeking.
I hope other stories here will remind me of some good ones I can’t come up with at the moment.
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Pretty soon we will be showing our home to prospective buyers, and I have been fretting about getting the windows washed. I haven’t had time to work on that issue given all the other things that need to be done. Last year we took a chance on a young man from Saskatchewan who is a student at the local university and who had just started a window washing business. He did a great job. Last night I was out in the front yard when Mr. Saskatchewan walked up and asked if we needed our windows washed! He and his crew are coming over tomorrow to wash the windows inside and outside!
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I can’t think of a time when a good deed has paid dividends to me personally. But sometimes a payback comes much later and in a different form than you’d expect based on the good deed you did.
But I get immediate payback from the satisfaction of knowing that I helped someone who needed help, even in a small way, and that lets me sleep well at night and know that I made my world a tiny bit better that day by my generosity of money, labor, or spirit.
Chris in Owatonna
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A good deed reinforces who you are and what you believe, more so when no expectation of dividend is involved.
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Me, abruptly anonymized.
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Glad you are back to your old self.
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I lived in two communities where people just helped each other or loaned things or sometimes gave things. I suppose it was in our/their minds that favors would be returned. But we all helped out those who were never going to repay us and who knew not to offer us money. In the second community we all sort of knew when we charged, when we paid. Two older couples lived among us. If it was any construction or more than 3 hours work, they offered, we accepted a small amount. One couple was a lesbian couple who were accepted into our midst in the 1970s and 80s.
Clyde
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We have something like this going on with our next-door neighbors (he was a folk dancer we knew slightly when we lived here in the 80s). We know we can ask things of each other, and if we are able, we’ll help out. He runs a small engine shop, so when Michael was finished with Joel’s old motorcycle, we offered it to him (needed some work). Then he found us a free battery-op lawn mower…
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every day is my payback
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Love it that you got rid of the stump like that, VS.
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I started a volunteer gig preparing tax returns around 18 years ago. In the past few years, the experience I gained helped qualify me for my current job, which pays pretty well. I’m happy there was an eventual financial reward. I still volunteer too, though.
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