Last year I was given (yes, given) an acreage for looking after an old fellow while his nieces tried to find him a long-term case facility. The one niece came all the way out here from BC, the other came in from Melfort. The old fellow had another niece, who lived across the street from me, and about two blocks from his house, and complained she was "too busy" to help out. The old guy passed away on the day I was given the title to the old acreage he used to live on. How's that for coincidence?
Last Spring I began knocking the old farmhouse down that was on the acreage, taking my time in order to salvage anything that was salvageable, such as antique oil lamps, an icebox, a washboard, several windows, a hand-crank cream separator, several pieces of enamelware, and other odds and sods. The house itself came down board by board. Lots of the wood was rotten, but some of it was perfectly good.
This is farm country, and many of my neighbours are farmers. You'd think that, being farmers, they would be in pretty good shape.
Not so.
You've never seen so many guys with bad knees, bad backs, bad hips, swaybacked from having pot guts, that sort of thing. Bodies ruined by years of hard work? Nope. Bodies ruined by doing NO physical work, letting the machinery do all the work instead, and having their feeble bodies pounded to goo by riding around all day.
The generation before them are in much better shape. There are plenty of spry old guys in their 90's. They're trim, still in good shape, many of them still farming.
This sort of thing must skip generations, because the guys my dad's age (my dad himself was in great shape- he was a jock) are as lazy as the young guys these days. Don't know how to work up a sweat, won't lift a finger, couldn't run a block without suffering a heart-attack.
I don't understand how they can stand themselves like that. They treat physical work like it's a punishment to be avoided at all costs.
Ah . . . this reminds me of the peace and tranquility I felt the day I walked out . . . the oppressive weight lifted off my shoulders . . . the ringing in my ears fading . . . the sense of calm, and freedom . . .
Awesome! Stonework's a lost art in most other parts of Canada (as you're no doubt aware). Yes, bricklayers especially are often crazy-strong guys. When I was a steelworker I thought we were strong, until I worked on a project with old-fashioned girder construction and a brick face.
I'm about to build a house out of stone. May not get started until next year, until I get enough good stone collected. Got the idea from my younger brother, who used to be a stone mason in Quebec. Friend of his built a palace of a stone house for around $2500.
Sorry for the segue, peeps . . . my ex used to have to drag me out of hardware stores . . .
gsmonks Forum Posts (386)
RE: younger & elder
'Cause young guys are uneducated, inexperienced, don't own a pot to piss in, do stupid, impulsive things, etc., etc., etc..AND- young women are in their ideal child-bearing years.
It's pretty simple math.