Over the next few months, Mike and I worked together a lot, mostly without the boss Jim around. My previous experience had been as a framing carpenter and I knew the routine pretty well, it was all about production and fast paced, but when it came to doing the finish work I was not so good. Mike explained to me that first of all "you've got to slow down!" Finish work takes a whole different mindset and tools. He picked up my hardly ever used block plane and asked "you ever sharpen this thing?" "I thought it was" I said. He laughed and said the blade needs to be sharpened on a regular basis and then showed me his technique for doing so...when he was done he shaved a patch of hair cleanly off his forearm with it, and also advised me to buy a low angle block plane, better for the kind of work we're doing he said. First of the many lessons I would learn from my new friend.

One morning.... boss man Jim tells me to get in his truck and we go to the outskirts of town where he has a 40 acre tract of land to be developed into house lots.
When we get there he points out the yellow ribbons on the trees that define where he intends to put a road in. He gets a large chainsaw out from the back of his truck... a couple cans of fuel...chain file and some bar oil....and asks me if I can handle a chainsaw. I figured ...how hard can it be...and said sure. He explains that I am to cut down all trees between the ribbons....cut logs into four foot lengths and load them on the flatbed truck he had out there....then take all the brush make a pile and burn it. He had a couple of old tires there and told me once on fire they would help the green brush burn better.
He stayed for about half an hour to get me started then left...important business he said...and that he would come back later and pick me up. It was a hot day already and I was glad to have a full jug of water. It was fun at first...dropping those first few big trees.

Looking back now it might be considered negligence...leaving a 19 year old, in the middle of the woods, with no phone or car...with a chainsaw and a couple cans of gas.....(but we rode our bikes with no helmets back then...if you can believe it!). I started to get the hang of getting the trees to fall where I needed them to...but then there were the ones that didn't. No buildings or wires around but I found out...it can be a real problem when they get hung up on another tree. I managed not to hurt myself, and after a very long day ...hauling logs and burning brush...I was totally exhausted...... waiting for my boss to come get me like he said he would. He didnt mention what time though.

my mum once sent me a newspaper article about a man with very arthritic hands
that was using WD40 as a solvent to clean up a real gunk covered carbuerator.
he didn't give it much thought any more than getting gasoline on his hands and
just washed them when he was done and left the parts to soak.
The very next day he was amazed to find he had recovered 80%
of his manual dexterity in his hands. i was mudding\sanding ceilings out in california
and could barely raise my cup of coffee my shoulder hurt so bad. then i said Fug -IT
sprayed wd on my left hand and massaged it into my right shoulder. Pain subsided!
it was warming like an epsom salts rub... i went back to work...

great story RMarsh

Thanks for the tip Raven....I've tried a lot of remedies....nothing has worked so far...cortisone injections, cbds, creams, ointments pain pills etc. Doctor says....good news is its not going to kill me....bad news... no known cure and it only gets worse with age. Too many years of use and abuse in construction trade.... the wear and tear... especially where thumb and wrists connect.... Lately it seems like every injury I ever had and recovered from is back to torment me. Happy to have good legs though:hihi:

I know what ya mean on injuries. I totally cringe when i see people miss-using and/or ABUSING THEIR ANKLES... like they are Bionic or have the terminator body where they simply auto regenerate. I have a 2 foot wide ramp that leads from the midsection connector room up to the main barn (40 ft) and i was pushing a wheel barrow up there to go get firewood. Being extremely cold i threw up my hood (bad idea) and it messed up my peripheral vision just enough that my right foot stepped out on into the air. This made me spin and flop down onto a big pile of slap wood (kindling) really fast Blam! tearing off my shoe, cutting my leg right thru my dungaree's and thermal underwear it hit me so hard. So Now i plan to rebuild the ramp 3 feet wide with 5/4 plywood plus adding proper safety rails.

drudgery lifting
 

keeping the hot fire going
using your hand repetitively takes a toll on the ole thumb muscle

so we almost daily use Arthritis penetrating heat rub
used to be just $1.00 dollar :doh: now your lucky to find it!

it's either that or a muscle rub /blue ice or Lido-caine patch from walmart :fury:

here's what it looks like:

Raven
 

You buried up there?

