{"id":7375,"date":"2023-04-30T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=7375"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:42:08","slug":"the-joy-of-solving-problems-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=7375","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Solving Problems…."},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a list…yes, OK, I have dozens of list. They are there to avoid a “listless life” – no pun intended!!<\/p>\n

One of the items on my list for the front of the back yard…..(it’s a big yard)…is to stop a basement window sill from rotting. <\/p>\n

“Something there is that doesn’t like a wall (or a well).” Years ago, we had timbered in a small space below a basement window. Well, (gotta love that word) over time, the timbers rotted, the soil seeped in and the wood framing around the window decomposed. Why hadn’t I noticed this before? Well, (there it is again) I hadn’t been in the mood for thirty – odd years to paint the basement windows. However, I am getting new windows for the front of the house and I decided that the basement windows needed to match – almost.<\/p>\n

Enter the window-well tradesman (and his wife). I called a few companies that advertise in a small local newspaper. Fortunately, one responded. The quote was OK and he arrived on time. Did a great job and filled a number of holes in and around the foundations with the leftover cement at no extra charge.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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I can now make a small tick beside a big problem that has been resolved.<\/p>\n

The next problem was to re-do an adjacent flag stone patio.<\/p>\n

Enter my son!! He promised to help and I held him to it. What I was surprised to find was a master craftsman. He relaid the flagstone, we had removed to facilitate the work on the window well and went on to repair the entire east side of the patio. I can now tick off two of three items for the back yard list!!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The last item is a small extension to the patio, which my son has offered to do and I think I can find enough good flagstone in the various “areas” of the backyard to accommodate.<\/p>\n

Joy this week has not been all “bells, whistles and gongs,” nor as it been “sunshine, birdsong and blossom.” Rather it has been shovels, pitchforks and brooms. There is a certain Joy in the work ethic. It does elevate the slog and adds a hint of rapture (maybe) to the bricks and mortar.<\/p>\n

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So, in spite of a cold week, we managed to solve a few problems, move through the chores, save some money by doing things ourselves, cultivate the garden, play the piano, fill orders at work, have a lovely lunch with a friend, and write about the Joy of being able to do it all.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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I think that my slip for the Joy Jar this week is the fact that my son did an amazing job on the patio repair. Did I mention that he wanted a canopy with lights for the picnic table? Everything is a trade off!!<\/p>\n

The pictures? I added flowers because they are prettier than the well.<\/p>\n

Have an awesome week!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a list…yes, OK, I have dozens of list. They are there to avoid a “listless life” – no pun intended!! One of the items on my list for the front of the back yard…..(it’s a big yard)…is to stop a basement window sill from rotting.  “Something there is that doesn’t like a wall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening","category-joy","category-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7380,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375\/revisions\/7380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}