Geese were flying low overhead and honking their arrival,
and lawn mowers are in full-swing this afternoon as the neighbors get in the
mood with the sunshine that almost convinces me Spring is on the breeze …
Neighbor across the way, mowing
… and the hired maintenance man is driving the
streets; hauling his mowers, weed whackers, and garbage cans behind in his homemade
utility trailer, mowing and pruning for those who can’t.
But it isn’t Spring yet. Daffodils and crocuses
may be blooming, but here in the PNW, the weather is schizoid – it’s pneumonia
weather. I’ll do my yard work next month when the weather will be a bit more
stable.
Last year, today, the temperature was low enough that skimpy snowflakes fell with the
ceaseless rain. This year, I woke up to a light snow dusting on
rooftops that was gone before noon, on the 3rd. I’ll do my yard work
next month when the weather will be a bit more stable.
Tonight, I am working on a spring themed dust cover
for the dehydrator …
… while watching this logger family movie on
Youtube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4BOWoa5W4). This movie is not always available
on Youtube, so tonight is a real treat even though I always cry towards the
end. Bob always barked out a laugh at the end when the dead arm with the
1-finger salute went up.
Memories in a movie :-D
‘Sometimes A Great Notion’ is the first movie I
watched with Bob when it was showing at the local Columbia Movie Theatre, here
in Longview – everything seen in the movie was what Bob did for a living for 19
years of our married life. Bob was a logger, born into a logging family of a
logging family – Bob’s grandfather was born in a logging camp on Salmon Creek,
this side of Graysriver. The log rafts are dangerous, and no place to fool
around – ALL of logging is dangerous, but the rafts are tricky because the logs
roll, and they swell with water making them very, very heavy.
Bob told me of the time his Camero ended up on a
log raft rounding a sharp bend on Puget Island – he even pointed out the spot
it happened when we crossed the mainland bridge and touched down on Puget Island.
I am glad I did not know Bob when he was a hell raiser. I got him after all the
youthful fire and rebellion had run its course ;-)
Bob and his beloved car - that car was untouchable: it was a hotrod. 1967/Cathlamet
Bob (in jeans), his Dad/Bonnie & Merry & Kerry. 1969/Toutle, WA
Bob did just about everything there was to do in
logging; and it was hard work. He started out helping his parents with their
small private logging outfit in Eden Valley (his father did the cat logging
and his mother drove log truck hauls – hauled logs in the back; and kids in the
cab). Bob learned to cat log and drive his father’s truck when he was old
enough to see over the dashboard. When Bob started working after he graduated High
School, he drove log truck for Durrah & Martin Logging Company. He moved on
to choker setting; then to shovel operator by the time we married (He was
also doing cat logging, machine maintenance, and building truck roads/shovel-log
stack landings on weekends). He drove the crew bus; it was parked in our driveway
for 19 years. He could high-climb with a long, heavy, Husqvarna chainsaw slung
across his chest and back; and top evergreen trees that reached high into the
sky … slowly and methodically cutting that tree down piece by piece – that
scared me while I watched him: I didn’t breathe easy at all until his
feet were back on the ground; to him it was fun. To me, it was risky business.
We burned a woodstove for heat most of our married life – and Bob could chop
those cords of wood with one hand, while reaching for another chunk of wood to whittle
down to stove size.
Bob was a manly man.
Handsome too; and magnificent in action to watch
;-)
When Durrah & Martin retired in 1993, we
moved to Raymond, WA, where Bob drove log truck for 6 months while we waited
for the birth of our daughter’s 1st child – our granddaughter,
Alyna. But Bob hated Raymond, so when he got word there was a job waiting for
him back here in Longview, he came back to drive log truck for Taft Logging in September
of 1995 – Alyna was born November 4th in Grays Harbor hospital … and
we were all living in Longview, on Eufaula Heights, before Thanksgiving 1995.
Bob stuck with Taft for 2 years before moving on to drive chip truck for Lemmon’s
Trucking: he drove for Lemmon’s for 17 years before retiring 8 years ago. Bob
drove truck up and down the freeways, about as long as he worked in the forest;
he didn’t particularly like driving truck because it was pretty monotonous, but
he had a family to support, so he manned up and did what he knew to do. But he
always preferred to be in the forest, doing what he did best on the landings.
And he always smelled so good when he
came home: he smelled like a fir scented man because the saw dust and fir
pollen came home on his clothes, on his skin, and in his hair. I will always
associate the crisp, clean, pungent odor of fresh cut Fir with Bob. Always.
I finished the main dust cover just as the movie
ended – but the trim will have to wait; I’m tired & I’m going to bed:
Waiting for trim. I haven’t decided what trims I want on it yet – maybe I’ll know tomorrow ;-)
Always ~ OX