After a long day of cutting down trees, loading logs, and burning brush ....quitting time came and went....and still no Jim. When he does show up, I am relieved, i need him to give me a ride back to my car, so I can go home, and get cleaned up for a date with my girlfriend......but there was a problem. Jim tells me that we have to go deal with a concrete form that gave out right when they poured it....he sped back to town where the job was.....and as darkness came we were there shoveling concrete back into the refastened formwork.....with him cursing the whole time........now I was really exausted! Showed up late at my girls house and fell asleep on her couch.

Hey you guys try this stuff : Voltaren

I have Ostio-Arthritis in both knees. I am "bone on bone in both with bones spurs in both. This stuff works for me. It is not cheap but it does work.

I've got a large tube of the Voltaren in the truck....apply it before work and at lunchtime. I dont think it gives me much pain relief though..hard to tell when I go right back to using my hands for my work...but it is expensive so I must not waste it.

When I was in high school I hung around with all the cool kids.....all we cared about was getting high and getting laid. But all the partying was turning some into alchoholics and hard drug users. I didnt want that for myself, I started to see them as losers that I needed to break away from if I was going to succeed.

They say you will become more like those who you associate with.
Now that I had graduated high school, I was working with two grown men who were both straight arrows...no drinking or drugs. Both had built their own homes. Working full time...learning to be a carpenter... gave me a sense of pride and independence. I read a couple of books that had a profound effect on my way of thinking.
I started planning my future, feeling like I had the power to make it happen.

[QUOTE=I started planning my future, feeling like I had the power to make it happen.[/QUOTE]


First thing... was to save as much money as I could. My new friend and co-worker, Mike, advised me that...."working just forty hours a week is never going to be enough to get ahead." You should figure on trying to match your weekly take home pay by doing side jobs for cash." and that he had a lot of side work and needed help with them on nights and weekends. So I started leaving my regular job at 4:30 after my eight hours...grabbing something to eat..then go work on his side hustle jobs until at least 8:30 pm.
He was right.....doing that and working saturdays as well...basically doubled my regular pay....and it "all" went into my savings account.
Watching my account balance grow was encouraging and I had a plan for what to do with that money.
It was when I proposed to my girlfriend, that I told her I would be building a house for us.

My original plan was to buy 20 acres up in New Hampshire and start a homestead......I new a guy from fall river who did it...built a small cabin......no electric or plumbing for the first year he and his wife were up there. Anyway my girl told me there was no way she would move that far away from her family.
So I started looking locally for a piece of land to build upon. My boss at the time was a developer/builder and he offered me a one acre lot in his subdivision for $5,500. But I knew about the high water table there and wet basements all to well......and that there wasnt going to be enough privacy for my liking......so I kept looking.

I informed her parents and mine...they were happy to hear the news....but understandably skeptical when I said I would be building our house by myself. I was 19 years old.

My search for the right place to build led me to a really beautiful acre and a half lot, "high and dry" as they use to say, and it abutted conservation land. It wasnt in a subdivision where everybody knows everybody elses business and that was a plus to me......i like my privacy.
So I made the decision to buy it from the private seller who was building a house next lot over. I had saved as much money as I could but it wasnt enough......so I would have to get a loan for the balance to make the purchase.
That proved to be tougher than expected. I went to the bank manager where I had a savings account with half of the money I needed and asked to borrow the rest, my passbook showed weekly deposits of whole paychecks. He turned me down..... saying "we dont like doing loans for vacant land. Went to another bank and they said I needed a co-signer. No way would I ask my parents to do that. I was determined to do this myself. I kept looking....my boss suggested trying with his bank and with his recommendation I was approved.

So it was in the fall of '75 I became the proud owner of a beautiful piece of land with giant pine trees and a clean running stream just beyond the back lot line in the state forest. I wasnt going to build on it just yet... our wedding date was set for summer of '77....so had to stay focused....get the loan payed off....apply for another loan to build and decide on what type and size house we could afford.
At my job we were building one house after another....they were different from each other but similar in so many ways....I was really catching on to the whole process and completely devoted to learning every aspect. After a while I felt well prepared to taking this project on.

After the land transaction was complete, the weekend came, and I went out there, pitched a tent and spent the night. Next would be some tree cutting and land clearing.... I had no money for a new chainsaw.....so I brought an old axe. That turned out to be less than ideal....the next weekend I rented a chainsaw.

Working an average of about sixty hours a week...I managed to pay off the land loan in exactly a year to the day.... took the day off and after the trip to the bank went out there....laid down in a sunny spot and fell asleep.

