JIM 'Puss' Taylor has never stood still.
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Even at 90 years old, he still finds time to go for regular walks, jog around his block and even tend to his vegetable garden.
Despite the fact his milestone birthday was a subdued affair, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it still featured a ride in a vintage mustang to top it off.
It was a surprise arranged by Mr Taylor's family, although the mustang's owner didn't want to swap with Mr Taylor's Camry.
The ride was a reminder of a life built around being on the move.
Whether that was trips to Alice Springs and Sydney or his days of zipping between Natimuk and Horsham on a motorbike when he worked for the paper.
But he didn't have the bike for long; he bought a car and never looked back.
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"I've had thirteen Holdens, two Nissans, two Mitsubishis and three Fords," Mr Taylor said.
"When I had Holdens I'd only keep them for about twelve months. I'd knock off early one night, I'd drive into the dealer and look at the cars, point at one and say 'I'd like that one!',"
His restlessness revealed itself early in his life, as he spent his school days sparring with Natimuk's fearsome headteacher, Jack Cameron.
"I reckoned he was a bad teacher," Mr Taylor recalled.
"I remember him saying to me 'it's no good you sitting for the exam, you won't get anywhere with it.
"A couple of weeks later, he'd corrected all the papers, and he called out from my desk down to the front.
"I thought 'oh here goes, I'm about to get a roasting' but when I walked out he put his hand out and shook my hand.
"He said 'you know, you've topped the class'... I nearly died, I was so surprised. I didn't think he was a bad teacher after that!"
But school wasn't the only place where Mr Taylor would shine.
The owner of the then-West Wimmera Mail, Alfred Lockwood, lived next door to the Taylor family.
One day in 1944, he approached the 13-year-old Mr Taylor about a job opportunity.
"I'd just knocked off school," he said.
"I might have been home a couple of days, and I hadn't even got out of bed.
"Alfred came and knocked on the door and said to mum, 'does your son need a job?'
"I asked him when he would like me to start, he said 'as soon as you've finished your breakfast.'.
"The first thing they got me to do was sweep the floor... my first wage was 10 shillings (about $37 today)."
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And that was that; Mr Taylor would work for The West Wimmera Mail and then later The Wimmera Mail-Times, for 52 years until his retirement in 1996.
"They didn't know what I was going to do. I was a machinist, and then I moved into the news side to help them out there if someone was crook," he said.
"I helped them put the newspaper together and then I'd print the paper. I even helped out the commercial boys....I did everything else."
Mr Taylor recalled one night where he'd decided to see a movie at the local drive-in.
"The picture had just started and a colleague came and tapped on the window and said 'you're wanted back in the office, the press operator's crook'," he said.
For the whole time he worked at the newspaper, Mr Taylor was on hand to help out and help avert any crisis, working long hours between Natimuk and Horsham.
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But his work wasn't his only passion; most of Mr Taylor's free time was spent helping out on a farm, working until one o'clock in the morning during harvests.
During which time, he developed a deep love of farming that couldn't be slowed even by retirement.
Mr Taylor's good mate, Peter Sudholz, approached him to help out on the farm.
"He said to me, 'could you give me a couple of days a week?' Mr Taylor said.
"I worked five to six days on the farm after I'd retired. I never worked for a wage. I still don't know what he paid me."
These days Mr Taylor doesn't get out much on the tractor, but it doesn't mean he's stood still.
He still gets out and about and is a common sight on Natimuk's main street and doesn't plan on stopping any time soon.
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