A good helper is wonderful

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

A couple of weeks ago I went down to have a look at the woods below the shade garden, where I hadn't been for months. What a mess. Smashed elms and their victims, fallen and dying willows, big maple branches down. So I've been going down almost every day, sawing and lopping and stacking, with a ladder hauled down a couple of days ago.

It's a slow job. I'm terrified of power tools and refuse to use them, and I'm neither strong nor energetic; still, I keep at it. With our current run of good weather it's enjoyable work. Yesterday, my helper was able to come, after some weeks of impediments of the weather, his work schedule, the holidays, and put in his usual half day. It was fabulous. I placed him in charge of the hand saw, while I assisted with the loppers and pruners. He worked like a champion, sawing down dead trees, ratty young black locusts, a tallish elm broken in two and the half of a flowering ash it smashed. My helper is a year older than me and half a head shorter; he's had cancer; he smokes; his hair has recently turned almost white. But he WORKS. It's inspiring, his energy and strength and the use he makes of them; and how proud he is of earning every penny he makes. He's a gentleman of the old school, too, insisting on carrying the tools, wanting to save me every even slightly heavy task (which I insist on a portion of: I like to work, too). It was a beautiful sunny mild day, with hellebores showing their lime green young growth, and clumps of snowdrops sprouting here and there. We got a lot done.

Good workers are one of the great blessings of this world, and I'm lucky to have my helper.

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jacqueline9CA

6 years ago

I do so agree. Our helper has also not been able to come for 5 weeks due to pouring down rain, and then the weekday he has available falling on both Christmas and New Year's Day this year. He is coming in 2 days - I am so happy! He is 30 something, and an immigrant, and he works hard and steadily the entire time he is here, and gets an amazing amount done. He is always cheerful, and knows a lot about plants, and asks questions when he is not sure if something is a weed or not., or how I want something pruned. Takes pride in his work, also - it is so refreshing! We are still in the middle of "Fall cleanup", which I have joined with winter pruning, so there is a lot to do. My DH and I both work in the garden when he is here - he is inspiring.

Jackie

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Comments (8)

User
6 years ago
Yes, you are indeed lucky to have him, dearie! Happy new year to both of you!
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
6 years ago
Melissa, I went to look at my hellebores and they show flower buds too! I think we are in the same latitude. Great post.
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Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author
6 years ago
Jackie, our helpers sound very similar: what a blessing they are. Everybody needs a good helper!

Thanks, bart! Happy New Year to you, too, and I hope this is a good one for you. God willing, we intend to keep planting trees in 2020; the environment certainly needs it, and we need the shade in summer. Our air is very dirty right now, and there's no precipitation in the two week forecast.

Sheila, I think you're about right. We're just under the 45th Parallel, which I believe runs through the middle of Oregon.
Perma n’ Posies/9A FL
6 years ago
This is so true, Melissa! I’m so glad you got the help.

My DH is my helper, and I’m always amazed at how much faster it goes with another set of hands. :-)
Rosefolly z5
6 years ago
I now have a helper for two hours once a week. It is amazing how much faster she is at getting things done than I am. It probably helps that she is a generation younger that I am, but also the fact that she doesn't get distracted in the garden is part of it, too.
jacqueline9CA
6 years ago
Our helper not only does an amazing amount of work, he is fast and meticulous and has very high standards. My DH lets the fallen leaves from our many trees and large bushes sit on our very long (about 100 ft) driveway for long periods of time, only raking them to the side a bit, until it starts raining a lot this time of year (we have had 15 inches so far since Dec 1!). Around this time of year he usually puts the already half composted mess into his compost pile. Our helper came yesterday, and my DH asked him to do that. WOW! Our driveway has never been so clean. The entire length of it has been shoveled, raked, and then swept with a broom - all of every bit of anything on it, gone into the compost pile. He even moved all of our pots in order to sweep under them, even the very large ones on the patio. My DH never does that! Also I was pruning a couple of roses I could reach from hardscape (the beds were way too wet to walk on, which is why we asked the helper to work on the driveway), and the helper made sure to put all of my rose clippings into our green recycling cans, without being asked, almost as soon as they hit the ground. I have decided he is a neat freak, in a good way. When I ask him to weed a bed, he never leaves a leaf showing, except plants I want (and he always asks if he is not sure).

Jackie
Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author
6 years ago
Glorious! Congratulations on your helper, Paula. I do love a job well done.