I came to the conclusion that a modest, small starter home would be the way to go. It would be a 26' x 36' Cape cod style home....I had already framed a bunch of these so I knew it would be easy. I designed it with one bedroom on the first floor...and a full dormer on the second.. left unfinished to be completed later on.

^^^^^^^^
I love your story! Hard work and a good head on your shoulders at an early age, sounds like you were raised well.

Thanks....I think about my deceased parents every day....how hard they struggled to raise eight of us....instilling values....and in the case of my dad....fear!....my mom would ask ..."what got into you?...when she saw what I was attempting to do.
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Yeah....my dad..I watched him take down each of my bigger brothers...on different occasions..so i never tried getting smart with him ..I got the "belt" a lot mostly for fighting with my just slightly older brother.
But my dad was there for us especially in tough times.
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Having a mentor...my co-worker and now friend..was a big advantage to reaching my goal. He was always there with advice and knowledge. When I got engaged...he said "dont blow a lot of money on an engagement ring." "You dont know how things will turn out."
I'm a little embarrassed to admit....but i took his advice on that too....and spent a grand total of $175.00. Wife and I laugh about it now....and of course she doesnt ever wear it. But she will admit now that our own new house as a wedding gift more than made up for it.

So, with our wedding date a year away, I had to get serious about getting things in order. I would be able to do all the carpentry required......but there was a lot more involved.
Excavating, foundation, plumbing and heating, electrical...septic system etc... fortunately I was familiar with all the subcontractors my boss contracted with, got quotes from all of them and put all the numbers together. Could all this really be done for under $25,000?
It better be, because that is all the bank would give me on my newly approved mortgage loan.

I was seeing a stark contrast between the group of people I hung out with as a teen....and these two successful working men who were part of my new situation. I was working a lot more and hanging out less with those" friends".

One hot day, that summer of '76, I was stripping a roof off of an old house in Rochester. When I came down for a break, sweating and filthy, I saw a familiar car coming down the road, that pulled over near my vehicle. It was two guys that I knew from our high school days of partying and hell raising. The exchange went something like this:

"WTF are you doing up on that roof?". they asked

"Working for a living now" I said.

"Well we got a case of beer, weed, and we're heading for the beach" "C'mon with us!"

"I cant" I said "I'll lose my job"

"Tell your boss to go f u c k himself" They scoffed.

"No, you guys go on ahead." was my reply.

Pretty sure that was the last I ever saw of them.

Around that same time in my life, I randomly picked up a book I saw kicking around that may have been my dad's or maybe belonged to another family member.
Curious title "Phsyco-Cybernetics"
After a chapter or two I was overwhelmed at the revelations in it about the power of positive thinking. The timing of finding this gem couldn't have been better. After I finished reading it, I started putting these theories into practice, amazing stuff.

There is so much more...but here it lays out seven principles...then it delves deeply into the self image stuff.

The first element is Sense of Direction, or having an objective to pursue. Direct yourself toward success every day by setting goals.
Next comes Understanding to know when your fear or desire is altering the truth. Anxiety, fear, and desire cause us to misunderstand events, which leads to failure.
Then we have Courage, which is taking calculated risks to make your goals happen. Don’t delay action until you are completely confident. Even Imperfect Courage is better than none.
Afterward comes Charity, which consists of putting the problems and needs of people first. Caring for others is a hallmark of outstanding individuals.
Esteem is next and is all about having a positive self-opinion. Tell yourself often that you can do whatever you think you can!
Self-confidence comes after esteem. You can improve this one by remembering your past successes. Learn to accept and love yourself for who you are, and forget your past failures.
And last we have self-acceptance, which is learning to live and be okay with yourself, weaknesses and strengths.

Methinking you should write a book...seriously.

Thanks...mostly writing it to myself in the early morning hours...that foster reflecting on what has passed. Compelled to write it down the way i remember it.
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I love reading these posts.
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Thanks...i probably am coming across as boastful to some...thats okay. Comments are welcome....as well as anyone caring to share their positive outcomes. One of my rules to live by is to shun negative people.

