I feel old

I was cleaning out my phone and archiving pictures when I ran across one with a memory attached:

My task on that warm spring morning was to perform a retracement survey of ~12 acres in a very remote area. I got busy with recon and easily found all the corners. I also found some trees with really old marks and wondered who marked them.... I've always enjoyed finding old hack marks in trees along a line and witnessing a corner. In this area, 30 year old hack marks are considered "ancient" and are a very rare find. The types of trees and rate of growth seem to swallow up old marks after that many years. Almost no one marks property lines anymore anyway and fewer still actually mark trees. I can only think of two other surveyors in my area that still mark trees. When I was starting my career in surveying, we marked every line and witnessed every corner (half acre lot or 100 acre farm, it didn't matter, it was built into the cost) as was the standard for the area. Surveyors often noted on their plats which lines weren't marked and why. Without notations, it was assumed the line was marked. Those old trees performing their solemn duty guarding the location of the line or corner always allow the original surveyor to speak to me. I imagine them saying "You found my mark, you're on the right track." Or "Job well done, you found the correct monument". Then when work was slow for a couple years, out of town surveying companies began getting what work there was left. The local surveyors figured out that the outsiders could do the work cheaper because they didn't mark lines. To survive, we all began to offer services with the option of excluding line marking. Sadly, that became the rule rather than the exception. I was so focused on the old marks that I almost forgot where I was and who I was retracing. Hey, wait a minute... *I* marked those trees.... 35 years ago when my Dad and I surveyed this tract. I remembered the 5 degree angle bust that I made by transposing two numbers. And I remembered our helper back then, Barry, giving me the evil eye after cutting several hundred feet of line for nothing because of it. This modern day survey with robotic total station and GPS won't leave me with such fond memories, I'm sure. I was very happy when the new numbers matched the old numbers within my expected tolerance. That, and the old marked trees told me that I found the correct lines and corners. My task was completed.