A Hard-Working Young Man

As I have said before, we have several paths in our backyard that turn very muddy when it rains. Last week I had a truckload of cinders delivered to spread out on those paths to make using them easier. I knew spreading them out was going to be a lot of work, and manual labor is something I’ve tried very hard to avoid as much as possible. But, fortunately, I knew a guy.

A few days ago, our granddaughter Destiny’s boyfriend, Vicente, mentioned that he wanted to get a lever action 30-30 rifle for hunting. And it just so happened that I have several of them, so we decided to make a deal. I told Vicente if he would come over and do some yard work and help spread out the cinders, I would give him one of the rifles in payment. He was quick to take me up on the offer.

I have to be honest, when he first mentioned doing the job, I was skeptical. A lot of grown men that we have tried to hire to do jobs never show up to do the work or only do part of it and then promise to come back the next day, and we never see them again. I even called our son-in-law Kenny and asked him if he thought I could depend on Vicente to actually show up, and he assured me that he was a man of his word. That proved to be very true. Vicente grew up in his family’s business and learned the value of hard work at an early age. Terry and I were very impressed. He showed up Sunday morning to get the job done.

I figured it would take at least two or three days for completion, but Vicente had told me that he would have it done in one day. At the time, I thought that was just wishful thinking on the part of a young man, but he proved me wrong. He quickly got busy weed eating and clearing out the little drainage trenches in the yard. Then it was time to tackle the cinders.

The first thing that had to be done was putting down ground cloth to keep them from sinking down into the dirt. Because it was a very windy day, it took Terry and I working together to roll out the ground cloth as needed and hold it in place until Vicente came with a wheelbarrow load of cinders to drop onto the ground cloth. Then, using the back of a garden rake, Terry spread the cinders and smoothed them out as we went.

Except for taking a couple of short breaks, we stayed at it until 5 o’clock, Terry and Vicente doing most of the work and me specializing in my favorite occupation as the eye candy. When we were done, the paths were laid out and covered, and things looked very good. Thanks, Vicente. We could not have done it without you.

At the end of the day, here he is with his Winchester, a happy smile on his face, a reward for a job well done.

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And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all. – Sam Ewing