It clattered over the bay for a few minutes before it occured to me it seemed to be stationary over a friends place on the other side of the water. He's a fiercely independent old codger (I'll tell him I published that) who lives alone in an 'off-grid' house, on a steep hillside, surrounded by dense forest.
He gives me tips on scrub-cutting and how to trap possums… I taught him how to fillet a pineapple 😁
His recent whitebaiting trip turned out to be shorter than he'd advertised and I got a message to say he was back and thanks for watering his strawberries (I hadn't - the gods took care of that); so I knew he was at home.
Scuttling round my caravan for a better view I was in time to see someone being lowered out of the air ambulance directly beside his house (nowhere to land over there).
S**T
Turns out he'd dislocated his hip. The new joint had only been installed a couple of months back. He messaged me later from hospital to say
- "pls look after my strawberries'🍓 and
- they'd given him some happy drugs and he was waiting to have his hip put back in, and
- some people will do anything to get their next fix and a ride in a helicopter."
Pain hadn't dulled his self-deprecating humour.
Once again the gods are watering his strawberries but he apparently was able to walk out when discharged an hour or so later. (His son lives a couple of driveways over from me so had to do the 2 hour drive to fetch him back.) I wonder if he was negotiating the long outdoor stairs to his strawberry garden when.....
Some people will do anything for fresh strawberries.
Love these old codger stories. The don't let anything phaze them, just get on with living. Like the fierce old dames here
ReplyDeleteIf he spoke the same language he and your neighbour Vasso might have some interesting conversations.
DeleteScully illustrates well.
ReplyDeleteThat is something I can feel easy with in NZ...that dry humour despite everything. Well.. that is what gets you through whatever Life chucks at you.
We should discuss that sometime - not everyone gets it - and I have a story too long to relate her about watching Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (part II) in a Danish cinema; listening to the English (as a native) and reading the Danish sub-titles. The kiwi humour didn't translate and even my English husband missed a lot of it.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteYeah, I knew a few old Aussies like your neighbour... and I got in some hot water a couple of times early in my repatriation as I carried the Aussie humour in me (shall we say ANZAC?) and it was a lead balloon to my oh so literal relos. Hey ho.... but thanks be for the air ambos and speedy treatments. That must have been quite the fall to dislocate a new hip. Long stairs are never friendly... Well dramatised, Scully! YAM xx
Actually I suspect he was chopping or stacking firewood. The hip had been installed by some new method that does less disruption to muscle and he'd been told by his physio to carry on doing whatever he does EXCEPT twisting/turning in the middle of lifting something (like putting a big slice of tree onto a chopping block for instance). He walks up his hill every morning and chops wood - for exercise he says!
DeleteHari OM
Deleteah, that explains a bit... old habits die hard though! Bless 'im... Yxx
Dislocating a hip cannot be fun at any age. Dislocating a new hip seems like a slap in the face.
ReplyDeleteIt had been explained to him what would make it happen (lift twist) and he 'behaved' for a couple of months. I suspect he just went back to full-on bushman a bit too soon.
DeleteDislocation was my greatest fear after I had a hip replacement. I wonder if getting around on rough ground was the culprit. I'm glad he got help.
ReplyDeleteYou would know better rhan anyone how it all works
DeleteIt must take ages and lots of special targeted exercise to firm up all the disrupted tendons and muscle that hold everything in place. He walks up his hill every morning but doesnt do any specific exercises like you do.
I grew up in an isolated sparse state, People living out in the dirt, setting their own bone breaks, going to bed for a week or so after being hit by lightening, Castrating small animals by sticking them in a boot head first...humour saved them, much like old Codger, though there is nothing funny about castration in a boot. Do not let Scully read this! And thanks for not watering the strawberries...Sky bailed you out.
ReplyDeleteScully has already been speyed and thats nothing to what she would do to small animals if she coyld catch them.
DeleteScully does look worried, maybe the chopper scared her. your neighbor sounds like someone I would like.. seems you have landed in a nice neighbors HOOD... ha ha
ReplyDeleteHe's an old shearer (wool off sheep) and has shorn sheep in Australia, Norway, and Scotland as well as in New Zealand. He is interesting and a sourse of advice on what he descrribes as "durn crop raiders' (things that eat our carefully tended fruit and veg patches).
Deleteps photo from back when Scully hated me ppointing a camera at her and i wad trying to make her sit, stay.
DeleteIsn’t it great when you have nice neighbours. I love that your trading skills.
ReplyDeleteThis is how the whole world should be
The pineapple was a joke on him - "you can skin and fillet anything with legs or fins and don't know how to prepare a fresh pineapple?! What kind of bushman are you?"😉
DeleteYour neighbour sounds a stoic character with a great sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteI stopped by yesterday on my way home from town - he was a bit less cheeky with the morphine worn off but still wanted to show me his bow and arrows practice range. Hobbled down the hill…I guess some old bushmen dont know when to ease up.
Deleteease up when you're dead...
DeleteTrue - or ease up and die (which seems to be what happens to retiring farmers)
Delete