“Outlaw” said the tattoo on Joe’s arm. Joe was the tow truck operator. He had a lot of tattoos. Jail tattoos, explained another of my workers we call Hobbit. “You can tell by the color of the ink.” Hobbit has a lot of tattoos so I guess he is an expert.

Why would a tow truck operator be at Erywilde? Here is some background.

Erywilde is fertile ground. Things really grow here. Grass grows, trees grow, vines grow, weeds grow. But of course, there is a balance in life so grass dies, weeds die, (vines never die), trees die. Especially when they get to be big and old.

One day as I drove towards the cabin, the gravel drive was blocked by a huge oak carcass that had fallen during a recent storm. It lay directly across the drive with trunk, limbs, and branches everywhere. This was NOT on my list of to-dos but as custodian, I get to take care of these situations. So I started up the chainsaw and trimmed and dragged all the branches out of the way. Remaining was a 32′ long trunk about 24” in diameter mostly still lying in the woods. I made a mental note to get to it later.

Later, when Dave the excavator was on the property with his heavy equipment, I had him drag the oak trunk out onto the dam, a nice flat place. It rested there for a couple of months and was later joined by a very nice trunk of a hickory tree.

One of the design goals of Erywilde is to use as much local material as possible. Hoping to use these logs in the cabin, I started researching local “saw mills”. (I also needed to buy some rough cut 4” x 12” timbers for the cathedral ceiling.) Looking to find someone to both cut my logs and supply the timbers, I found John S..

John and I struck a deal for the 4”x12” timbers and I asked him about milling my logs. He agreed that he could cut them. I asked how I could get them the roughly 30 miles from my place to his and he said “Call Joe, he has a tow truck with a wench and he could pull them up onto the truck bed with the wench.” So I called Joe and arranged for him to bring the timbers from John’s and take the logs back to John.

Joe is a real talker. Turns out that he had done time in prison. 7 years. Lots of challenges in his life. Trying to raise two boys, one of which was not his. Wife working at minimum wage but does not have her GED so her chance of making much more than minimum wage is slim. He works hard and is trying to make a decent living but definitely has some “anger management” issues. He got angry at me for buying him a 6” sub instead of a 12” sub.

But I like Joe and hope he succeeds. His family is really confusing. Lots of half siblings, divorces, step mothers, etc. issues. But Joe married his wife while he was actually still in prison and is helping raise her son as well as their boy.

In addition to driving a tow truck, Joe is primarily a tree trimmer. I needed some limb trimming to be done and Joe recommended man named Doug who I later hired. Joe also sharpened my chain and it is really cutting well now.

Wishing you success Joe,

Frank