65-Year Old Digs Ditches for $20/hr?!

[Revlefty]

My grandfather, the handyman

My grandfather was very handy at fixing things. He discovered lonely little old ladies were breaking things around the house SO THAT HE WOULD COME AND FIX THEM! Most days, it got him a free lunch.

I'm not sure who was smarter, Grandpa or the ladies!

 

[NW-Bound]

Uh Oh. Being quite handy myself, I need to watch out for this, if and when my DW is not around.

 

[travelover]

I put in a french drain, but I used a gasoline powered trencher, and between the roots and rocks, the job still almost killed me. I can't imagine doing it with a pick and shovel.

 

[foxfirev5]

Twelve years ago my DW, son and I dug a complete 26x40' foundation for our lakehouse. The contractors could not guarantee results as the 2' depth was close to the watertable. So we broke out the picks and shovels and moved it all out by hand. It took a couple of weeks. Then after we poured the footers and laid blocks we back filled by hand with 60 tons of fill sand and ten tons of gravel.
Now twelve years later and at age 57 I don't see that happening again.

 

[walkinwood]

The most interesting part, to me, was your living arrangements with DW!

 

[LoneAspen]

When I was a kid, the chore of cutting the grass fell upon me, once I got old enough to operate the lawn mower safely. I did that all the way through college (I lived at home during college), until I graduated and moved out.

I grew to hate yardwork, and I swore to myself I would never again cut grass. Except for a couple times at a previous rental house where the landlord didn't employ a gardener, I've stuck to that. It only took a couple times of me doing it again before I hired a gardener myself.

There are some chores around the house I want to stand and point and say "do that!" and have somebody else do it. Yardwork is one of them. Same thing with electrical, plumbing, flooring, appliances...actually, most everything around a house.

The only thing I've done myself and got satisfaction out of it was converting one bedroom into a dedicated home theater. Black ceiling, plastic track on the walls, with fiberglass backing and acoustic fabric, 112" screen, front projector, etc.

But even then, I'm not sure I'd do it again myself as even for a 12 x 12 room, it was a hell of a lot of work putting that acoustic fabric up.

I think if I did it again, I'd design it, and stand there and point and tell somebody else to "go do that!"

 

[Alex in Virginia]

... No point, at my age, in potentially creating serious or just annoying injuries doing something I don't even enjoy. I have just enough chronic, fortunately minor, pains to remind me of the potential for injury. And those are from my youth, when I was in much better condition lol. ...

That's a really valid point, seraphim. I would have been SO SO p***d off if I had pulled my back swinging that pick ax!

And you didn't do it for $20 an hour. SHE did it for $20 an hour. You did it for free.

You're right! I did do it for free (and for my wife, of course). Yikes!


Alex in Virginia

 

[Alex in Virginia]

I do a lot of stuff myself, even though I can easily afford to have someone do it for me. Physical labor type jobs are my favorite. I see it as an alternative to going to the gym. I try to do it at my own pace.. but the days I'm doing stuff are the days I seem most fulfilled. One of my biggest projects was replacing my old wooden fence. Probably 20 sections. I did it almost all myself. Digging holes, hanging boards, etc.

Jetpack, I actually agree with you. I'm a big DIY guy. But the key (which I highlighted in your reply to my original post) is to do the stuff at a pace one is comfortable with -- both physically and attitude-wise. That's part of what I was getting at in the last paragraph or two of my original post.

Thanks again for commenting!

Alex in Virginia

 

[Alex in Virginia]

... As I age, time is the most precious thing. If I can "buy" more time for me, I won't hesitate to do it...

That's what I've come to think too, robnplunder, but I'm trying to apply it on a daily basis. To quote from the last paragraph in my original post:

"...The time I spend each day on obligatory tasks and non-fun projects will be limited so as to allow enough time each day for some enjoyable/fulfilling activity. I will not “tucker myself out” on the have-to-do’s. I will see to it that I have enough energy left for a want-to-do. Just like everyone else, I live life -- and use it up -- one day at a time. From now on, I’m making sure that each one of those days counts for me."

And, to reemphasize the question at the end of my post:

"How about you? Do you make sure that each one of your days counts for you?" (That's the discussion topic I was hoping to motivate with my original post.)

Thanks so much for commenting!

Alex in Virginia

 

[jetpack]

Having lived in NYC for many years, I had come to actually miss yard work and being with nature... Of course now, it's sorta actually work with all that I have to do.

 

[NW-Bound]

"...The time I spend each day on obligatory tasks and non-fun projects will be limited so as to allow enough time each day for some enjoyable/fulfilling activity. I will not “tucker myself out” on the have-to-do’s. I will see to it that I have enough energy left for a want-to-do. Just like everyone else, I live life -- and use it up -- one day at a time. From now on, I’m making sure that each one of those days counts for me."

And, to reemphasize the question at the end of my post:

"How about you? Do you make sure that each one of your days counts for you?" (That's the discussion topic I was hoping to motivate with my original post.)

"Have to do" vs "want to do"?

Am I supposed to do anything? Oh yes, if my skylight dome has a crack and it leaks, just like it is doing today with the heavy rain (and they say it does not rain here in AZ), I have to get up under it with a ladder to put on some black electrical tape to temporarily stem the leak. And I did that. But anything else, I proceed at my leisure. It's what retirement is for, and that was even before I got a sudden health problem that I am recovering from.

About wanting to do something, if you want it too badly, it becomes "work". I have no bucket list. I have read some travel blogs where the writer talks about setting goals for his travel. Good grief! What if you cannot meet your goal? Bang your head against the wall for failing yourself?

There are many places in the world that I can go and have not been to, and in the past most of our travels were determined by whatever bargain my wife happened to spot on the Web. While we were both surfing the web on our respective PC or laptop, she would call out to me "Hey, there's cheap airfare to go to XXX for $YYY in 2 months. Are you interested?" And I would reply "Yeah, let me see what we can do when we get there. Looks like it might be worth a 2-week trip. But book to hold it for 24 hrs while I do my own quick research." Then, we went. I believe 90% of our travel has been mostly impromptu.

 

[Milton]

No point, at my age, in potentially creating serious or just annoying injuries doing something I don't even enjoy.

My thoughts exactly. I'd much rather pay someone a trivial amount than risk personal injury. Light yard work is fine, but heavy manual labour can be dangerous.

The most interesting part, to me, was your living arrangements with DW!

+1. On the face of the (very brief) description provided, they sound more like casual boyfriend and girlfriend than spouses.

Personally I don't see much, indeed any, point to getting married if a couple doesn't want to spend much time together and prefers to keep their finances and other aspects of their lives separate. But then, there may well be more to the relationship that we don't know about; and in any case, 'different strokes for different folks'.