Milestones in Hobnails

My name is Vernon Parker. Life has become populated by milestones of significant scale since I passed my sixteenth birthday in 1921. The Parkers settled four hundred acres of King Country forest in 1913. I pit saw trees and deliver wagon loads of timber to the railway yards. I milk cows and hunt deer and bush pigs. There are five older brothers to fight, thousand-year-old trees to fell, acres of ancient forest to burn, and miles of fences to stretch. Best of all is an interesting girl who I visit. Iris lives at the end of a thirty-mile horse ride, but she smiles sunshine at me so the journey is agreeable. It's all worth a scratch of a pencil to write down.