Getting Old in Isolation

Memories of my earlier birthdays, ages 4 and 5; I recall that I seemed to always get a painful ear ache that ended the party early. 

Many years have passed and my health has been fine on my birthday and the celebrations have been more than less to my satisfaction. The second half of my life, my wife has worked harder every year to out-do the previous year's extravagant, flaming creation. 

Time passes and things change. No wife, no cake, no fire marshal to approve the concentration of 64 candles on a cake. This year I'm living in a trailer down by the river during record rainfall in the sodden Pacific Northwest. The rain comes down, the river rises and my sister Wendy has a place 34 miles up the road. Wendy says, "Hey big Bro - it's your birthday! We've got a cake and party planned for you, c'mon up."

It's an invitation to leave my tiny trailer and the rising water to celebrate making it this far in life. When Elvis, Karen Carpenter and George Harrison were this age, they were dead. Life is short, eat dessert first. 

The somewhat semi-official 'Elephant Cake' was created and given but a few candles to saddle. Funny hats were passed around and I had three gifts to open. I got a package of almond roca from sister Sheri, a emergency space blanket from Wendy and Barth and a box of goodie treats from my wife.

We ate pizza, we ate cake and times were good enough for an old guy. 

I took the extra parts of the chocolate elephant back to the trailer to eat for dessert after a meal of almond roca and left over pizza. 

As always: Enjoy the Journey.

 

 

Little House in the Big Woods - In Mud We Truss

I left Texas on October 20. 

My plan was to come to the Pacific Northwest to oversee the building of a house. 

My plan should have been to come to the Pacific Northwest to build an ark.

At the end of November I've been near continually rained upon for 31 out of 36 days. I expected rain in the Pacific Northwest, I also expected the rain to stop sometime. It hasn't. At best it has merely paused to gather more moisture from the atmosphere and then pour it upon my head and the earth. The air is too thin for fish to swim, yet nearly too wet and thick to breathe. The construction site has become the definition for a slopapalooza mudfest. The framing crew shows up every morning and works through the weather. I give them credit - I would not want to do it.

The center support beam is added to the design so floor trusses don't have to span the entire width of the basement.

Once the basement was framed up, we needed the floor trusses to span the length of the basement on which to put down the sub-flooring decking for the first floor. The truss company rep looked at the architect's blue prints and shook his head; "No way this design is going to work for this house," he said. "I framed houses for years, you shouldn't put your trusses across that kind of span." 

Floor trusses come nine days late. Supply Chain.

My contractor and the truss man agreed, the way it was drawn, the floor would have about 1 1/2 inches of bounce when you crossed the living room. At best, a poor design. The truss company then redesigned and came up with a new scheme that involved two heavy beams supported on top of the basement's cement walls and the trusses would only span half way across the basement void,  resting on the center beam for support. It took four redesigns and days of delay before we had a workable plan.

Arriving floor trusses drop down in a rare break from the ever-present rain.

We were told the trusses would be arriving on November 10th. The redesign and engineering set us up for delays. I've heard this tune before. Phil, the contractor, rattled their chains and they promised the re-engineered trusses would be built and delivered on the 17th - No, strike that, they would now be ready on the 19th.  

 

Crew set floor trusses according to the 4th redesign plans.

Twelve day delay waiting for trusses

The truck carrying the trusses found a less muddy place and set its outriggers and used its boom to unload the package of floor trusses. It looked like a return to progress after spending long, idle days waiting inside my trailer as I watched the rain come down with no construction going on.

The framing crew had finished their work as far as they could on November 10th, waiting for the promised trusses before they could continue. The framing crew returned to work on November 22nd, after twelve days of dead time. 

The place had not gotten any drier. The crew set the beam and slid the floor trusses in place as the rain came down. I gave praise for the return of home building progress. 

My motto: In Mud We Truss.

 

LIttle House in the Big Woods - Frame Up

It's a different world this side of COVID-19. Of course, we all know this in our own peculiar way. For me, this side of the Covid virus looks to be more costly in time and dollars. The lumber package to build the house had increase 2.75-fold from the original bid in February, 2020 (when we got the bid bid and were ready to start building) to May, 2021 when we got back on our feet and re-submitted the plans to build the house after a state-wide ban on construction and industry. It would have saved a bunch of money if we were allowed to build last year.

Nobody saw a global pandemic resulting in an American housing shortage and a building supply crunch in labor and materials. What a strange twist. With a shortage of construction workers, we were forced to delay the delivery of the lumber package, no sense in having it sit for a prolonged period on the job site with no one available to use the material to build my house.

Framing Crew of six arrive on November 2.

Phil, our general contractor, had a few possibilities for getting someone to start framing only the basement. Phil was stuck finding a crew to frame the whole house. We had enough 2x4's and 2x6's delivered for framing the basement - once we had contracted with someone. I waited. Phil made numerous calls. Finally, Ivan responded and sent a crew out on November 2nd to begin framing the house. It was an exciting day for me.

 

Crew readies for work.

 

Rising from my bunk to unlocked the gate at 5:15 AM, anticipating the framing crew's arrival. They showed up before 6 AM with six men, one of which spoke English. Phil went over the plans with the translator and Antonio, the foreman. Antonio needed to say very little to the rest of his crew as they knew what to do and got to work with their battery-powered circular saws and pneumatic nail guns.

