And They All Lived Together in a Little Crooked House

Adam was moving from Fairfax, Virginia to Helena Montana last month.  He had received a transfer from his job out there to one in Helena.  I was glad to see that he was able to come back to Montana for my own selfish reasons.  He's one of my best friends and I haven't seen him since he moved out there at the end of 2008.  He got to Helena July 19 and had to find housing really quick.  Adam asked me to come to Helena to help him move his stuff from the truck to his new home, and I was coming out on July 21.  He barely got a house to rent in time for me coming that was within his budget.

I drove to Helena that Thursday.  I mistakenly drove through all that horrible construction on US Highway 287.  There was one part where I had to drive on a very narrow section of bridge, being led by a pilot car.  I can only imagine what Adam had to go through to get through that in his rented moving truck.  When I got there Adam and I ate dinner at Applebee's and caught up a little.  It's been forever since we've seen each other.  After dinner he took me to his "house."

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

It was dark, so I really couldn't tell what the house was like on the outside.  Lighting on that street wasn't very good.  Once I got inside, though, that was another matter.  Everything in the house was crooked.  The floor was crooked; the corners were crooked; the ceiling was crooked; the walls were crooked; the doors were crooked.  Probably the only thing straight in the whole place was the hot water tank.  But when you looked at it, even it looked crooked because everything around was so crooked everywhere.

How does a house like this not get condemned?  It's because of a little plaque placed on the house that reads:

Friday, July 22 Adam and I had a late breakfast at IHOP (one of my favorite restaurants) and then got started moving into his new place.  When I saw the outside of the house in the daylight, it was just as crooked as the inside!  I couldn't help but laugh; it even has a crooked stile.  The stairs that went into the house were crooked.  The back half of the house was mostly underground.

Adam's Little Crooked House

Coat hooks are appropriately placed next to the gas stove.

The floor is obviously crooked.

Midgets used to live in Helena.  Adam poses in his new house.

Only the hot water tank was straight, but it looked crooked!

Douglass poses in front of Adam's crooked stile.  Six cents are on the third step.

I make this sound so bad, but actually I thought it was hilarious.  Adam was the crooked man, and he had a little crooked dog.  He lived in a little crooked house and had a crooked stile.  We found a place near the bathtub for mice to get in, so maybe Douglas will catch a crooked mouse!

Really this house will do for the moment.  It doesn't look like there are any current leaks.  Heating could be a problem in the winter though, but at least it's present.  When he finds a better situation, I'm sure he'll get that when he can.  The bathroom is probably the nicest room in the house and looks pretty cool.  It was built far after the house was originally built, since back in the day, bathrooms weren't inside houses.  It is his home until he finds better, and he didn't have much time to do house hunting until he got here.  I'm glad that he found something in such a short time.

I went home in the evening on July 22.  I avoided the horrid traffic on 287 by driving down I-15 to Boulder, and then taking State Highway 69 to I-90.

Now what should I give Adam for a housewarming present...

Oh, did I mention that one of his neighbors are pirates?

Finishing the Doors and Windows

Nevin's Glass replaced all of our doors and windows last month.  It was a process of a few days.  I already explained how they installed all of our windows on July 6.  The next day they came to our house to do touch-up work on our windows, and then installed three doors.  On July 12 they installed our last door - the one in the dining room.  We ordered a storm door for the dining room door, and I think that is going to complete the doors and windows part of this huge project.

Jean and I have come across a pretty big set-back in our home renovation project.  After the bathroom is completed we have to re-evaluate our project.  I know it sounds cryptic, but let's just say that living in Gardiner puts us out of the way to get help.

Here are some pictures of our new doors and some of our windows:

Our new dining room door

Our new main garage door

Jean's and Grandma's bedroom windows

The south living room window

The west living room window

The living room door to the backyard

The back garage door

The dining room window.  Don't worry, the curtains are going to go eventually.

The dining room door

The west living room window

The south living room window

The pink bedroom window

There and Back Again: A Cousin's Tale

My grandma's cousin, Jalane had to travel from Spokane to North Dakota in July for a couple weeks.  On her way to her destination, she spent a couple nights at my house.  The last time I saw her was in 2006 when she helped go through a few of the things in Betty's house when we were trying to box it all up.

She and I have a common interest in family genealogy and fortunately she is able to identify a few people that I can't.  It's great that she's around to help me with this huge project.

She arrived in Bozeman July 8.  Jean, Bruce, and I met her at Outback Steakhouse.  It had been awhile since we'd eaten there, and so we decided on that as our initial meeting place.  We had a lot to catch up on, and it was great to visit with her.

It was the only opportunity Jean had to see her at all this year.  Jean was hoping to be able to see her later because Jean was going to make a trip to Washington to see some of Bruce's family, but Jalane was still in Montana when she was going home.

