Another old age adjustment coming up.

Dick2

Well-known Member
I bought a new 7ft. fiberglass step ladder a few years ago, that I've used very little. With my current health problems, I've decided that particular ladder is just too heavy for me to handle anymore. I'll post it for sale on Craig's sometime after the New Year.

I have a lighter 6ft. fiberglass step ladder and a 16ft. aluminum extension ladder that I can lift easier and they will be sufficient for my needs.

I'm trying to be realistic about making adjustments as I age - before I hurt myself.
 

I have a five foot fiberglass that I should retire despite it being handy now and then, because it suffered a little after I got done greasing the top of the hoist cylinder of my dump truck. It wasn't quite up to the job of holding that 17 ft body up.
 
There are places on my house where I need a 40 foot ladder. I bought a nice one at a garage sale bout 10 years ago. Fast-forward 7 years and I can't put it up without a helper.
 
(quoted from post at 10:26:13 11/26/15) There are places on my house where I need a 40 foot ladder. I bought a nice one at a garage sale bout 10 years ago. Fast-forward 7 years and I can't put it up without a helper.

I need a 40 footer to work on my shop building, which was a problem until my friend needed help to make his 100 ft aerial work. Now as long as I keep it working I can use it any time.
 
I think about that ladder dilemma just about daily. Bought this place in 89 and couldn't reach anything with my 24 ft. ladder. Bought a nice 36 ft. alumn. ext. ladder at a farm sale and carried it about a 1/4 mile out the lane to my truck, last summer spent about 5 hrs. a day all summer scratching paint, wire brushing, press. washing, priming plus 2 coats of paint on just one end of my shop, plus fit in an even 20 t & groove boards in different areas. I couldn't even get the ladder down by myself when I was done. One day my left knee locked up coming down, couldn't raise it high enough to step down which created a lot of panic for awhile. If I'd have had any idea I was gonna live this long I might of skipped some steps along the way. Selling my ladder seems like giving up though.
 
I know just what you mean...I shortened my stainless steel thermos by letting the hoist down on my truck LOL. On the "ladder talk" - old age and ladders are two curves that
eventually meet unfortunately. I respect people that give up driving also when they know it's time, instead of waiting to be convinced by an accident.
 
I got a nice forty ft extension ladder left on a farm I bought at auction. It was behind the house, I guess the auctioneer didn't see it. I gladly hauled it home and it has lain for fifteen years because I really don't need it. I really should sell it because I know I'm too old to use it now.

Don't know about giving up driving. My dad bought a new Cadillac when he was 92. Leased it actually, had to pay the full lease up front. He loved it because it would vibrate his hip when he strayed over that side of the road or centerline. Scared the peewaddlin out of me but he drove by feel for 18 months until he fell at home and went to the nursing home. But no accidents. St. Clair County Missouri was a safer place after that.
 
So, you've reached a point where your ladder is too heavy for you to handle? It's just the opposite with me---I've gotten too heavy for my ladder to handle.
 
I too have had to make adjustments. Use a Farmall C and Jubilee to mow lawn. Riding mowers are too ruff on my back. Bought a terramite to lift and dig with, shovels kill me. Can't start a chainsaw, so I got a generator with electric start and an electric chain saw. I couldn't start the 13hp Honda pressure washer, so I put an electric starter on it. Bought a dump trailer so I don't ever have to unload it by hand, just push a button. Bought a agr-fab vacuum wagon, never rake leafs again, suck them up and put them on garden. Garden tiller kills my arms, so I use terramite to clean off dead plants in garden, cover garden with leafs, then in the spring use post hole digger on Jubilee and make holes to plant tomatoes and peppers in. I don't shovel or blow snow, use Farmall and Jubilee and push snow. The only old age is fun is to make adjustments, think outside the box.
 
I'm down to 6' and 10' step ladders and one 24' fiberglass for gutter work and can still handle it... although I have to be more careful than before.

I once owned a 40' aluminum I used for eve painting and it was a killer to operate alone... it spent a lot of time behind the shed in solitude. A friend needed to borrow it and I gladly took it to his house and told him he could use it as long as he needed it but to never bring it home to me. He said it was a deal. After his work it sat behind his shed for years... several years later a tornado hit his neighborhood and cleared his lot down to wood chipper sized debris. He remarked after recovering that the only good that came from the storm is that the ladder disappeared !!

Hips and knees are starting to tell me that hiring it done is soon going to be an option..

later
john
 
A friend gave me a large tree stand/ladder stand, when he moved out of state. He told me to not try and put it up by myself. Well I did. Two years in a row. Last year I had help. It was so much easier.

I ran a job at work on Wed.. With another hr to go, My upper body was trying to tell me it was quitting time. I will whine to management about it so that they might find a job for me that will allow me to continue working for them. Otherwise, I might not be working there much longer.
SDE
 
My wife gave me orders...no more ladders, no more on the roof. Its hell to get old. We were in the waiting room at the doctors and another old timer came in and gingerly lowered himself in the chair. I asked him what happened, he fell off the ladder. His wife said the ladders are going out to the trash. Good advice.
 

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