The Timio situation

All this yard work got me thinking about the whole Timio thing. Dede and David are going to be talking with him about the things he should be doing around the farm. He pays no rent or utilities. His family lives here and he runs his landscape business from here. He uses Dad's water for his nursery stock. In exchange for all that he's supposed to be doing work on the farm. He's not doing enough.

This is a very sensitive subject with Dad. He thinks Timio does a lot for him but none of us can see it. Sometimes Timio will help Dad with something or have Rosa or his kids do some yard work. Rosa cleans his house...sort of. She can't deal with Dad's clutter so she can't really clean it. She'll do dishes and his laundry sometimes but one old man alone doesn't make much of a mess. She also will turn on the Christmas tree irrigation and water Dad's tomatoes.

But until recently the landscaping around Dad's house was overgrown and weedy. Dad talked to Timio about his electric bill so Timio had his wife and kids do some yardwork. They've kept it up for a few weeks now....sort of. And they're not doing the back yard.

The real estate deal we're trying to put together so Dad can get some income isn't going very well. The city wants to limit how Dad can use his land. That means Dad needs to find another way to use the property to make money. He could rent out the barnyard to a construction company or a landscaper or whatever. It needs to be cleaned and refenced. But Timio has taken over the barnyard. He has spread out over a large portion of this place.

Since Dad talked to him he has also been having his people transplant Christmas trees. We're getting out of the tree business. If he wants to show Dad that work is getting done he should clean the barnyard.

So... I think (And this is just my opinion. Feel free to discuss it with me.) that Dede and David should talk to Timio about these things;

1. Clean out the barnyard. Dad needs income.
2. Maintain the back yard. Timio's kids use the pool, too. We'll do pool maintenence, they can do the yard.
3. Do some major tree trimming. Cut out the rogue palm trees, do some pruning of the landscape trees.
4. Clear his stuff out of the alley. We're going to move the big trailer back there so it can be used for storage.
5. Get his stuff away from my back gate. I asked him to do this a long time ago. (Ok, this one's for me.)
6. Stop transplanting Christmas trees.

I guess this list should be prioritized. Pick the top two or three and deal with those. I also wonder if Timio should be told that Dad has Alzheimer's. He should be looking for another place to live and run his business. It could take him a while to find something that will work for him. I'm pretty sure that once Dad can't make decisions for himself we'll all ask Timio to leave.