CHOPPING WOOD 

Sometimes guys would come thru town on the way north or south and they would look for work.   They would ask, “Where can I get a job?”  “Well, don Juan is the one that hires people.”  “Oh, okay.” They would find our house.  “Don Juan, I talked to so and so and I’d like to get a job.” My Grandfather would say, “Well, I don’t need anybody right now, I actually have two people waiting for an opening.”  They would say, “Oh well, but I just need some extra money, 2 or 3 dollars, I’m walking to Laredo, hitching so I can eat over there.”  He would tell them, “Well I have this firewood in the back yard there.  And there’s an axe next to the woodpile.  You can cut the firewood; I’ll pay you for doing it.”  “Okay.” 

They’d be out there cutting wood.  He’d look out the window sometimes to see them working.  They would stack it up and when they were finished, he’d pay them $3.  “Thank you very much.”  That’s what he would do. He wouldn’t just give them the money.  He’d make them work for the money. 

Those would be piles of wood that we would pickup on the way from La Bonita Ranch.  He would see dried wood lying on the side of the road and he would say, put some of that wood on the back of the truck. He would tell the guys, if you all need some wood, you can take some of that.  Sometimes they would take some, Ali would take some.  They would make a pile on the back of the truck for each guy that wanted wood and by the time they got to Encinal, they would have wood piled up.  Since all of the workers would have been dropped off at their houses, I’d have to unload all the wood.  My Grandfather would go right out to his garden, saying, “I wonder if there is enough light for me to work in the garden for a little bit.”

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