We’re looking for something to dig with in limited space.

“What’s an invention?” Miles asks me.

“Something new.” I say. “Something that hasn’t been done before.”

He nods and flips the hammer over to dig with the claw. “It’s making something out of something else. Making it work.”

I nod, not quite sure what he’s telling me but reminded by our current activity that Miles did spend seventeen years in the mines. I’ve never asked him much about it. “I always notice how people feel so different about mining.” We are lying on our bellies digging a ditch for the soil line. There was a rock in the way, but a few well placed smacks with the hammer was all it took to split it. “Some people just dread going down in the mines and some people love it.”

“Me,” he tells me. “I’m one of those that could lay down and sleep next to it. I didn’t mind it at all. He pries up a chunk of rock. “I worked in some mines that was just dangerous and I knew it. But I ain’t got nothing against a safe one. And some guys would be just ready to leave as soon as they got there. Sometimes you’d get down and there’d be some problem with the machinery and they’d send some guys home cuz they wouldn’t need ‘em all. Now, if I was still in the driveway and still clean I’d be alright with going home. But If I was already down the mantrip, already dirty, well then I want my full ten to twelve hours I was expecting. I don’t want no calling off early. I guess I’d go back to the mines if I had to. If it ever got bad enough, if the kids needed something, then I’d go back to work. Don’t know how these knees would take it. They’ve seen too many nights crawling the mine floors already.

“I worked for one of those little cash jobs for about three years, just to get some good experience. It was just a little hole in the mountain. We started out shoveling coal into wheelbarrows and hauling it out. Then we had a car. We’d shovel on a ton, two and run it out front and shovel it on the truck. We’d fill up the truck and I’d drive it down to the bottom of the mountain. Then in the morning I’d dump it at the train and take the truck back up to the mine so we’d be ready to go again. With that kind of job you place the timbers. Do the roof bolting. It’ll make a man old but it’s some fast money. We had it runnin smooth until the federal government started coming in. Wanted to slap on fine after fine. State never seemed to care what we were doing, just the federal, so we had to shut down.”

Later we’re cleaning the grill while the steaks are marinating and the rest of the family gathers home. “I made a fire pit for the house.” I tell him about finding an old grill at the recycling center, taking it apart and cutting the legs short. I’m proud of it.

Miles turns to me. “What’s an invention?”

Slowly I respond. “It’s making something out of something else. Making something work.”

We both grin.