Vernon Drummond, part- time tree man, is content to be surrounded by branches, leaves, blue sky and encompassed by a blizzard of sawdust.
The intense buzz coming from his chain saw might disturb that peace, but after 50 years of cutting down trees –– and at 84 years old –– he can’t hear all that well anyway.
At Winton Country Club last week, Drummond took down the latest in a countless number of trees he’s either trimmed or felled around Amherst County.
“Ain’t many people in Amherst I haven’t worked for,” he said.
He said the time to hang up the work might be coming soon, but by no means is he not enjoying himself.
“You got to like what you do to do it,” he said.
And Drummond likes what he does.
“I love Mother Nature,” he said. “And bluegrass music.”
Those two things come together, he said, in his favorite gospel song, “God’s Coloring Book.”
“I listen to it pretty often,” he said. “It’s like reading the Bible: It never gets old.”
When Drummond is doing tree work, he has the best spot to look at God’s coloring book.
“I can see God in everything that moves and don’t move, too,” he said.
Asked what he can see from the top of the tree, he said: “A good view.”
“It’s real deep when you stop and think,” he said. “It’s got to be a supreme being.”
He doesn’t trim as much as he used to. It’s harder work.
“That’s why I’m shying away, I do mostly takedown now,” he said.
In order to trim the branches, he said, “You have to get out as far as you can and then a little farther.”
“That’s the only way to trim a tree,” he said. “You want a tree to look natural.”
He wasn’t taught how to do it. He started trimming trees at his home, calling it a hobby. Eventually, neighbors and then others asked for his tree service.
“I kind of liked it … I found there was money in it,” he said. “And it just went from there.”
Using spikes that he attaches to his boots, he makes his way up the tree, using a ladder these days as a jump-start.
And plenty of rope, too, which he harnesses around himself to move up and down the tree.
“I’ve been called a squirrel,” he said. Though now he refers to himself as a possum: “I wobble up and I wobble down.”
w Reach Nolan Connelly at (434) 946-7195 or nconnelly@
newsadvance.com.
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