Bryce is pushing 70. A bachelor. He’s been out ‘this way’ for most of his life. Homesteading, mostly. Working part time forever as the custodian of our lone public building. Now retired. He’s a simple man in the way a river or an orchard is simple.

This guy looks like a small, gnarly tree and he makes about the same amount of noise, he speaks so softly and infrequently. Bryce is also quite deaf. The impression one gets is that of a person who is ‘in the background’ even if he is right in front of you.

But such a description – if left at that – is truly unfair. Bryce can do just about anything and he does. Just not on stage. I won’t go into detail about his gorgeous homestead, garden, orchard and boat. I won’t elaborate on the fact that he keeps house, home and boat together with a quiet confidence that is the manifestation of a history of competence in all things. This guy is an independent in every way.

He single-handedly, and with the perseverance of an epistemologist, recorded every living plant on a special part of the island to ensure that the government designated it a park. And they did! He grows his own garden from ‘local seeds’ and ‘plants’ that he shares with the community. If Bryce gives you seeds, they will sprout and flourish.

But that is not why I am writing about him. I am writing today because of his saws.

We are working on the Q-hut to restore it as a community wood working shop. Bryce comes by and contributes every week. Last week he came with a few of his tools. None of them power tools. He had two hand saws like the ones you used to see…..you know, the wooden handle and the long blade that tapers? I looked at them sitting wrapped protectively in old cardboard stuck vertically in his lunch bucket. Truly a lunch bucket, recycled from a five gallon pail.

“Geez, Bryce”, I yelled at the top of my lungs, “how do you get old saws like this sharp? Surely you don’t sharpen them, do you?”

“Eh?” Hard of hearing – yes, but Bryce is no dope. He knows he didn’t hear me so he interpreted my interest in the saw and answered further……..quietly…….

“I have power tools. Two of them. Never plugged them in. Not yet, anyway. Will someday, I suppose. But I built my house and sheds without them. Three boats, too. In fact, I don’t think I have ever used a power tool to build anything. Maybe I have. Can’t remember. Those saws are pretty good. I keep them sharp with a triangular file…………” and then he went on to describe how to ‘set’ the teeth and how to file them…………

“These saws are about thirty years old. Maybe older. Good steel. They serve me well”.

I went back to my job of replacing a window I had broken earlier (thus describing in a phrase my relative level of competence compared to Bryce) and I thought about the saws………….

Here we were building a workshop, planning the benches, dreaming of the power tools we might get. We are, in fact, using power tools with which to build the shop. And Bryce is helping. He always chips in. But the truth is, he could build a boat from scratch with what he brought in his lunch bucket.

And so could the other guys………………..

They don’t need no stinkin’ power tools.

I am starting to think they are just building this shop to help and encourage me.