[if needed, a clue…to see the pic just click on the title]
“_OR_” Moves On, In Place (toward Stage 3)
On my departure from the farm this Covid-July 25th, 2020, Dave Davis promised to trim back the thorny rose bush a few more inches from the tail end of our truck named “_OR_”. No longer “Found On Road Dead”, nor “First On Race Day”, just “_OR_.” Normally I wouldn’t ask him, but this rose bush had attacked my safety umbrella every chance it got. It was angry. I had denied it a cushy home lazing on the truck’s rear end. As revenge, it scratched and clawed at my portable sun and rain protection every time I went past. Uncanny. Annoying. Do you know what ‘thorn on umby’ sounds like in the quiet of a hay meadow? My faithful umbrella survived. In my temporary retreat from this battle with nature and from the ongoing reconstruction of an old truck bed into a new raised platform I had an ally in Dave Davis.
It took 2 or 3 years of part-time work to clear the space around “_OR_.” But why would anyone bother with such a thing? Well, first off, to take advantage of the shade provided by the Russian Olive shrub at the truck’s front end. Shade is an exceedingly rare commodity up top, and this fair white-haired boy needs full summer shade! From this process I learned a bit about plant succession’s relationship to micro-climate alteration due to refuse piles in hay meadows. Esoteric but key knowledge in sustainable agriculture. And secondly, I could take advantage of “_OR_”s bulk and stability to construct a secure multi-use raised wooden platform.
It took 3 or 4 days of part-time work to elevate this truck’s bed to a bed of repose. I had a goal in mind, but not a detailed plan. My way is to allow the use of process. Study the situation. Get rid of the extraneous. Try something and flow from that to better. I built a basic starter platform of used materials on top of “_OR_” to minimize brute strength hoisting . Getting started was my first step. The key steps forward involved the use of ‘posts on stone’ to support the outside ends, the use of long boards as levers in a one-man operation, and screwing cross-hatched supports to the truck’s original wooden bed.
Through a series of small-problems-solved the truck went from nowhere to a destination. Mostly used wood, borrowed battery operated tools, a dwindling assortment of screws, some last-minute tucks and hoists, and left-over paints. Job “finished” on time and under budget! A vehicle that had been stuck for over 3 decades deep on the side of a hill had new life. “_OR_” was rescued from the long dormancy of stage 2, to enter “Stage 3”, new life. Life as a party space. Life as my wife’s tent platform. Life that could stage a one-man play of “Moby Dick” perhaps?
Celebrating New Life
A skinny Wood Monk joint was lit up and passed from me to Grant and then to Jacob in celebration of the new elevated party platform in the hay meadow. Grant declared it “art with a purpose”, and we celebrated. We felt great in mind, body, and spirit. And that is Uptop in a nutshell. No, not a bunch of nuts in a shell, yes a place to re-engineer ourselves from the inside out. “_OR_” emerged from its doldrums…after decades spent reflecting on a near tragedy.
The near tragedy was the near loss of a good man’s life. What did Phil S. do when his big ol’ truck with no brakes was gaining speed in an uncontrolled roll down a steep hill up top? Of course, wrestle the steering wheel sharply to the right and dig the rig deep into the hillside, or perish. Death was avoided in an instant of clarity. That simple. Phil walked away, and “_OR_” stayed put, stuck in Stage 2 for another 30+ years. Stage 1 all gone but the memories.
Everything Has a Purpose
“_OR_”s intended stage 1 purpose was to be a useful truck and to do truck things well. Like hauling hay for instance. This ended in the deadly crash averted. Forward momentum was absorbed without injury by the land itself. The culprit of steep contours denied. One of many similar miracles in Uptop’s history.
Stage 1 is a story of productive use. Not the many possible uses in Stage 3, but the farming uses put to it by Michael P, Phil S., and even David D. How many other people got to drive “_OR_” in its Stage 1 life at Uptop? Before Uptop? Many people loved that truck! Some of those people we will never know, because Uptop was not “_OR_”’s first home. Celebrate multi-purpose. It was born in an American FORD plant in the year 1952, and in July of Covid 2020 it entered Stage 3 at 68 years young.
Like in Spamalot, “_OR_” says, I’m not dead yet! “… I'm not dead, just floating, Right between the ink of your tattoo, In the belly of the beast we turned into, I'm not scared, just changing….
Some background
Courtesy of Michael Patton: “_OR_” is a “1952 Ford 2.5 ton flat bed truck with stake sideboards, powered by a flat head 8-cylinder engine, and with a 2-speed rear-end transmission.” P.S. The Walter Nine family owned it before us.