My best friend and his girlfriend and my wife and I were visiting a friend who had just had a full knee replacement who lives very remotely by himself who is around 71 to 73 and who decided to take care of himself alone way out in the forest. However, to understand this person he has lived like this since around 1971 or so when he bought the land and first built his home there. So, he is a very very physically active person who is already walking around with his walker around his land with a brand new knee replacement so he is kind of amazing in how strong he is already (as long as he doesn't pull any of his stiches external or 3 layers deep of internal stitches.
So, I took him a walker with 8 inch wheels with hand brakes that would be good around his land that I bought when I was recovering from my laproscopic Burst appendix surgery to help me recover better and still have mobility and balance. I haven't used it since around May 2015 at this point and we also took him an icer which circulates cold water onto his knee and back to a small tank with ice and water in it to reduce the swelling. And my wife also brought him an expensive box of chocolates which really made him smile.
And then as my wife and I were standing on his porch and steps to his home his large golden retriever who he named Vishnu jumped on the porch and it began to collapse so he just jumped off again. My wife and I grabbed hands to stabilize but it went down slowly so we stood in place and didn't even lose our balance and it didn't hurt us in any way. But then we had to deal with the fact that this just wouldn't do to leave it this way for a man alone in the woods who cannot easily even walk right now with a new full knee replacement less than a week old. Because he couldn't even easily walk out his front door now.
So, my friend and I who were visiting both have had a lot of experience building things. So, we realized we couldn't permanently fix this before dark. Also, we realized it had not been installed properly in the first place. Then I suggested we mount it on 4 by 6 timbers and my friend who has lived in this Mt. Shasta climate mentioned the the ground freezes here so it would move the porch so we couldn't do it that way. So, by this time we had gotten my friends whose house we were visiting his Alaskan Jack and I had gotten my truck jack from my truck and had already started to jack up the porch.
But, we realized we could do no permanent fix on his porch today. Also, he couldn't do it himself because he just got a knee replacement. So, in some ways it was good it happened while we were there so we could fix it for him because he wouldn't be able to for at least 4 months or so himself at this point.
So, we realized it needed to be lag bolted through the cement blocks at the base of the house directly into the cement and attached with a large piece of redwood to be useful. And my idea of 4 by 6 timbers won't work because the ground freezes solid most years down at least a foot for several months usually. So, when ground freezes it moves and would break the porch if we mounted it on 4 by 6 pieces or even 4 by 4 pieces. So, it had torn off the house base wood because it wasn't done right likely in the first place around 2007 in a way which would work for 20 years or more. So, we are going to try to do a 20 to 30 year fix on the porch even if most of the other wood at this point gives out before then. Besides, our friend is already 71 to 73 years old and 30 years from now he would be 101 to 103 years of age. Will he still be alive then? Maybe. He's pretty tough physically so this is very possible to likely at this point. Also, he exercises and eats a very healthy diet and always has as long as I have known him.
So, tomorrow we are going to fix my friend's porch for him because he can't right now with his new Knee Replacement.
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