Friday the 8th Jalane stayed at Bruce's and Jean's condo in Belgrade.  The following day Jalane went to Livingston to see Grandma and Betty and then come see me in Gardiner.  Jalane hadn't seen Grandma since her stroke and had been deeply concerned about the situation.  When Grandma saw Jalane, she didn't recognize her, but knew who she was.  Grandma still has a sense of humor because she remarked something like, "you aren't the spoiled brat that I remember!"  Grandma did have a lot of childhood memories with Jalane.

On the other hand, Jalane was appalled at Betty's condition.  Literally, Betty is just a breathing body.  There's not much left in her.  It's amazing that she's lived this long.  Betty is still in Hospice's care, and has been continuing to decline since then.  She doesn't recognize anyone anymore except occasionally.  One time she recognized me, but since she's had Alzheimer's Disease, she's always mistaken me for my father.  Betty's condition was a stark contrast to five years ago when Jalane walked into the nursing home and Betty suddenly blurted out, "Jalane!"

That afternoon Jalane arrived at my house in Gardiner.  She had bought a lot of groceries before getting to my house and had all sorts of goodies.  Jalane has become a master of salads since she recovered from breast cancer.  That evening we shared a glass of wine out by the picnic table.  She liked being outside at our house and it made her feel very much at home.  Before I had to go to work that night, she made me dinner to eat while I was at Super 8.  Wow!  It was just like I had a mom again!

Sundays are kind of funny days for me.  I get off work in the morning at 6:00 am.  Then I have to go to bed so that I can be back at work by 2:00 pm.  While I was sleeping and at work on Sunday, Jalane delved into some of our family history information in the house.  She got really caught up in the sappy love letter that Albert Bolt sent his future bride in 1891.  I've previously posted the contents in Mush.  As well, she read letters revolving around the death of her uncle and my great granduncle Virgil.  He died of tuberculosis when he was a young man.  Those are interesting letters too.  I'll have to publish those sometime.

Monday, July 11 Jalane continued to travel to North Dakota, her final destination.  She was only there for a couple weeks, and then had to come back to Spokane.

Yesterday, August 3, Jalane came back to Gardiner on her way back to Spokane, Washington.  Jean spent the night in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho last night on her way back to Montana, so maybe they'll cross paths today as they travel, but we'll see.  While Jalane was here last night, I made her a tasty meal of grilled salmon, rice, and peas.  We had a glass of wine with dinner and talked.  I showed her some pictures from this year, telling her about my bobcat story on April 1.  I told her about Adam's and my camping trip (I'll attach a link once I write about it).  She was inspired by the photos and really liked dinner.

Whirlwind of Renovation

This week has been pretty busy.  Jean and I are both tired, but we're glad that so much got done.

Wednesday June 29, I finally got someone to get our tile job done in the bathroom.  I ended up changing which guy was going to do the job.  Jean and I were excited that it got done--or rather--mostly done.  We have a little bit that needs to get done in the closet because we just barely ran out of grout before he could finish.  I've been trying to get him to finish the job but I'm having a lot of trouble actually talking with him.  I've never grouted before, so he'd do a better job of finishing it than I would since he's already done almost the entire thing.

Another project that got done last week was our new circuit breaker box in the basement.  We needed to have a new one frankly because the old one wasn't big enough for all the things that needed to go in it.  The heat pump especially needed to have two spaces, but it was so inconvenient to get two spaces in the old box that we opted for a new box in a better place.

Wednesday, July 6 a guy came out to connect our heat pump to our new circuit breaker box.  That didn't work out so well because he ended up not having enough cable.  He felt bad about it because he had to drive all the way from Livingston to us (48 miles) for nothing.

Also on Wednesday, I had been really busy working on the underground sprinkling system and the lawn.  I mowed it that day, causing Jean's and my hay fever to really flare.  I cleaned out the picnic area and fixed the broken gasket on the river pump.  That night I put a couple coats of grout sealer on the bathroom floor except in the closet where the tile isn't finished.  Man, I was tired!  It was about to get incredibly busy, though!

It started about 8:00 a.m. the next day (which is like the middle of the night for me because of my work schedule).  The first to come were a crew of 4 guys who installed 12 windows in a day.  Pulling out the old windows was a little difficult for them because Grandpa built this house.  Nothing was going to come out without a lot of effort!

Tim, Zana, Jared, and Kassie arrived at the house a little later.  Zana and Jean helped dig a couple ditches in the yard for our Internet cable and our satellite TV cable.  The Internet cable ditch had almost been completed but Zana and Jean finished the worst of it--through a thick system of roots.  The satellite TV cable ditch was not nearly so problematic and they got that one finished and the line buried by the afternoon.  I am so thankful to Zana and Jean for that.  Tim continued to work on the bathroom and came across a few hiccups in attaching the plumbing to the sink and the plumbing to the toilet.

