woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #26
I used to work with two brothers and their uncle when I first moved over here. Their uncle...I called him 'uncle' too...'Oji' here, had been doing tree work all his life, probably from the time when he was still a boy, and I think he had about seen it all. Pretty quiet man, and he liked his sake. Oji showed me what a timber faller's spirit is. It was cool the way he approached things, cared for his tools, never seemed to expend more energy than he had to and took it all in stride. He had atmosphere and I liked being around him. A big bottle would always be at every job, start off the morning with a taste, help yourself throughout the day as you please. If I was driving, Oji would have me going all over the place to find a liquor store that was open in the morning, if he had neglected to get the sake the day before. It took the edge off, but nobody got plastered or anything, it was old school before the laws got harsh about that sort of thing. Lots of people worked that way. Oji died some years ago from cancer, drink and tobacco couldn't have been too good for him. I inherited his 090.
His nephews were always fighting with each other, sometimes I thought it might come to blows right in front of the customer. It bothered me, but I liked the work and was interested in learning from them, and they also had a lot of experience to share. Their father, Oji's brother, had been a lifetime tree worker as well.
No matter how late it was when we finished, and often we worked way past dark because we had to haul the logs that weren't being auctioned to the chip mill out in the boonies, often a way overloaded six ton truck swaying on a mountain road.... we always stopped and had some beers and food before going our separate ways home.
After Oji died, one of the brothers became too ornery to work with, so I packed it up with them. I still miss them a bit, their generation in the way they worked, is something that you can't see much nowadays. Rough and ready would be a simple way to describe them, and fortunately I'm still reasonably in one piece.
His nephews were always fighting with each other, sometimes I thought it might come to blows right in front of the customer. It bothered me, but I liked the work and was interested in learning from them, and they also had a lot of experience to share. Their father, Oji's brother, had been a lifetime tree worker as well.
No matter how late it was when we finished, and often we worked way past dark because we had to haul the logs that weren't being auctioned to the chip mill out in the boonies, often a way overloaded six ton truck swaying on a mountain road.... we always stopped and had some beers and food before going our separate ways home.
After Oji died, one of the brothers became too ornery to work with, so I packed it up with them. I still miss them a bit, their generation in the way they worked, is something that you can't see much nowadays. Rough and ready would be a simple way to describe them, and fortunately I'm still reasonably in one piece.
Making skills your own that way and you are less likely to treat them so lightly and want to give them up so easily.
