Lenny seemed always to be a grumpy old bugger who thought the world was agin him.
I have known him for years, and he has recently been made redundant from the nursery where I too work, and redundancy does not help the demeanor.
But I got to think about him and how the whole world has not been against him - being an example of some people unable to count their blessings.
Let's go back.
I first knew Lenny when he worked for the Rabbit Board - he used to putter around on his motorbike (which caught fire in McMillan's paddock) or his old blue Holden.
He lived up the road from us and I came to know him and his wife because their child was around the same age as ours, so they attended school things together and other village associated happenings.
Lenny was a farm worker and as such at that time was not paid well but compensated for by free accommodation and meat. So I offered to help him out by letting him tag along with me possum hunting. He kept the skins he worked on and we sold them at the annual sales so he had some extra pocket money. We worked together this way for a couple of seasons.
Lenny decided he wanted a change, so I gave him a job on the forest and he thoroughly enjoyed life there. He bought a house and as it had no laundry, he was in a fix and could not afford to call in a builder. We had carried out a thinning to waste operation on the forest and some of the logs were sawlog size - not extracted because of limited access.
I had an old TD6 crawler tractor, so we went up there and salvaged a couple of loads of logs and had them milled a Bert Bennett's sawmill. With the timber, I took a few weekends and built their laundry for them.
During this time I had a contact where I was able to camp at Lake Ohau, so we invited Lenny and his family to share some holiday time there with us - three years running.
We were all made redundant from the NZFS and I branched into a nursery managerial role. Lenny and a mate used their redundancy money to buy sawmilling machinery and set up at Reidston. The venture failed because they could not get resource consent, and they were unable to reset the machinery.
I saw little of Lenny until he left his job as a farm worker and was looking for work. I gave him a job and he remained there when I left for Africa.
On my return, Lenny was still there, but the nursery operation was split and he was with the other 'lot'. Later things changed and the nursery became one again, but redundancy again loomed for Lenny. Nobody wishes that on anyone and it remains little consolation even if you are at retirement age.
But the world is not against anyone that is only a perception. Lenny, enjoy your retirement and find joy in those grandkids who are now a big part of your life.
I have known him for years, and he has recently been made redundant from the nursery where I too work, and redundancy does not help the demeanor.
But I got to think about him and how the whole world has not been against him - being an example of some people unable to count their blessings.
Let's go back.
I first knew Lenny when he worked for the Rabbit Board - he used to putter around on his motorbike (which caught fire in McMillan's paddock) or his old blue Holden.
He lived up the road from us and I came to know him and his wife because their child was around the same age as ours, so they attended school things together and other village associated happenings.
Lenny was a farm worker and as such at that time was not paid well but compensated for by free accommodation and meat. So I offered to help him out by letting him tag along with me possum hunting. He kept the skins he worked on and we sold them at the annual sales so he had some extra pocket money. We worked together this way for a couple of seasons.
Lenny decided he wanted a change, so I gave him a job on the forest and he thoroughly enjoyed life there. He bought a house and as it had no laundry, he was in a fix and could not afford to call in a builder. We had carried out a thinning to waste operation on the forest and some of the logs were sawlog size - not extracted because of limited access.
I had an old TD6 crawler tractor, so we went up there and salvaged a couple of loads of logs and had them milled a Bert Bennett's sawmill. With the timber, I took a few weekends and built their laundry for them.
During this time I had a contact where I was able to camp at Lake Ohau, so we invited Lenny and his family to share some holiday time there with us - three years running.
We were all made redundant from the NZFS and I branched into a nursery managerial role. Lenny and a mate used their redundancy money to buy sawmilling machinery and set up at Reidston. The venture failed because they could not get resource consent, and they were unable to reset the machinery.
I saw little of Lenny until he left his job as a farm worker and was looking for work. I gave him a job and he remained there when I left for Africa.
On my return, Lenny was still there, but the nursery operation was split and he was with the other 'lot'. Later things changed and the nursery became one again, but redundancy again loomed for Lenny. Nobody wishes that on anyone and it remains little consolation even if you are at retirement age.
But the world is not against anyone that is only a perception. Lenny, enjoy your retirement and find joy in those grandkids who are now a big part of your life.
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