Article in The Butler Paper about Orville, August 9, 1983

Orville Evans has been totally blind since 1970, but the 65 year old farmer doesn't sit around and dwell on his misfortune.

He makes repairs on some of his machinery, often being able to determine the cause of a malfunctioning engine by merely listening to it run for a few moments. His fine tuned ears and nimble fingers more than make up for his loss of sight.

Evans also keeps active with other chores, perhaps the most notable of which is turning out fireplace wood literally in mountainous quantities.

With his trusty pruning hand saw Evans spends his idle moments in the back yard of his home about five miles northwest of Butler ripping through piles of edging slab "left-overs" from the Southside Lumber company in Butler.

With the help of his son, Gary Evans, he gets a load of the native wood about once a week and sets to the task. The two Evans families use the wood for their own fireplaces and sell the rest.

Usually there is a huge pile of wood sawed in lengths of 16-18 inches, and Evans salvages the better cuts to make cattle gates.

Most people would call what Evans refers to as a hobby as hard work, but actually he says its good therapy.

"It's an ideal way to keep mind and body occupied." he said.