Meet Garry Petts. At age sixteen, he began a career operating heavy equipment. He's now in his late seventies and he hasn't stopped. That's 60 years working.

Garry is resourceful. Over time he has acquired heavy equipment from a variety of sources. My favorite was his 6X6 water truck; he purchased the truck at an army surplus auction many years ago and personally fabricated the water tank and pump equipment. He did this himself. During fire season, Cal Fire and other local agencies regularly dispatch Garry to the most remote areas on the toughest terrain to refill pumpers battling the flames; they send him deep into the action because his is the only truck that can make the journey. As he said, "the young guys with the nicer trucks get to stay where its safe."

When Garry accepted the job to rip our property, he committed to a start date, a two day timeline for completion, and a very reasonable cost estimate for the scope of work. In reality, he showed up the night before to deliver his equipment, started early the next morning, and pushed himself to complete the job in one day. While he normally doesn't like to "push it" he did mention that he was motivated to complete the job and beat the heat. Today's temperature peaked at 106 degrees.

Garry completed his work as promised, except that he was ahead of schedule and under budget. It was nothing short of inspiring. Today I felt like I traded places with Mike Rowe from Discovery's Dirty Jobs. In just a few hours my curiosity about Garry's work was transformed into reverence for Garry's work.

Garry Petts Construction
Murphys, California.

J&SK