The latest in the handyman/men saga........ the young handyman who showed up hours late over the weekend has turned out to be a good worker. He just isn't experienced enough to manage his time well, which has his schedule too packed. But when he gets here, he works hard, and works well, and he scraped and painted well enough for my husband to say "He did the job the way I would do it."
The older handyman/painter (who's doing the bigger jobs) has always been reliable, and he showed up at the beginning of the week and has been here since early Monday morning. This particular man is so busy that he has to keep a running schedule of who called him first, and he puts his customers on a waiting list. It took us more than two months to get him here, and we're hoping he can stay here till the big painting jobs outside are done. We don't want to get at the bottom of his waiting list again. (And with the scorching hot summer sun blasting everything outside, will the 'big painting jobs' out there ever really be done?)
The handyman who was supposed to be here last Saturday showed up on Monday, wanting to cut the hay around the pond. Fine. My husband explained to him (for the second time) exactly what needed to be done, and off he went to mow that part of the property. Less than two hours later, he rings the doorbell to announce that he's finished......... my husband goes out to the pond and sees that the whole half of the pond nearest to the property line has not been touched by the man's mower. "The job isn't finished," said my husband. "You don't want to pay?" said the man........... and he gets in his truck and off he goes. What the heck? My husband called the man's wife, explained what happened... told her we'd like to have the job finished and we'll be happy to pay the money. If her husband didn't want to finish the other half of the job, fine......... we'll pay just half of the agreed amount. They never called back, nor did the man come here to pick up half of the money for half of the mowing.
Yesterday, our two lawn guys (father and son) were here to clean up the walkways and the flowerbeds, removing stubborn weeds and growths from around the flowering trees. They worked all afternoon and there isn't a weed in sight along the places they were working. This father-son duo has always been very reliable and they're both hard workers. They used to be here on a more regular basis, but then my husband bought the riding mower so we don't have them here that often.
As I type, there's a new handyman out in the yard.... pulling up weeds. He lives down the road... staying with a friend........ needs the money... he's a ex-soldier who hasn't had a good life since he left the service. So my husband is paying him by the hour to pull up weeds. We have 23 acres... very few spots on this property are weed-free. That man could make a fortune on weed-pulling here and then move to Hawaii.
So my husband walked into the back door this morning, as the front of the barn is being painted and the weeds are being pulled..... and he said "There's only one way to run this property--- it takes a village."
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