rngrchad
Addicted to ArboristSite
Cruising home to some country-music after working 12 hours one day this past week I see an incredibly slender older man, probably in his mid eighties, running an oldschool top-handle saw cutting a blackwalnut next to the county road that the Line-clearing crew had dropped into his field. His 1970's Dodge 4x4 pickup with hardly a piece of body panel left on it had maybe 10 pieces of small bucked limb-wood lying in the bed. I drove by really slow, waved and smiled thinking to myself; wow, what an incredible old fella, he's out here all by himself using the bit of energy he has left to get this firewood all rounded up for burning next winter. For some reason I kept thinking of the fella and all the chainsaw gear still in my bed from yesterday, and made a u-turn in the tar and chip road to head back to him. I bounced my pickup down into the ditch and over to where he was working, got out, and asked "how long you been out here"....no answer just a smile. I yelled "HOW LONG YOU LIVED OUT HERE"....he laughed and told me he's glad I'm yelling because he can't hear and most folks won't talk loud enough for him to hear. His reply was something like "Been out hear since about 30." Lived in that house most all my life". He non-chalantly showed me what size rounds he wanted and I got out the 346 to cut them up for him while he sat on the bed of his truck all smiles grinning from ear to ear. Said "really like the saw you got". I took that as an opportunity to get out and show him my 390 w/ the 32" bar. He looked at that thing and said "young man, I couldn't even pick that saw off your tailgate to use it". Walking back to his wood pile he loaded up small pieces and I loaded up the bigger ones. He would take a couple minute break every after every 3 or 4 pieces and I mean really small pieces, a little while and the wood pile was off the ground and into the bed of his beat up ol' Dodge. He reached out with a shaky hand and mine met his....he says "Virgil's my name what's your last name again?" I YELLED my last name at him again telling him it's the same as the road just a few miles east out of town.....we talked a bit more about locals I might know and about restoring old tractors and such before I parted ways and headed back towards home.
I guess I just felt compelled to share this with some of you, as odd as it may seem. Virgil just gave me a great awareness of how quickly time passes and that many of us take our health for granted during our younger years. Virgil seemed so happily content to be working outside in the field with his oldschool chainsaw at a pace so slow it would make any of us aggravated. The patience and diligence of his toil was finely crafted so he could continue to work many hours. When I think of him I admire him in a way that I hope I see myself in those same shoes when I come near his age. What a neat guy.
I guess I just felt compelled to share this with some of you, as odd as it may seem. Virgil just gave me a great awareness of how quickly time passes and that many of us take our health for granted during our younger years. Virgil seemed so happily content to be working outside in the field with his oldschool chainsaw at a pace so slow it would make any of us aggravated. The patience and diligence of his toil was finely crafted so he could continue to work many hours. When I think of him I admire him in a way that I hope I see myself in those same shoes when I come near his age. What a neat guy.
in my avatar...?
