New face and old feet

We have met a new hay man through Megan and Carlos. His name is Max. He’s a feisty 83 year old with feet of leather. The first time we collected a bale of hay, he was perched on top of probably 100 or so square bales of feed. He had a customer at the bottom of the barn and he was tossing them down to her as she picked them. The second time we collected hay, he came out barefooted and jumped onto the tractor to go about his business. He loves to talk so we can never quite make the trip a short one. He lovingly talks about his land and I marvelled at his bare feet. Right on the spot where the hay is loaded onto the Ute is an ant hill. Max stood right in the middle of the ants barefooted as they began walking over his feet. I warned him of the impending bites to come, but he just laughed and said. “Don’t mind my ants, they are rather tame”. His feet made me think of my Dad’s leathery feet. He too would often go barefooted around the yard. Feet that had travelled many miles in life.