An afternoon with the pie keys

[muddy]

I have just had an interesting afternoon
Some villainous looking bloke came cold calling offering tree felling , garden work etc
He had pie key practically tattooed on his forehead .
So ( whatever was I thinking of) I showed him a raised bed I wanted removed .
Yes says he  quoting a price I can do it right now .
I have just finished a job nearby . Hmmmmm ok (what am I crazy )
I will get my man sez he  ( his son )
Up comes the son a lanky lad who is clearly a sandwich short of a picnic poor boy .
They had disturbingly  little equipment ( one shovel ) which the son seemed puzzled as to how it worked .
Nevertheless dad set to with gusto shovelling earth for all that he was worth .
I loaned him my spade and a wheel barrow.
Son immediately tipped the said wheel barrel over .
However after a few tries he got the hang of it .
Our conversation was bizarre . He confided to me the son was single at 16 but soon to marry .
What I exclaimed  that is ridiculous he's far too young .
I married at 14 he said ( he was 30 so that figured )  that's what WE do .
They both wore huge rings reminiscent of oversized knuckle dusters which they claimed were solid gold even taking them off for me to feel the weight !
They requested tea ( with fIVE sugars ) and bikkies .
I told them they all their teeth would fall out
They told me their favourite dish was rabbit .
I asked them if they were poachers ( they treated this joke with the distain I usually reserve for unfunny  ones on another forum which shall be nameless )
I didn't like to leave them alone ( I'm fond of that spade )
They told me they had horses and went to Appleby Fair ( an event I hate ) and another more local one . Had I even been ?
What !
Do I look like Grandma from my big fat gipsy wedding ?
Make that great grandma ( Grandma is only 32)
Clearly I need to do something about my wardrobe .

Eventually  dad ran out of steam and they more or less finished up ,well more less than more .
He needed to do some shopping .
I resisted the impulse to inquire where he shopped for rabbits .
( we are defenceless old pensioners after all )
The garden is now reminiscent of the Somme but I really can't blame them for that .
Everything is wet and claggy
Most of the raised bed is gone .
And it was an experience to say the least
Next time they come calling I will hide behind the sofa .



 

[GrannyMac]

All I can say is, you were brave!  Son in law just fitted us a ring doorbell, so we can avoid cold callers.  After a horrid experience with a man wanting us to sign for power just before Christmas, we don't want to open the door to any strangers, especially after dark.

Glad you got most of the work done, and I hope for a reasonable price. 🤞🏼

[muddy]

Well you know I was so fed up with gardening forms coming and saying they would come back with a quote etc etc then you never hear from them again I just though what the heck! 

[Scrumpy]

They ask me if I need my drive (doing) because they are working nearby ..
They say that they have some spare material left over..
 I am sure the tarmac was meant for the M25...
I always answer 'no thank you'..
  A few villages away their is a travellers site.. It is a 'No go' area..
Sam would get bricks thrown at fire engines should they turn out for a fire on the site..
They often had fires.. I guess they were burning the evidence..

The 'Buy some lucky heather lady?' went years ago..

[klondike]

I remember letting some travellers tarmac a drive. The garage was at the bottom of the garden and the drive opened on to the road round the corner. I watched. They shovelled the tarmac off from the back of a flatned truck. No heater. I assume they had nicked it from a nearby roadworks somehow by tipping the bloke with the heater. They shovelled a reasonable thickness over the existing tarmac after a lack luster sweeping off of loose bits. It wasn't bad for the low (cash obviously) price.

He asked if I'd like white chippings in it (I think a 70s fad). I asked if it cost more. No says he. OK says me. He took a tiny handful of maybe 20 chips chucked them over and rolled them in. Job done.

It looked better after than it did before and like I said was round the corner anyway.

On the shovelling game. On house we had there was a steep slope down to a fence at the side of the house. I wanted a shed. I did the digging out to lay the shed base and turn the slope into a level area supporting wall and shed. My back must have ached for a month after that.

[JBR]

We mistakenly asked some what turned out to be pikeys (they appeared in all the usual overalls and helmets, etc.) to trim back a tree of ours.  They effectively killed it, then asked for more money to take away all the branches.  We refused to pay until they agreed to remove the waste.
Never again.

[Mups]

I get a glut of them knocking on doors  around here,  then it all stops again for a while,  presumably because they've moved on? 
It's always the same old spiel, like -  "We've been working nearby", or  "we notice you've got a couple of loose roof tiles" or do you want your driveway doing,"  etc. 

Some even have little business cards to hand out too,  but I have always remembered something my old neighbour where I used to live told me.    He said  'never trust a card that doesn't have their address on it'.  And I think that is very good advice.    All these cards usually have is a mobile number.

No way would I let these people anywhere near my property.    I neither like them, or trust them one bit.

In the village I used to live in,  there was a gipsy site.  I used to see them at night rabbiting and hare coursing in the fields behind me. 
They used to go at break-neck speeds with their pony & traps up and down the roads, probably in training for Appleby.
One morning the young driver of the trap got killed,  and his horse was so badly injured the vet had to come out and  destroy it.

The local copper once told me none of the police liked to deal with the gipsys because of their threats. You see, the Gypo's knew all the local bobbies, and where they lived.

They also once did a job for my ex-husband,  but he hadn't enough cash on him, so they actually made him get in their car and they escorted him to his bank to get their money out!  I was out at the time, but when I got home and found out, I went beserk.  No way would I have let them do any jobs for me, let alone get in their car!

I had another run-in with them once too,  over a dog which I found roaming and alone,  but that's another story.  Briefly,  I tried to do the right thing and paid them for the dog,  but took my money then kept wouldn't give me the dog!   


*  Muddy,  how could they marry at 14?  Who would do a service for kids at that age?  It couldn't have been legal surely.

[Michael Rolls]

Living in relative sticksville haven't been bothered by them since we moved here in 2003, but my first wife and I were always having them at the door in Surbiton

[Scrumpy]

I need a fence and gate replacing .. I would never use them.. 
You get what you pay for... Or should I say 'You don't get what you pay for.'

[Michael Rolls]

More like it

[Raven]

Don't get them up here but sometimes did in Perth. I always told anyone who asked about work that this was a Council House and I didn't need to do repairs or alterations. 

[Michael Rolls]

Good thinking

[klondike]

There's a section of dual carriageway that runs between two major roads running into town to the north. I has big wide verges one side and the pikeys often used to park there leaving the usual piles of crap behind when they eventually left. The council must have had a genius in the highways team. Instead of clearing all the crap up they just dumped loads of soil on top. Initially an eyesore but of course it seeded and what you had left were big grassy hillocks where there had been flat inviting pikey pitches. This continued for a while. now there's a mile or so of "landscaped" hillocks and no pikeys.

My wife and I often used to chuckle about this whenever we used that road. Once when heading into Wales she looked at the mountains and came out with - bloody hell they're hard on the pikeys here aren't they?? 

Here's a section

[Mups]

But how could the council cut the grass if they had earthed over piles of rubbish, Klondy?

[klondike]

They didn't til it settled. They don't do it like lawns anyway it's just roadside. Maybe they use a cutter arm on a tractor. No idea.