I would start the day at about 4 am moving sprinkler pipes on alfalfa fields and then go out for breakfast in a little diner in Iron Springs with my boss and the regulars. For several weeks I assembled about a 250 meters of a new irrigation system on wheels, aluminum pipes and wheels all bolted together with a little four wheeled section with a small motor to move the whole thing. It beat moving the pipes by hand. Old technology by now I think.
By mid morning we would be off to the latest demolition site. We actually called it Dutch Demolition because most of the time we didn’t use heavy equipment to bulldoze the buildings but rather we dismantled them, salvaging and selling as much as we could. That meant saving every window and door, every board and every useful fixture. Often these items would be sold right on the spot and we didn’t have to return them to the farm to sell there. The old boss, by then at least 80 years old, would stand the whole day in the yard pulling nails from valuable lumber, nap for an hour and go at it all afternoon. One summer we demolished an old red brick school building and all the bricks were cleaned with hatchets breaking off the old mortar, sorted and sold. We took apart an old motel, starting on the roof by pealing back the tar layers and working our way down to the foundation.
Just like pulling nails from used lumber, sorting and stacking it is satisfying, Dutch Demolition was immensely satisfying. You don’t see a whole lot of that kind of enterprise any more.