 

 

Measure twice, cut once. Immediately off to a bad start. The architect charged good money to come to the site from Seattle and take measurements before he drew the plans. He then drew up the plans showing 8 foot tall basement walls. The crew looked at the blue prints showing 8' walls, measured them at 7' 4" - 8 inches too short. The problem is that standard doors will not fit in the basement as drawn. We had to use many additional linear feet of 2x6s stacked on the top of the foundation to build it up to the specified 8 foot height before framing could begin.

Cement foundation built up by 2x6s to add the needed 8" so standard doors will fit in the basement. View looking NNW from what will be the dining room. Root cellar, 12' by 13' on the left to be under the kitchen.

In the beginning... there was a void, an empty 1391 square foot basement slab; a void surround by three concrete walls.

On the First Day, the void was filled with 2x4's lining the walls. The underside of the new creation was formed, and I saw that it was good.

Basement west wall is up, looking through French door opening.

View WNW overlooking large third bedroom in basement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North view from dining room corner.

South view. Finished framing the basement. Large support beam is laid, waiting for floor trusses to be delivered to span the basement and support upper stories.

 

Little House in the Big Woods - Spooks and Demons

 Demons at the gate. 

 

Demons do not always visit at night. 

There was a sense of slacking that the medieval monks termed the 'Mid-Day Demon'. It was mid-day, and I was taking a break from my cement form scraping duties when the sound of a sputtering engine was heard rounding the trees. To my prejudiced ears, it sounded like trouble. It had the sound of the kind of vehicle a slacker, a mid-day demon would drive, poking around for opportunities to steal from the unwary. 

In a moment a last-legger, beat-up silver minivan came into view on my driveway. As soon as I saw him, he saw us. He spun around and sped off my property as I shouted and gesticulated as I trotted toward trouble, chasing the suspicious noise-maker from my marked property through the gate we had left open while working.  

Later in the afternoon that October 25th, Phil and Dave called it quits and left to return the rented forms. I was alone. I was thinking it would be a good opportunity to do some target practice with my Colt 32 handgun. I was loading the magazine when a gray Honda came trolling up the drive. I holstered my pistol, and marched down the center of the gravel strip holding up my hands indicating that they needed to stop. My holstered sidearm was openly visible as I approached the intruder.

The man in the passenger seat threw his hands out the window as I strode toward the car, indicating that he didn't want to be shot for ignoring the posted Private Property, No Trespassing signs on the open gate. The woman driver rolled down her window and I glared in at her, using strong language, a typical for me, I asked her "What the fuck are you doing on my land? The place is posted No Trespassing, this is private property. Get the hell off my property!"

She was indignant, explaining "The gate has always been closed, and we saw that it was open and we wanted to..."

I interrupted her excuses, "This is private property, stupid fucking idiots like you are not welcome, even if I have my gate open, it is not an invitation to enter my place! It says 'NO trespassing'. I don't want you here."

She argued with me, "Well we just wanted to see..." 

I shouted at her, "We've had a lot of problems here. The gate was always closed for a reason. You are not that special. Those signs apply to you, you sweet ass bitch."

Her passenger, eyeing my gun on my hip and listening to my unmistakable hostile tone, repeated, "Hey man, we don't want any trouble. We'll leave."

She continued in her offended voice, "OK, we'll leave then" [if you are going to treat us so rude and threaten us]. I snapped photos of them as they backed out. Some people.

On Saturday morning, I stood at the small sink washing my face in a bowl of warm water that I had heated in the trailer's microwave. It is an overcast morning the day before Halloween. I see two young men walking up my driveway as I look out the trailer window. Trespassers!

Six hundred feet down the gravel driveway the robust steel gate is locked. The posted signs say:

NO TRESPASSING

PRIVATE PROPERTY.

I pull my shotgun from the closet and step out of the trailer to confront the two. There eyes widen at the sight of my gun as they explain that Ivan sent them.

I hold the stock of my shot gun in one hand and relax. "Sorry, but you were supposed to call to let me know you were coming. I've had a lot of problems with bad people coming onto my property."

Phil had given me hope earlier in the week that a recommendation from his sales rep at Cascade Lumberyard through his contact with the truss manufacturing salesman had led to Phil calling Ivan, who may be able to supply a framing crew shortly. Ivan got back with Phil and said he would call Phil later and send somebody out to the job site - maybe. 

I apologized for the rude greeting as I walked with Jose back to the gate to unlock it and let him in with his F-150. 

I called Phil to let him know Ivan's men were on location. Phil drove up twenty minutes later and they asked if he would like them to start on Tuesday?

Phil told them, "Not until I know how much this is going to cost. If I like the price, then you can start."

Phil dickered with Ivan over the phone and got $11,000 cut in the initial bid. It looked like we had located a framing crew. They would come out and start on Tuesday, November 2nd.

The next afternoon, the rain had paused and the sun slipped under the clouds as it lowered to the tree tops in the west. It was All Hallows Eve, Halloween; an inauspicious anniversary had arrived. It was five years ago that evil came onto our property and burned our vacant house to the ground. I had been deprived of not only rental income, but my sense of trust and sanctity of a man's property. It was all in ashes now. I retrieved my shot gun and chambered three shells and shot 00 load into the woods on the hillside to frighten off any lurking evil demons on the fifth anniversary of the arson fire that destroyed the old home. The smoke curled from my 12 gauge barrel and the report echoed among the firs and cedars. I had established a living presence on my place and the demons were being kept beyond the gate.