My back yard was slowly turning into a Jungle, so I called up the San Francisco Day Labor Program and hired a day laborer to come and help me with the cleanup. Their terms are very good: $50 for the first 3 hours, and $15/hr after that. With one strange (to me) condition listed on the hiring agreement that said “under our program policy, we do not ask about the immigration status of the workers who use the program.”
Around the time the worker was to show up, I get a call, about the only words I understood from the rapid Spanish was “Geneva Avenue”. So, I called SFDLP back and confirmed that they had my right address. They did. I have no idea how my street translated to Geneva Ave.
Well, eventually the worker got here. And he spoke very little English. Fortunately, weeding does not require that much talk or instruction, so I showed him what needed to go and he got started.
On the flip side, Holy Cow, the weeds here really love the weather or the water or something.
The yard looks pretty clean now – I just have to trim the strawberry runners and the rosemary and mulch. This is what it looks like now:
And the roses, spread their fragrance through the yard (when the wind’s not blowing of course, which happens maybe once a week or so).
