he felt like working/forewarning than a sroke of summer lightning/rendering creatures

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to tell me whether I am right with my interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentence from Erskine Caldwell’s “The Windfall”?

When Waldo Murdock, whose trade, when he felt like working at it was rendering creatures, came into the unexpected inheritance, there had been no commotion in Brighton to equal it since the time when, eleven years before, one of the Perkins brothers, with no mere forewarning than a stroke of summer lightning , ran away in broad daylight with the resident minister’s second wife.
felt like working =
to feel like = to be inclined (to do something or to have something). The construction is usually followed by a gerund as in: “She felt like going to the park.”
rendering creatures = taking photos
with no more forewarning than a stroke of summer lightning – an unexpectedly as a stroke of lightning on a summer day

Thank you for your efforts.

Regards,

V.

[Anglika]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to tell me whether I am right with my interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentence from Erskine Caldwell’s “The Windfall”?

When Waldo Murdock, whose trade, when he felt like working at it was rendering creatures, came into the unexpected inheritance, there had been no commotion in Brighton to equal it since the time when, eleven years before, one of the Perkins brothers, with no mere forewarning than a stroke of summer lightning , ran away in broad daylight with the resident minister’s second wife.
felt like working =
to feel like = to be inclined (to do something or to have something). The construction is usually followed by a gerund as in: “She felt like going to the park.”
rendering creatures = taking photos
with no more forewarning than a stroke of summer lightning – an unexpectedly as a stroke of lightning on a summer day suddenly and uinexpectedly.

Thank you for your efforts.

Regards,

V.

I haven't read this one, but "rendering creatures" is far more likely to be that he was employed in a factory which rendered down [reduced] into usable products those parts of animals left over after the butchering process - glue or soap for instance. The character is clearly not a committed worker.