I lived in a subdivision of about a hundred homes for about 10 years. Those of us in the neighborhood who knew how to do anything and had tools to do it with knew each other and would help each other out from time to time. But, as far as everyone else was concerned, none of us knew how to do anything. Otherwise, you get the moochers who want to be your buddy so they can bring over some POS lawn mower not worth $5, and watch while you work on it for them (for free of course) for a few hours.
When I bought my current place, it had several scrub trees and no grass in the front yard. I brought a 580 Case home from our shop to use to dig out stumps and spread a few loads of topsoil to get something going that resembled a lawn.
A guy who lives a couple blocks down the street has a couple full size trackhoes, a dozer, and a tandem dump that he uses doing house seats and other subdivision work. We've known each other since we were both kids. I'm driving up the street one Saturday morning and he's getting a workout with a mattock digging around a stump where he's had a medium size tree cut. I stopped and told him I had the Case at the house and he was welcome to come and get it to use on the stump.
He rode with me up the street and got it. When he brought it back late that afternoon, he said 2 people had stopped and said they had a couple stumps they needed dug out "if he had some spare time". (That's code for "if you'll do it for nothing"). He told them he could do it, but that he was renting the backhoe for $100/hr and they'd have to pay for the rental time on the hoe. Of course, both of them immediately decided their stumps weren't such a problem after all.
My dad had a sign that hung in his office for years that said "The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm." That pretty much sums up my own attitude, and it has served me well in avoiding getting used.
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