{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Another Tree","description":"On this week\u2019s Keepin It Real, Cam wonders what the life span of a titanium knee is and whether his father might need one or two more with the way he\u2019s going.  ----- My eighty-nine-year-old father is scheduled to get a knee replacement next week. Let me say that again - he\u2019s eighty-nine and getting a new knee and is eager to return to his very active life when the pain subsides. He\u2019s done this once before and wants the same results. People stop me nearly every day to ask about my father. They comment on how healthy he is and how he never slows down. This is true, though I can attest to him slowing a little over the past several years. He is eighty-nine, after all. Over Christmas holidays my brothers and I were with him at his property in Clarke County. We were all sawing on an oak tree that we were sectioning for firewood. We\u2019ve done this nearly every Christmastime for about forty years now \u2013 felling the tree, cutting it into pieces and then splitting those pieces and stacking them in a rack near the camp. It will become the wood we\u2019ll burn next Christmas, letting it age about a year before burning, and we cut a lot of it every year. Dad has always led the way on the firewood. He finds the tree and leads the way on the cutting. His use of a chainsaw on a tree is the equivalent of Michaelangelo\u2019s use of a chisel on a block of marble \u2013 his dissection of the tree is a work of art. This past year, though, with four saws all buzzing at the same time, I heard one stop, saw dad put his saw down and step back and rest. \u201cI\u2019m going to let you all have at it,\u201d he said over the noise of the saws. Good, I thought. My brothers and I are beyond capable. But it may have been the first time I ever saw him step back. A story lives in the lore of that cabin in the woods. It comes from when I was a pre-teen and I had a friend there with me. Dad started cutting trees for firewood. Our job was to drag branches, do our best to split the logs, and put the split pieces in the trailer then unload and stack the wood in the rack. It was hard work and we were tired. We had gone through three trees and Dad stopped. My friend\u2019s face showed relief \u2013 finally, he was saying. Enough. We had some water. Maybe a sandwich. Then Dad cranked his saw up again and said, \u201cOne more\u201d and marched off towards another oak tree. My friend\u2019s face fell and we all heard him say over of the noise of the saw, \u201cAnother tree??\u201d That line lives on today when we\u2019re cutting wood. Another tree? Yep. Another tree. I don\u2019t know of any other eighty-nine-year-olds getting knee replacements. It\u2019s remarkable. He\u2019s always been able to outwork me. And in a few weeks, he\u2019ll be back to blaming his partners for losing at pickleball. He\u2019ll be sharpening his chain saw. And he\u2019ll be eyeing another tree. I\u2019m Cam Marston, just trying to keep it real.  ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"