The Sequoia Trip-ch.2 part 2

the sequoia trip

ch.2

    (Cont. from page 4) - ann and lee had been a godsend to me over the years. i had just lost the last woman i could love to some trivial spat , and yet neither of us could find a way to make amends , and just left each other alone , knowing it was tearing both our  hearts apart.as neither of us would budge, and so we moved on , or tried to at least the best we can do. i hoped things could be different but i guess it just has to be that way. i tried to date but could never get my lovers smile off my mind. so i remained single for years and will probably die alone as that is my fate. i had hoped that lee and ann would take on the small greenhouse business i established and keep my river front lots mowed and cast my ashes in the mighty Muskingum river so i could take a ride on the Mississippi river and out into the gulf. but hopefully that will be a few years down the road. 

         carving is harder for me as the chainsaw is starting to work on my muscle control and my eyes are going so i am not able to achieve the fine degree of carving i once knew. i taught  lee when he and ann come around how to finish the bears , and they both became proficient and enjoyed finishing the carvings i have done as well lee also picked up the chainsaw and also began carving on his own. it wasn't nearly the style of  mine but still worthy to sell and was eagerly bought up by passerby's on their way up and down the state route.  ann loved painting the carvings with oil paints as artists do and coloring up the carvings when needed. .the aromatic vapors of fresh clean spar urethane kinda softened the old brain cells and made the job more enjoyable and there was the sense of satisfaction of seeing a carving come to life when you finish it as in the one above lee was working on today. 

      since meeting ann and lee we have tackled many projects including building a new greenhouse on the lot i found down here at \Stockport. they helped me move from the farm down here and i live in the old trailer until i was able to renovate the old cabin on site. we rehabbed  the boat dock and reworked the old pontoon boat i bought and we would go out and fish as often as they could make it down. ann lived in Dover , about 80 miles northeast of where the lots were.   lee lived  in Wooster on his moms farm. she had a good job at the family business and wasn't about to check out yet . lee worked on the farm and had a small pension for injuries he received to his back when he was younger. farming and just about anything was hard for him , but he always remained steadfast in believing you need to work smarter not harder. to take time to make sure you have a good lift. if it is to heavy to find another way to lift what ever it is you are trying to lift. he would have multiple jobs going on in a days time and depending on the priority of the job he was doing , he would leave one and start again with another. getting little bits of this and that done over a period of time. 

     they would spend time on his farm and escape to come down and visit me and catch me up on their lives that they both shared with me. i had removed the old trailer from the lot and replaced it with a tiny cabin they both learned to enjoy. it gave them privacy, and also a chance to enjoy the sounds of big cats flopping on the river at night. we had caught a 35 pound shovel head on an ocean rig tied to a pole holder that i set out at night. i carved a big deck chair i put on a pedestal so it would turn up river and down and baited both hooks with chicken liver. this i would set out every night and then sit in the chair and feel the moisture of the night creep on t my skin as the light of the fire would dance on the tip of the rod. the sounds of the river lazily passing by and an old country tune would soon have me nodding off . one night when lee and ann were there and i had baited the line and cast it then no sooner than you could even settle in your seat than the line gave a sharp tug and then went slack. lee saw what i was looking at and the pole jerk and immediately checked his pole, and it was ok. again the pole snapped and the drag came on as the line singed out of the open spool working the drag, it was all i could do to hold on as the tip arched . after the initial fight though he seemed to calm down recognizing his fate, and soon was alongside the dock being swept into a net by lee. we took pictures and weighed him but had him back in the water in 10 minutes and he easily swam away. 

        i had kept a blog where i recorded the events of my life so that others may some day understand the reason i was doing things the way i did. it also served to let my old love know i am still alive and doing fine. and just trying to move on with my life. although i will never know if she will ever see a word of what i have wrote, it will do me good to just write sometimes. lately it has been all lee and ann as they prepare for their sequoia trip. at times i wish it was me that was going. but this is for someone younger than me . i have trouble walking to the mailbox and it is right behind the cabin. this weekend they had stripped the dickens out of the van , and parts were being ordered . ann was going to make new curtains for the windows of the van and took measurements. we had a good weekend that weekend and it was just the beginning of many to come. 

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