Illegal Help... Hmm...

the gardener who gave me a quote yesterday but never showed up, came early this morning. while we were just waking up, our dogs started barking. chiyang went out to check on what was bothering them, and realized that the front yard had been trimmed and the gardener was moving his stuff over to the backyard, where the dogs could see them. chiyang wanted to be clear about what needed to be done, so he walked out to have a word with the guy working the yard. when he came back in, chiyang said he wasn't the owner whom i'd negotiated price with. he was younger. and chiyang said, "maybe he's the son..." i asked if he is willing to do all the additional stuff chiyang asked of him, and chiyang said "i'm not sure, he doesn't speak english."

now tell me, how can a person with weak english have a son who can't speak english at all? i told chiyang he couldn't be the son. i went out to see for myself. the boy could not have been more than 16 yrs old. chiyang and i both had uneasy feelings that we might have hired help who had in turn, farmed out help to illegals...

there is a lot of this going on here in phoenix. both the licensed and unlicensed contractors hire illegals. the only difference is probably how much the charge the end-user, us! with the unlicensed contractors, you can probably negoitate prices with, whereas the licensed ones they have high overheads, and tend to charge an arm and a leg. but often times, both type will ended up having undocumented help. sigh...

i don't think we'll use this guy again... but still, i think this was the closest i've ever been to hiring illegals... it's sad... it's starting to rain and the poor guy is still out there. i'm praying God will hold the rain so his job will be a lot easier. and i'm thankful my yard is fairly low maint.

as for my tree update... it's up, but being propped up by sticks, ignacio, the company owner, the one i talked price with, has gone to buy wires to hold up the tree. he has since come to help and oversee. i feel better that he's around. but still... it's given me much pause...