That's awesome. I would bet that if you put out a request to this forum you might be able to drum up enough support to help the old guy out. Sounds like a worthy cause to me.
The thought had occured to me. I'll see how it goes when I meet him tomorrow. He struck me as a very self-reliant guy, who really doesn't seem to feel he needs or deserves any charity. I respect that, a lot.
At 68 yrs old he makes his living doing hard physical work outdoors, usually in 90+ degree, 99%+ humidity weather. It clearly isn't because he isn't capable of other work - he was a banker before his accident - rather it is because it is what he wants to do.
I rather suspect that were I not myself disabled, he'd probably reject my help, as being motivated by pity. It isn't - I envy him his good health and physical robustness. I just want to make it possible for him to keep on doing what he loves to do - and it is clearly labors of love - the gardens he cares for are things of beauty, IMO.
I'll get a healthy return for my investment of time, believe me. Challenging problems, interesting design questions, and hands-on experience with motorizing a trike. I AM going to build one for myself one of these days, once I get the actual trike itself built. Toward that end I've recently made an acquaintance with the manager of a shop here in town that is the regional repair center for Lowe's garden equipment. They often get machines in on warranty returns with major defects, where it is actually cheaper to replace them than repair them, due to labor costs. So, it appears that a ready source of weedwacker, gas trimmer, and lawnmower engines at very little (or no) cost may be at hand. When they do a warranty replacement of an entire machine, they dumpster the remains.
Next I'm gonna find out how Home Depot handles the same sorts of things. There is a little old machine shop here in town that has sat empty for about 4 years now - machines all sold off. The office space at the back is 4 rooms and a complete bathroom, including a big shower that was installed to be available in emergency situations. If the owner is amenable to a rent I can afford, it would be a great place to live, with a truck sized garage door in front, 6 garage bays (3 per side) and the offices at the back to live in. I intend to offer the owner what I can afford, which will more than cover his taxes and insurance, plus I'll assume responsibility for all maintence (except structural). I hope he goes for it.
If he does, and I can get really cheap weedwacker engines, I'm gonna start collecting discarded bikes and motorizing them. There are a LOT of older retired folks in this town on fixed incomes, with old gas guzzler cars, and a LOT of minimum wage earning poor folks who need reliable transport. I figure there's no reason this town can't become the most motor bike riding town in the South.
Ingenuity I have, and patience I've learned. My kids are grown, the rest of my family is 2,500 miles away, and I want to feel like I'm accomplishing something again. The last 7 plus years have been downright miserable, since my wife's death, and I can either continue to vegetate or I can do something useful.