A strange event.

[Johnboy]

Two years ago my grandson was at my place to pollard a rather large Ash tree and a lad complete with knapsack came in off the road and ask if there was any labour.
We decided that we could do with his labour. Just call me Jim he said and then got stuck in and what a worker.
Strangely he wouldn’t come into the house and he ate his lamb stew on the pollard site and just got back to work straight after.
He slept that night in my barn and at 9pm I took him a cuppa but he was tucked up and fast asleep so I drank the tea. He worked the next day and both my grandson and myself were very impressed and said if you want a job gravitate down to the farm 40 miles away.
I offered him £100. for his 2 days labour he took £20, and handed the rest back and after a further night in the barn he was off before day break.

Now there is further to tell but I would hate to be a bore and if you want to read more I will complete the tale. Just say so.
JB.

[Oakridge]

An interesting story. Could he have been a WWOOFer which I think stands for World Wide Experience On Organic Farms. When we had livestock and before that small scale commercial horticulture I had young local lads appear and work all summer just for food. They would work hard and were completely trustworthy even though many of them had 'enjoyed Her Majesty's hospitality'. I had a number of YOP and YTS youngsters, boys and girls, many of whom had been in trouble or had learning difficulties and were perfectly reliable. I think I was the only one who would take difficult to place youngsters. There are jewels out there, not all but some.

Please tell the rest of the story.

[peter]

Please do JB.

[dan3008]

JB, A very poetic story so far. Please continue I'm intrested to hear how it ends

[Johnboy]

Part two:
Six weeks later he turned up at the farm and asked for a job. He got one on the promise to phone his mother to tell her where he was.
He had been thrown out violently by his mothers 'new husband' who had moved on after roughing his mother up. She wanted him to go home but he refused to go. He had been wandering aimlessly from end of March until June.
We never asked Jim anything about his past because we thought it would eventually come out. It did.
Jim was in fact Nigel and he was 20 with 4 A levels to his name. His mother sold up in the north and came down to our county and bought a cottage and they are now reunited,
Nigel is a very bright boy and he is all set to go a School of Forestry this coming autumn and will get an degree in arboriculture and come back and work with us. He will remain on the payroll when at uni.
He now has a lovely girlfriend and the pair and my grandson and his wife are as thick as thieves a friendship for life. The pair of them work thier socks off and thrive on it!
Do you know he calls me granddad and I call him jim his preferred name. And he truely is one of the family.
JB.

[Diane]

What a wonderful story......thank you so much for sharing.

[Oakridge]

Thank you for telling us the rest of the story. There are lots of wonderful people out there who may seem a bit strange on first appearance but a little bit of help and they blossom.

[dan3008]

That's lovely jb

Just goes to so, there are some amazing people out there, and all they need is someone equally amazing, (like you and your grandson) to give them 1/2 a chance, and they'll turn out to be good honest hard workers

[Pawty]

I look forward to hearing all about the next chapter. Truly heartwarming x

[robo]

What a lovely story , it takes both sides to make something like this work I hope it has a good ending

[Gerry]

Thank you so much Johnboy.
Regards,
Gerry.

[retropants]

How wonderful JB, thankyou so much for sharing.