He's 81, but just try to keep Big Daddy away from the big trees

Contra Costa Times (MCT) - The tales flow from Lloyd Coley at a near-constant pace.

Coley has nearly nine decades worth of experience to call on for his stories.

In an animated fashion, Coley can recall the tribulations of being a young boy migrating with his family from Oklahoma to California in the 1920s, or as a surgeon's assistant in the Navy during World War II.

But Coley is still working on his biggest epic of all. It's one of Paul Bunyan-like proportions. Coley continues to add material as probably California's (and maybe the country's) oldest tree trimmer.

At 81, Coley may be "retired," but that doesn't stop him from shooting up trees any time his 30-year-old grandson, Gary Troublefield II, needs help with his tree-trimming business _ TLC2 Tree Services, based San Leandro, Calif.

"Everybody tried getting him to retire when he was in his mid-70s,"said Troublefield, who does much of his work in the Pleasanton, Calif., area and throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties. "But I think everybody gave up on that when they saw he was still strong as ever, and he is not a danger to anyone."

With knuckles the size of walnuts, only Coley's hands show the effects of hauling chain saws that weigh 45 pounds or more up and down trees as tall as 225 feet for the past 56 years.

The rest of his body and spirit show no signs of slowing down.

"I started climbing trees when I was 24," said Coley. "Now, I am 81, and I am ready to climb another one."

With straight snowy white hair and facial features reminiscent of Lloyd Bridges, Coley, of Oakland, comes from a family of tree trimmers. He has four brothers, from 76 to 84 years old, who have experience in the business, and Troublefield's father is also a tree trimmer.

Coley's weathered hands and 6-foot frame have done work on everything from ranches to saw mills.

Down to his last dollars and suffering from what he called an extreme arthritic condition, Coley caught a break from a Berkeley, Calif., man who hired him to help cut trees. He had no experience climbing trees but was driven by a different type of need.

"At the time, hunger was a more agonizing way to go," said Coley, who credits his religious faith for overcoming the arthritis. "Especially when you have no money."

Since that first job back in 1952, Coley has trimmed and cleared trees throughout the Bay Area and the country. He had his own tree-trimming service for 52 years and built a comfortable life for himself, which includes a home in Oakland and another near Yosemite.

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His two most notable jobs have been clearing trees for the construction of the second Caldecott Tunnel and working with a tree 36 feet in circumference, near San Francisco's Shriners Hospital.

"When they got big trees, they call Big Daddy," said Coley.

Of all of the trees Coley has scaled, trimmed and chopped down, he has fallen out of just one. It was a tumble from 45 feet that left him with a broken back. But, less than seven weeks later, Coley was back at it, clearing 21 trees in a day. By himself.

"Without a doubt, I never get nervous because that is all I have seen," said Troublefield, about watching his grandfather climb trees."He is so sharp and has been doing it for so long. It's like riding a bike. It's second nature for him."

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© 2009, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).