Never thought retirement would be like this

Nancy, I found this link on home repairs, contractors, gardening etc, that I thought you might enjoy! For the Love of Gardening!:)

"Successful contractors are a breed all their own. They have been smart and worked hard over many years to be successful. They have an array of talents because they must know every aspect of the business. It isn’t enough to know how to lay a brick if you aren’t good with money, managing employees, customer friendly or a million other business decisions. Respect this".

"Most mature contractors have job related health issues. You don’t do really excellent hard manual labor without it eventually wearing your body out. It’s why you see old guys on the ground directing and young bucks hefting the supplies".

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"How the house first looked once we cut down the weeds".
 

Thanks, Meanderer. The house in that picture was probably a nice house at one time. It looks like it needs a lot of work. I'd hate to tackle that.

I've never had much trouble with contractors who have actually done work for me. The problem is finding one that will follow through on the initial contact. I absolutely refuse to nag and keep calling them. Maybe that's my the problem. My house is not easy to work on because it is so old. Even the lumber used in it is harder than new lumber. Many young guys go away shaking their heads and putting in a lot of overtime. The ones that have the best reputation usually have a long waiting line. I waited 2 months for a man to do my gutters, and assumed he had forgotten, then he calls out of the blue ready to go. He did a fantastic job, worked all by himself. Somehow he raised a 32' long solid piece of gutter up. I missed seeing how he did that.

Btw, the 2+ weeks of rain we had has surely put the dam repair contractor behind schedule for at least that much time. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't been asked to do some emergency work in South Carolina. I used to be able to use fishing as an enticement, but the fish are scarce now. Haven't seen any minnows in several years.

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Wow!!

I looked you up on Google, found your home address, and PM'ed it to everyone in the forum. We'll all be over next Saturday at 4:00pm. LOL!

Just kidding!

That's lovely! Boy, I bet that was a heck of a lot of work!
 
Hi Pookie! That's not my house, but sign me up for Saturday.:)

Meanderer, I *did* click on it the first time but got lost in the flower beds. Found 5 sections about the remodel starting here, in case you're interested.

They did do a tremendous amount of work. They even considered lifting the house and putting in a new basement under it. Yikes!!!
 
Sorry,Nancy, I wasn't sure if you saw my link.:) Putting a new basement under the house, is like putting your socks on, AFTER you put on your shoes!;)
 
Possum or Raccoon?

When I screened the front porch I made a little swinging door just for the neighborhood cat. Put a little matching screen on the other side of the entrance door so it would look like part of the design.



Anyway, I put food out on the porch, but he always leaves some, no matter how little you put out. Coming back from a walk one night I found a possum inside the porch. He had learned to used the door and was after the cat food. If I close the door I'm afraid the possum (or the cat) would just tear through the vinyl screening, so I started being careful not to leave any food out overnight. Then I got lazy again, and something came back two nights ago. The food dish looked like someone had fingerpainted with brown mud in it and the water dish looked like a sewer. So now I'm thinking the newest visitor is a raccoon. Possums don't mess in water like that, do they?
 
I just read the USDA and state gov'ts have started dropping oral rabies vaccine packets from airplanes to control the disease. Georgia is the leading state per capita for rabies, and raccoons are the main reason. Not that it worries me that much. Now if one shows up in the day, that's another thing. But I suppose I ought to take it a little seriously.:p
 
Oh wow, jujube! I think bats are the number 2 animal to transmit rabies. Did they catch the bat to confirm, or was it just precautionary? I had a bat fly down my chimney once. Trapped and released.

Possums, OTOH, have too low a body temperature to get rabies. There was a story about a rabid fox that actually chased a woman and bit her, don't know if it's true or not. (More trivia due to mindless Googling...Must do laundry and dishes instead. :p)
 
Woke up to workers paving the street in front of my house this morning. Headed out to the farm about noon with 3 things to do. Two were for fun and one was a necessity---hadn't checked the fence since the storms that hit South Carolina. Charge on the fence was down to 700 volts. In the first 3rd of the trip around there were 5 trees down on the fence and numerous limbs. The first 3 trees were rotten and easy. The 4th & 5th were hard as nails and heavy. (Had to face the evening sun to take this picture).


　
Got them cut off the fence, but they still blocked the road. Backtracked to the house, got the prybar, and headed around the opposite direction. Many more limbs down there, too, but nothing too big. Got back around to those trees, cut them up in chunks, rolled them out of the way with the prybar, and headed back to the house. After all that, the charge only came up to 4700v.:p The fence is broken in several places but I got it patched back together. It's not pretty. By that time it was 6:30 pm and starting to get dark. Glad I got it finished in one day. Didn't want to come back to it next time. Good exercise and a beautiful day to be outside. Story sounding like a broken record again?:rolleyes:
 
Thanks Pookie and Nona. Didn't intend to "show off" or anything. It's just that most days are pretty routine, so whenever there's something a bit unusual I put it here. However this tree business is getting so routine, it's starting to get boring.

Fence checking is always an adventure, and a bit frightening, because you never know what you are going to find around the next corner, especially after heavy winds and rain. If I know I can fix it, it's really a fun job and good exercise. But if it's really bad, I'd have to hire someone to clean it up. That is my worst nightmare. I absolutely hate arranging stuff like that, so I'll try just about anything to do it myself.

One of those last two trees was a pine, and only 14" in diameter (the length of the new chain saw blade) but I counted at least 50 rings. They were so small it was hard to count exactly and I was in a hurry. That makes the logs extra heavy and hard to saw through.
 
So not showing off, Nancy. Thank you for sharing with us. I truly enjoy your diary entries, find them very inspirational. Cannot imagine how you keep up both properties.
 
Thanks Pookie, Nona, and Meanderer. Rider, my saw is too small and I'm too slow---got to "study" a project too long first.;)

Nothing new I can talk about here, so some old stuff...

Years ago, maybe in the late 80's, I found a deer floating dead in the pond. Dogs probably chased it in there and it drown, or after someone shot it. A friend and I took the boat out, tied a rope around the antlers and dragged it onto the bank on the far side of the lake. It was too ripe to inspect for bullet wounds.:p Went back a couple of months later and it was just a pile of bones. Retrieved the antlers several yards away down over a hill.

My father, who lived in Florida at that time, offered to mount them, so I put them in the basement on a pallet. That was when my basement had a dirt floor. One night something dragged them to a hole dug under the door and got stuck there---probably a possum. (Yes, even in town I live amongst the animals.:confused:) Took them to Florida and retrieved them on another trip.



I think these are tiny little antlers compared to the ones people get in Pennsylvania, but for some reason down here they are impressive. Hung in my office at work and got many comments over the years. I meant to get a piece of leather and cover the skull part, but never got around to it. Maybe I should still do that. So many things to do and so little time....
 

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