A Tale of Work

Most of my readers will be aware that Poppa had a heart attack on Dec. 14th, 2020.  He was rushed to a hospital about 3/4hrs. away and given medical attention.  All went well and he was transferred back to our local hospital (yes - the one that I send my baby outfits to!) where he stayed for several days before coming home.  He is doing very well.  As you can probably tell he has lost a lot of weight.  He started out by going for long walks every day which wasn't too fun in the winter time!  Now that warm weather has finally arrived he is finding other things to keep him busy - more on that later.  In this photo he is making chicken meatballs in compliance with his new restricted diet which does not recommend beef at all.  As you can see, he makes meatballs just like he does everything else - perfectly!  By the way - they were really good!  We had salt-free spaghetti for supper, and froze some for later!  Yum!

Squishie, who like Squeegie, is always hungry watched TV while he waited.

Then when Poppa went to the store, he and his two sisters waited in his usual spot for Poppa to come home with a "treat".

I looked out the front door the other night and saw an impromptu community meeting happening on the stairs - that's Poppa partway down the stairs.

Now about those projects Poppa is working on now.....

The fence in this photo separates our back patio from the patio belonging to the adjoining condo unit on that side.  The fence, as you can see, is old and hasn't had any attention.  It had a distinct lean towards the neighbor's patio and did not look very attractive.  So Poppa decided he needed to fix it...

He dug down the length of the support wall for about three feet (a lot of digging and a  lot of dirt!).  Yes - he did it all by himself and it was hard work - no need for a walk - he's getting lots of exercise doing projects.

His buddy from the golf course photos stopped by to check on the progress ( he owns a unit three doors from ours), which was good, since if forced Poppa to take a break!  

Of course, he was being supervised by an expert!

I took a couple of pictures through the screen door, which may not be a good way to get a good picture!  However, you can see Poppa out there digging a trench.

On a side note - Violet didn't survive and Poppa bought me a new African violet.  Her name is Priscilla and she is doing very well.  She arrived with a lot of pink colored blooms - which have since departed.  Hopefully she will get some more!

Meanwhile, back at the trench....

.... Poppa was still digging and the trench kept getting longer and deeper.

When it was deemed to be finished (See?  The trench has been filled in and the patio all swept off!), he decided to slope the little hill going next door a little longer and lower so that the lawn tractor would not scalp the lawn when the gardeners came.

The old grass was loaded into the wheelbarrow and taken away.

While Squishie kept guard at the window for hours!

And Poppa kept working and put some fine crushed stone in for drainage.

Then replaced the patio stones he had removed to straighten the fence and cleaned up the mess.

Then he added some top soil to the new slope and levelled it up to his satisfaction.

You'll never guess what he did next!

Yes!!!  he loaded his golf clubs into the car on Saturday morning and went golfing.  When he arrived home he was quite happy and he'd had a good game!

On a more domestic note, his plants at the front are all thriving.

And his work on this large area across the road is coming along nicely.

He and his buddy stained the front entranceway at the golf clubhouse.  (Wow! They did a great job!)

They did some repairwork on the driveway there.

They made a new sluice for water runoff.

And a runoff area from the cart washing location.  And that's it for today!  Whew!  I'm tired just looking at the pictures!