04/14/26

Been working up at the ranch the last couple days, goin’ back tomorrow too, its an hour north, up in Pender Harbour. Working for a fellow named Andy, he’s lived on the ranch all his life.

Yesterday we walked the fence line up on the pasture, seeing how many posts needed replacing, or where we needed to add more to tighten it up. We went back down to the ranch and bucked cedars down to size and stripped ‘em. Threw ‘em on the back of Andy’s flat deck and brought them back up to the pasture. When we got up to the gate the bull was stood right beside it, stubborn fucker. I shoo’d him with a branch and he was grunting and his nostrils were flaring and his mouth was moving funny and he was staring me deep in the eyes. I got him far enough away to get the gate open and Andy pulled the truck in and shoo’d him a little further. We dropped off the cedars but haven’t started on the fence yet.

Today Andy was showing me where the old house was, right down by the water, the one he was born in that burnt down. It started on fire while his folks were out at the dance. Andy, his two brothers and his sister were asleep inside and the babysitter saved them. As he was showing me and telling me all this a little bird flew into the tree in front of us and Andy looked at me and said, SEE?

Then I re-plumbed the hydraulic lines on the Kubota so the hoe runs like a Cat now, not a John Deere. John Deere controls make me feel like my world is upside down.

Andy told me that yesterday after he closed up the barn he grabbed his knife and tried to throw it into the barn door and it didn’t stick. So he picked up his knife and said HELP ME GOD and tried again and it didn’t stick. So he picked up his knife again and said PLEASE HELP ME GOD and threw it and sure as shit it stuck. Andy looked at me and said, SEE?

Then I cleared all the dead blackberry bushes out from around the barn, and sprayed the living ones with diesel.

Today I asked Andy if he hunted and he told me about when he was 8 and shot a bald eagle. He dragged it back home and spread it out by the front porch, great big fucker. He grabbed his folks to show them and his Mom said, Andy, that animal is sacred. Go and bury it. He told his Mom he was aiming at the Crows. He said that was the first time he remembers lying to his Mom. Right when he finished telling me all this a Robin landed on the grass in front of us. Andy looked at me and said, SEE?

Andy’s Mom’s name was Robin.

Tomorrow we’ll go back up to the pasture and fix the fence. Then we’ll come back down to the ranch and strip Andy’s old boat and I’ll bust it up with the excavator and throw it on top of the burn pile and we’ll set it all on fire.