There were some not so positive experiences in my past....nothing really bad and im not intending to be complaining here because as it turns out this all helped me grow up or "builds character" as they say....but as a kid I felt a lack of confidence, and an inferiority complex ....from growing up on the poor side of town...was easy to tell that all my clothes were hand me downs or from the second hand store. My peers noticed that stuff and it didn't feel great hearing the comments. Embarrassed whenever money was needed for anything.....all my paper route earnings went to my mother....that was established way before I took over the routes from my older brothers.
I wanted to be good at sports....and one day a friend suggested I try out for his baseball team....at the tryout I made some incredible catches in the field....the next day same friend told me I was invited to join the team...just be at the next practice. That's when it dawned on me that practice and games would be at the same time the papers had to be delivered....and that was that.
When I made the freshman football team in high school....I had to drop out due to having to walk/hitchhike the 10 miles home after every practice...was a kid on the team going in the same direction and he and his dad would drive right past me. I felt unworthy at times.
So I never got to play organized sports. We were a one car family and my dad had a long commute so not possible to chaufer me anywhere.
Not the worst problems to have I know.....but it caused me to want to succeed at something and break out of my inhibitions.
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All those insecurities vanished pretty quickly once I found my calling..... a job that would change me from a scrawny kid with no idea what to do to earn money....to a very fit young man with some marketable skills...a trade.......and now a girlfriend I could take on a date without worrying how to pay for things.

I had met a girl in eighth grade that I was smitten with, we were too young to be in any kind of exclusive relationship, and we both had growing up to do. We dated others while admiring each other from afar....It wasnt until senior year in high school that we got together again. She was planning to go college, paying her own way, with money she saved from a job she had at a nursing home since she was 15 years old. She said we should wait until she finished school before moving forward with our relationship.

"I got the girl I wanted".... It's something I've often said to my wife over our now 45 years of marriage. She was such a great catch.
Beautiful, smart, dignified, ...I still have her on a pedestal....she was also inspiration for me to succeed.

While she was busy working and studying to finish school, I was getting prepared to take on building a small home for us....and with our wedding day only months away I had to get moving on that. I told my boss that I would need to take a leave of absence.....to devote full time to my build. His only concern was that I would return afterwards.

It was in May on the 15th, that everything was in order to begin building. Permits, well, lumber lists, subcontractor proposals and mortgage loan all in hand. Foundation got poured and backfilled and now it was ready for me to start framing. I was so amped up the first few days I didnt sleep at night, planning on what I could accomplish the next day, at 21 years old, I had boundless energy. Good thing, because with the wedding set for August 12th, I had less than three months to get it done.....or at least to the point that we could move in.

My first misstep happened right away.....I called for my foundation inspection on the thursday it was completed...and was told that the building inspector was off and not coming back until monday.
Well...that wasnt going to work for me because all the lumber was on site and I wasnt about to waste a weekend waiting... so we backfilled and poured the basement floor on friday. On saturday and sunday I installed the main girder, floor joists and decking....ready for first floor walls.
Monday morning and Im there at sunup....ready and chomping on the bit to get started....thats when the BI shows up...and he's not happy!
I knew I was wrong...and stayed quiet as he walked around seeing what I had done.

Al Tolley was a large man....probably in his mid sixties...and he was scowling...so I braced myself for a scolding ...or worse.
He looked at me and said "You know...I can make you dig this up to show me you got footings under these concrete walls"
I nodded..... and sheepishly mumbled something about my situation.....basically asking for forgiveness.
Well he must have been in a generous mood...and my not being cocky with him might have helped
"Dont try pulling this #^&#^&#^&#^& again!" Was all he said as he got back in his truck and left.
I knew he was right, but I was on a mission, in my mind nothing was going to stop me.
I still believe in the axiom that says "better to beg forgiveness than ask permission....and I wasnt sorry that I hadn't waited for him....and wasted an entire weekend waiting for a foundation inspection.

By june 1 the daylight hours were getting long enough to get a good twelve hours of work in on the house....which I did alone. I hadnt made any arrangements for hired help and most friends and family that had previously offered to help never showed up. There was one guy Kenny....married to my girlfriends sister....who came everyday right from his job at the Morse Twist Drill to help....had no carpentry skills.... but I would save the heavy lifting stuff for when he got there. I got a big boost in morale from his daily visits....and he always brought some cold beer and we worked into the darkness. Getting the roof shingled was a milestone....which also meant I could call the bank to inspect and release mortgage money to pay for the excavating, foundation and framing materials. Even after working those long hours I had trouble sleeping......my mind always racing ahead to next days challenges.