LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A local veteran's newest passion has become a coping mechanism for a debilitating disease and a welcomed site in the neighborhood.
If you know Richard Stahl, you know he likes iced coffee from McDonalds, sedums and working in his garage, better known as his workshop. He spent part of his career flipping houses. Today, he builds them, but on a much smaller scale.
"I just think they're gorgeous," Stahl said, admiring one of his latest creations. You might call it a birdhouse. Stahl calls it a sedum house, filled with moss and plants of every color.
"It has to be the right piece," he said, looking through a pile of donated wood from a fencing company.
These days, it takes patience and persistence. He grabs a bin full of brass screws that begin to shake like the hand holding them.
"I've got Parkinson's," Stahl said.
He's suffered from the disease for about 15 years, well after his days of Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.
"It's taken over now," Stahl said.
Even before then, Stahl considered himself a 'klutz' who 'couldn't do anything right.' But when he steps into his workshop, everything changes.
"It just gives me so much relief. I'm in the house, I'm sitting there with Parkinson's shaking, trying to get food in your mouth and all the frustrations Parkinson's brings, and then I come out here," Stahl said, with a big sigh.
He starts from scratch, with no blueprint, and begins building birdhouses filled to the brim with sedums. His granddaughter, Cyrus Richardson, is often at his side.
"I've taught her how to use these machines, how to cut," he said.
But the lessons learned in this workshop go well beyond the woodwork.
"Just the other day he asked me to start making one with him," Richardson said. "I love getting to hear all of his stories, and see what he enjoys doing and be a part of it all."
Richardson said these projects make her grandfather a lot happier, and he agrees.
"I can't tell you how much I feel inside... I made that!" Stahl said.
It's a vibrant work of art, worthy of display. Stahl just recently set up a sedum stand outside his home to get out in his community.
"This gives me something to have joy over. I sit in that chair over there and watch people look at my sedums," Stahl said. "I have so much love in these."
As for his birdhouse creations, Stahl won't sell them to you. But he will let you adopt them. They come with papers and all.
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