Good Samaritans - that's us

[Twitchin Kitten]

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So what was today's plan? Bring the brush I cut and piled all week to the dump, plant the garden and relax for the afternoon. Then we were going to go bike riding at the reservoir tomorrow. That did not happen.

Yesterday I had the mosquito commission out because it's unbearable here. You can't walk in the grass without getting attacked. We have these Asian Tiger mosquitoes and goddamn they are brutal.

Well, the old man next door, remember Mr. Giggles? Well his tree is over hanging into my yard so much we can't do shit with the garden. It's killed all the sun out of there.

I sent Matt over to cut the limbs. It turned into a giant project of tearing down the jungle. We have two piles taller than me out front that have to be cut into manageable pieces and it will then take 4 loads to the dump to rid the yard of them.

John across the street commended me how nice we are to do that. I told him to keep that nice shit under wraps, I have a reputation to keep up.

Clearing out the stuff, we were swarmed by these things. They are like militant mosquitoes! Look them up. Anyway, looking around the yard now that we can actually see the house, there are breeding areas of stagnant water all over the place. I gave Mr Giggles the job of turning over all that shit to get rid of these bugs.

He admitted embarrassment for letting the place go but says he's in poor health, has a daughter dying of cancer and her husband with parkinsons. He also said he better be nice to me or I wont' give him any more cookies at Christmas! Apparently I'm the cookie lady.

Tomorrow we're going to clear out more while I plant tomatoes and other veggies. I can't let it continue and not be able to enjoy my yard because of it. It's so bad you can see clouds of the things. It's all Mr Giggle's fault!

I hate people who don't keep their yards nice. Hell, semi nice and free of disease breeding animals is enough for me.

[twisteroo]

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Awwww.....Go easy on the old guy.
It is obvious that you care about taking care of his stuff for him and not just for your own benefit.

[Twilla]

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I hate yardwork but I hate mosquitoes even more. I probably wouldn't have bothered with the tree but those bugs would have been dead.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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The bugs wouldn't be dead, that's the problem. I despise yard work too but we've been spraying over the fence for years to no avail. These things had to come down more for our health than his. I don't give a fig if Mr Giggles drops dead. I don't want West Nile Virus or some fucking weird foreign disease because of it.
I can't stand looking at that fucking jungle too. I also didnt' want to continue the risk of the tree falling into my house!

He's got choke cherry trees everywhere because of non maintenance. It's horrible. People think planting trees is a great idea until they realize they actually have to maintain them from falling down and destroying things.

The good thing is I have an entire standing dead apple tree to use as firewood.

[LKTraz]

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If you can, have about a 50 pound potato bag's worth of that apple wood chipped into large pieces. Dry it out and you can use it with your grill for smoking!

It will work with either gas or charcoal grills as follows:

Take a piece of aluminum foil approximately 12" long (full width) and place 2 - 3 handfuls of the chips on it. Fold or roll the chips in and fold the ends to seal. Punch 10 - 15 holes in the top of the foil pouch. Place on the grill while it is pre-heating. Move the pouch to one side and cook your food with the grill lid closed. This will add a delicious apple smoke flavoring to your food!

I have some hickory chips that I'm using right now and hot damn do they add a great flavor!


As far as the yard work......yeah, yard work sucks but it has to be done. Ok, so Mr Giggles is no longer capable (maybe) of doing what it takes so, why can't he find some enterprising kid(s) and pay them a small fee to help out? (Supervised of course) I mean shit.....even these days there's got to be SOME kids who will do a little work for some bucks to waste on mindless shit or whatever that their parents refuse to finance.

[Rhubarb]

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As far as the yard work......yeah, yard work sucks but it has to be done. Ok, so Mr Giggles is no longer capable (maybe) of doing what it takes so, why can't he find some enterprising kid(s) and pay them a small fee to help out? (Supervised of course) I mean shit.....even these days there's got to be SOME kids who will do a little work for some bucks to waste on mindless shit or whatever that their parents refuse to finance.

Doesn't your council dept. have something to say?
Here they ask the elderly if they need help with stuff like that. People put on community service do that sort of thing, or paint and decorate for the disabled or elderly.
Jack across the road had some people come and relaid his garden so he and his dog could get round it easier. Then a couple of girls came to do weeding and hedge trimming. They said they had been shop-lifting and since they couldn't pay the fine they were working 150 hours penalty. I notice one of them still stops by to do the front garden and pulls the dustbins out for Jack every week, so she must live local.
Even so I know Jack was paying someone to tidy up before his son came to visit from the States.

[LKTraz]

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It doesn't work that way here Trudi.

"Community service" here means doing something like picking up trash on the street or working on tidying up the park, painting park benches etc. They don't do things for private individuals.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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LK, there are no kids who will do this kind of work. Not on the cheap anyway. They're all busy burglarizing homes these days.

Trudi, like LK said, it just doesn't work that way here. There is no council to help old people. Community service is what petty criminals are given instead of jail time. They don't go to private homes. They mostly take care of government / state / public property for their time to serve.
Government just does not get into the private lives of anyone, including seniors on that kind of level. They'll give you financial assistance, food stamps and help paying bills if you ask, but they won't come clean your property.

On a good note, there were a helluva lot less mosquitoes today! So now I don't get to die of malaria

[LKTraz]

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LK, there are no kids who will do this kind of work. Not on the cheap anyway. They're all busy burglarizing homes these days.

Damn......there's still kids around here who will do some yard work for 20 bucks.

Hell, there's one guy in town who has been doing yard work (debris removal, lawn mowing, snow removal, tree trimming etc) since he was a kid starting when he was about 11 or 12. Now at 40 he still does it as a side to his regular job and is very inexpensive.

Fucker never moved away from home, pays his parents room and board, and has been stashing cash for YEARS! They signed the house over to him a few years ago and he still pays them each month and takes care of them.

Methinks a few more like him are needed these days.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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This job required chain saws and a limb saw (chain saw on a stick). I wouldn't even consider this job for a kid. I wish he wasn't such a bigot because two Mexicans from the day worker station and a hundred bucks would have it sorted in one day.