New Gardener!

There is an older man that works at quite a few houses on our compound; he is a gardener. He is a real gardener. He is actually HB13's Uncle. I have seen the yards that this man takes care of. All of them are immaculate; very, very nicely planted and beautifully laid out. When G6 "trimmed" the bushes in the front yard two weeks ago, I started keeping my eye out for this man - the real gardener - during my morning walks with The Kids in hopes that I could find him and convince him to come and work at our house. Today we saw him - I made the Kids run with me to catch up to him - and I got him to commit to coming by to talk to me this afternoon. Oh happy day! [It is, after all, this Blog's Birthday... And, what a gift I have just arranged in celebration. Yeah. Okay. Really, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other, but still...]

Earlier today I calculated how much we are currently paying two gardeners. It is way too much! I have G6 working for me three days a week for three hours a day; and G5 comes on the days that G6 doesn't come and waters the grass. I'm paying a small fortune to the company that G6 works for - the company that promised me a "real" gardener, and sent someone that speaks NO English whatsoever, that has never "gardened" a day in his life before coming to my house, but wears a shirt that says "Gardener" as if that all of the sudden somehow magically transforms him into being a "real" gardener. [Ahh, just for the record... No. It doesn't.] I pay G5 a decent monthly amount to come during his lunch time to just water the grass and plants. In total, what we are currently paying for two gardeners - G6 who isn't a "real" gardener, and G5 who is a gardener but can only work for me for a half an hour or so during his lunch break - comes to 880 Riyals a month, or $235.92 in U.S. currency. Whoa! Wish I'd have taken time to do this math equation a few weeks ago. Overpaying by almost twice what I should be paying. Damn! I have now taken care of this, and have a new gardener - who I might even call by name, Appuk, instead of just calling him G7.

Like I said, I've been keeping my eye out for Appuk for a while, now, knowing that G6 wasn't going to last much longer working for me - he made it three weeks longer than I had planned for him to. Probably HB15 isn't going to last, either. He is doing just okay - not great - but today when I vacuumed up The Baby's hair after I clipped her top-knot I realized that HB15 has never once cleaned under the buffet. That's grounds for immediate termination, right there, I think...

I'm pretty sure that HB13, Appuk's nephew, would be thrilled to come back and work for me [well, perhaps "thrilled" isn't quite the right word]. Yes, I have accused him of being slow as molasses and dumber than a box of rocks, but he did do a very good job for me in that he did exactly what I want, when I want it done, and how I want it done. We'll have a chat next week, HB13 and I... If I can get HB13 to realize that he MUST be willing to get along with my Kids - which - other than being slow as molasses and dumber than a box of rocks - was my biggest problem with him. If he has the time - three days a week for five hours each of those days - then he can come back and work for me. It will be conditional on his realizing that he has absolutely no choice in the matter of enjoying the company of my Kids while he is working, and throw a ball for them once in a while when they bring him one or spend a minute or two with a tug toy or a squeaky toy... Perhaps next week we will be just a little bit closer to attaining near perfect harmony in this house...

I have a new back door [pictures to follow], and Mr. Carpenter-Repairman and his crew came a couple of days ago to measure for my new gates [I'll post the pictures once they have been installed].

Appuk starts working as my new gardener on Saturday - so I'll have a beautiful yard and gorgeous flower beds! And if HB13 comes back I'll have a clean house, too. Geez. What more could I possibly want?