[at-l] Hiker Happening at Casa del Shoe

[janl2 at mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

What started out as a helpful assist in buying matierials for a shed lean-to turned into a genuine "happening," yesterday - and what happened happened thanks to hiker buddies.

Good old buddy and AT-L list lurker Chief volunteered his truck to help get the materials froms Lowes. Of course he had to supervise to make sure I didn't scratch anything.

Then George Tinman Andrews happened to have that Wednesday off too and could swing by in the morning on his way to other projects. Before you could say ShedRuck, the coffee pot was on and these two guys were in the kitchen at Casa del Shoe telling lies and discussing construction details.

George also showed up with a pecan tree he had planted, and the gift of a japanese maple he'd resuced from the Mama Maple at the historic Old Courthouse in Wilmington, NC. "You can have these," he said. "But I need the tubs before I leave at 1pm."

And my god, tubs they were! These were BATHUB planters. I think George did this deliberately to get me out of their hair. Digging shallow wells took me awhile, and when I returned to get an assist on moving the the monster plants to the holes, Chief and Tinman already had the rafters starting up.

At a lunch of ribeyes and apricot pie, Chief then called Clyde Dodge to get a few "construction tips." 
"Green side up," said Clyde, in case they were wanting to lay sod too.
Clyde said he was DEconstructing, tearing out a wall in Florida for bananna bread, and he was hoping it would be GOOD banana bread! 

After straightening out the grunts, Clyde hung up and the project got underway again, this time with me in place of George. It was fun learning to built styff, although the nail gun is intimidatingly ear-splitting, and Chief kept dropping stuff on my head. "Watch out for that square," he said as I stood there rubbing my head and glaring up at him.

We slid the last piece if tin on the roof at 5:15 pm, and by 5:30 I had the prettiest lean-to this side of the AT.

I plan to have a small deck-ruck here at casa Del Shoe sometime when the weather is soft and the moon is full, and when there are no projects.  It''s friends that make a place come alive.