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Start from today and work back and forth. Today's task is to repair the neighbour's garden shed wrecked by Jim, the tree feller, odd job man and Queensland character who has been removing three coconut trees and a huge dead Australian gum tree from the garden of our newly-acquired retirement home at Moore Park Beach, Queensland, Australia.
Jim is a classic Queensland 'character — rangy, slow of speech and morally upright. My wife, Rhonda, found him through word of mouth (she's a quilter and quilters talk!).
He eventually rolled up in his slightly dilapidated ute (pickup) and asked us if we throught five hundred dollars would be a fair price. Expecting several thousands on past bitter experience we agreed. He claimed to be careful, skillful and responsible. Because of these assurances and his status as a 'character' we believed him — unwise as it transpired. Today I'm trying to repair the tin garden shed next door demolished by 'just a littel stick'. Getting the last heavy limb of the dead 'Carbeen' tree down from sixty feet up was slightly miscalculated and the 'little stick' went through the roof of the flimsy garden shed, buckling the framing and, in effect, wrecking the shed.
We struggled with his enormous heavy lifting jack to get the roof back into shape so that he could put in a few 'self tappers' that would restore it to functionality. the self tapping screws wouldn't hold in the rotted metal, Jim broke his handdrill and we decided to leave it for a couple of days. I've spent a sleepless night working out a better solution and am just about on my way to get tools and materials to do a proper job. As my hand tools are still packed I'll have to buy a new one. I'll get timber from a demolition contractor who sells secondhand materials and I'll practically reconstruct the shed today. Let you know how I get on! |
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