It's true. I'm 70 now. Can't do what I once did but do what I can maintaining the property.That's what my son reminds me of all the time . . .
Wife says with a pickaxe in my hands.
Concrete work can be some hard work.I framed and poured concrete from my teens into my 50th year. Somebody offered me a supervisor job and I never looked back. It was painful to work that hard after so many years of physical labor.
It's true what the say; use it or lose it.
My dad was a mason by trade and a heck of a carpenter, too. I worked for him when I was younger and learned a lot. By the time I was in my 20’s, I could dig a foundation with a backhoe, lay out footings, dig & pour them, then lay block.
When I was about 7 or 8 years old I watched an old man that everyone called a good for nothing drunk tote and lay every block on my uncles house all the while mixing his own mortar, now there would be a few Old Milwaukee cans scattered about but even at that young age I was impressed and for the next twenty or so years when I would hear somebody talking smack about him I would set them straight, as most of the ones talking couldn't have toted his tools. I have never layed any block but I have poured and helped pour many slabs and I was in good shape back in those days from climbing poles but was always thankful to get back to my job on the line crew after a weekend of concrete work or roof replacement.
In 1980 (Dem Carter years) this country was in a deep recession. There was little work but I got a job building a house out of block. I hired 2 masons listed in the phonebook with the agreement that I would be the tender. Tender mixes mud, carries block, makes the cuts, cuts and places the rebar, sets and moves the scaffold. After the house was finished I worked full time for those old masons. In that time I dug miles of footings by hand. In one job alone I moved a million pounds of material. Every evening was a 4-5 beer reward. The last walls I built were 25 yrs ago here to tame the landscape around our home. Masonry is a great skill.
What makes you think that?