With a little help from my friends: Part 1

If you saw my first blog, you saw me sitting on the porch shortly after my cabin was delivered, smiling as if all I had to do was move in, buy a few sticks of furniture, and start enjoying country life. Well, that was by no means the case—not by a long shot.  The real amenities of country life were not yet in place: lights, heat, water, refrigeration, a way to handle sewage. It’s taken 12 years to provide for those things, correct mistakes, expand when necessary, and keep everything maintained. That job would have been impossible without more than a little help from my friends.

Many people—friends along with skilled, hired help—have made life here possible for me. In this blog, I’d like to honor the “A” team. First on the list are Linda Lane, her sister, Barbara Lane,  and Barb’s husband, Sam “Reed” Arnold. Tied for second and third are Duane Zimmerman, who I think of as my solar guru, and LeRoy McCarthy, handyman extraordinaire.

Please note that I’m following in Henry David Thoreau’s footsteps once again (smile). Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond was made possible by his friend, the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who bought the land and allowed Thoreau to use it.  Thoreau built it mostly by himself—being pretty handy with carpentry tools, as so many 19th century American men were. (He and his father had built the family home the summer before.)  However, he too, relied on friends. When it was time to frame his cabin, Thoreau invited them to join the party. A confident (brash by today’s standards?) 28-year-old then, Thoreau says the invitation was more an “occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity”.  However, his group of 8 helpers*, including Emerson, surely did more than stand around and cheer him on; exactly what they did do seems lost to history. Perhaps they smiled at this whippersnapper’s grand plan while lending a hand.

Linda Lane is my Emerson. She got the whole process in motion by driving me to the Cavco store in Fairplay to place the order for the cabin, while offering her land for its home. In the years since Mudbiscuit arrived (2003), she has been instrumental in overseeing projects and keeping an eye on the place during the many months when I haven’t been here. During my first couple of years of living here (meaning 4–5 months each year), she helped me get used to this big change in my life, including crises involving wildlife….I mean, mice—under or (eek!) inside the cabin.**

Equally instrumental were her sister and brother-in-law, Barbara and Reed. Barb and Reed live down the road on a beautiful piece of land they bought and built on starting in the mid-80s. They’ve since created a beautiful home with small-scale greenhouses and additions to their original cabin. They are also artists in the folk art tradition. I’ll write about their work in a future blog.

Work is, however, the operative word here. Both could be called workaholics, given how much they do apart from their day jobs. Over the years, I’ve seen their commitment not only to making their own place beautiful and functional, but to doing the same for others, namely Linda and me. I’ve joked that their idea of a good time on the weekend is to build another cabin, but that would only be half the truth. They are also great lovers of the outdoors and of animals, and are frequently off on a trip to another beautiful place. It seems fitting that I show a picture of them working. Here they are in 2011, repairing Linda’s roof.

A partial list of tasks they were hired to do and have done well and efficiently for me and Mudbiscuit: installed cabinets in the kitchen (following a disagreement with the builder which left the cabin without cabinets for a year), built temporary stairs and a deck, bought a stove and propane heaters, arranged for propane tank delivery and subsequent monitoring of the tank, which later sprung a leak, which the supplier refused responsibility for—at first before Reed insisted they repair the problem; they also fielded bids for a septic system and a water cistern, and paneled the inside of the porch-turned-mudroom. There were also recommendations on problem-solving and problem-avoiding (e.g., staining the wood shingles so they wouldn’t deteriorate under the high-altitude sun). They have my undying gratitude, especially for their work while I was still living in Japan and visiting the cabin for only short periods. Mercifully for them, by 2010, when I retired and came to live here, the important set-up tasks had been done and I was able to take on responsibility for maintenance. 

Linda and I both have off-grid cabins, meaning we rely on the sun for all electricity—basically light, water pump, and more recently, satellite Internet. (Heaters, refrigerator and stove all use propane gas). In the first year of Mudbiscuit’s existence, Linda located a young solar installer, who set up two panels and storage batteries so that the cabin could have lights. He later left the area, and then Duane Zimmerman entered our lives. Ah, what a gift of fate! Duane has extensive solar engineering experience and has been willing and able to share it with us. Duane and his wife now live in the area in a self-sufficient manner that might put Thoreau to shame. 

For years, Duane has educated Linda and me about solar technology. At first, he tended to give too much information. Sometimes, starting to explain something which seemed overly complex to me, he’d stop, commenting that I had that “deer-caught-in-the-headlights look”. Thanks to Duane, I think I have that look less now. One year, he convinced Linda and me to buy a trimetric device, which is affixed to a wall inside our cabins. It displays some very useful information, such as how much charge remains in the batteries and how many amps are coming through the panels. When problems occurred, I could phone him with this info and he could diagnose the problem over the phone. Although I remain a slacker in my solar studies, the process did make me feel a little more confident.  His visits are less frequent now, as my solar system has been upgraded and I’m less clueless than I once was. The batteries, replaced in 2013, are housed in an insulated, expanded water heater cabinet on the side of the house. Two panels have been added to the original two. All upgrades were done with Duane’s guidance and labor. This picture shows him on a visit two years ago. 

Rounding out the A team is LeRoy McCarthy, whose business I discovered from an ad on a lumber store bulletin board. Another gift of fate! LeRoy is anyone’s dream handyman. He knows his stuff, enjoys teaching it, has reasonable rates, and always stands by his work. He returns phone calls promptly and has a cheerful approach to work and life. Problems are “issues”. “Yes, we have an issue!” he’d announce, in a hearty voice, leaving no doubt that it could be taken on successfully. 

LeRoy’s first project here involved replacing the temporary stairs with new ones connected to a fenced small deck. Here he is with his assistant, his son Brandon, upon completion of that in 2011.

LeRoy’s specialty is plumbing, and plumbing has been one of the knottier problems here at Mudbiscuit. One difficult summer, when either the water pump or the tank or the connectors presented "issues", he responded to each one, each time bringing us closer to a solution. Ultimately, the pump issue turned out to be a leak, deep underground, in the pipe between the cistern and the house. In this picture, LeRoy is supervising a crew of young men who dug through the rocky soil and found the problem. We see them taking a short pause in their work and hamming it up for the camera.

As with Duane, visits from LeRoy are less frequent now. Barring the unforeseen, I will not see him until fall when I close the cabin and he comes to supervise the winterization process, ensuring that all water has been drained from the pipes. In spring, he’ll help get things pumping and flowing again.

There you have the story of Team A. Cheers to them all! My appreciation grows as I write about their work, and I’ll do the same for Team B in another post.  With more than a little help from my friends, my life here in the country has been not only possible but relaxing and fun. 

*According to Harding, editor of my annotated Walden: those acquaintances—all male—were the well-respected educator Bronson Alcott, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, and 7 others, including Edmund Hosmer and his 3 sons, who lived on a neighboring farm. After he moved in, Thoreau got other essential assistance from women: his mother and sister, who did his laundry; and Mrs. Emerson, who often cooked for him.

**My “mouse issue” continues. I’m not sure how much progress I’ve made with that. Unbelievably, just as I wrote this section last night, a small mouse caught my eye, running along the wall—first I’ve seen inside this year. Eek! Subject for another blog.