Have you ever watched The Money Pit when Hanks and Long wake up after dealing with house remodeling for months?  Long opens the bathroom cabinet and asks the construction worker to please give her something that would normally be in the cabinet while Hanks had to walk through a maze to get water--resulting in a domino effect of destruction.  I woke up about 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. (I even slept during some of their hammering and other construction noises!) and walked into the dining room realizing that we had been invaded.  I was still bleary-eyed and saw a guy in front of a gaping maw in the dining room where the window had been.  At first I thought it was Zana's father until I said good morning.  The window guy turned to me and said good morning, probably thinking, Where have you been?  We've been busy all morning!  I had to laugh at myself afterward.  At least the coffee in the kitchen was still hot!

Soon after I woke up, Dad and Bonnie arrived.  They originally planned to haul out a whole bunch of junk out with their trailer, but someone was still using it, so they just came to have lunch with us.

Eventually, the heat pump guy returned and connected our heat pump to the circuit breaker and made sure that everything worked.  By the afternoon, the air conditioning worked!  I guess it was kind of pointless for the rest of the day until the windows were installed, but we were glad none the less!

I started getting lunch set up for eating at the picnic table near the river.  It was pretty convenient to eat out there considering the activity going on at the house.  I started a fire at the fireplace.  It's sadly getting in disrepair, but I don't know how to fix it.  I remember so many Fourth of July picnics at this outdoor table over the years and I was reminded of "the good ol' days."  One day I might not be able to have those picnics here.  The night before Jean made some shrimp pasta salad (a Dore tradition for summer picnics).  I cooked some burgers and hot dogs.  Then we had lunch, but for me it was breakfast.

That afternoon I fixed an underground sprinkler line that got nicked when Zana and Jean were making the ditches.  Afterward, I started filling in the long ditch for the Internet cable.  I got some of the yard watered too.

But wait, that's not all!  Friday July 8, two window guys came back and installed three of the four doors that we ordered.  The dining room door will probably be installed on Tuesday, along with the tractor beam and medical staff. :)

Tim and Jared came by the house also on Friday.  I played Halo with Jared (with his dad's permission) while Tim continued work on the bathroom.  The bathroom looks really great thanks to him, and we appreciate all he's done for us.  Also on Friday he discovered why the old sink wasn't draining well.  There was some bad clog in the line that would probably happen again because the pipes are metal and not PVC.  We just decided that it would be better to replace that drain line with PVC under the circumstances.

Our house has new windows and doors.  We finally have air conditioning and a heat pump/propane heating system.  The bathroom is that much closer to being finished.  We can use that toilet in there again!  The shower needs a couple tweaks and it's perfect.

I need a day off after my days off!

"Greetings From an Admirer of Your Grandfather"

This was pretty neat, so I wanted to share it with everyone.

On June 29, I received an email from a man named Dave at my public email address.  I don't check it very often so I actually read his email Saturday, July 1.  I'd like to share it with you.

Subject: Greetings from an admirer of your grandfather

Wayne:

This is the fist time I've found a satisfying use for on line "social networking."

On a whim today, I Googled "Lyford Dore" and up popped your album of hundreds of your grandfather's photos.

Here's my story about knowing your grandfather:

In the Summer of 1964 I was a 19 year old student from the University of New Hampshire between my freshman and sophomore years. My uncle had some "pull" in the Department of the Interior and landed a summer job for me at Yellowstone Park. I was a snot-nosed kid who was going to learn the value of "labor."

This was a time of innocence; I thought nothing of the risks of hitchhiking from New Hampshire to Montana. What an adventure! I was picked up by nice people, drunks, summer travelers, commuters... all sorts of folks. Most memorable was a newlywed couple who picked me up at Spearfish and stopped at Fishing Bridge campground. They fed me a trout dinner and invited me to camp with them that night. Next morning I checked in to work at Mammoth.

I was assigned to the plumbing shop and met a handful of REAL men. No suits or college degrees here! These men worked hard and had no pretenses. Some chewed tobacco and spit wherever they chose. Some were less rough edged than others. Don was the foreman... a slight, quiet man who knew his job and knew his men. Mr. Zumwalt (I don't remember his first name.. but I learned right quick he was not related to Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations) was a crusty curmudgeon who had been around the block more than a few times. He would not tolerate us young summer workers griping about shovel duty in the heat and mosquitoes of July. Then there was Lyford Dore; lean, quiet, competent and tolerant. Every day he drove to the remote locations of the chlorine stations and serviced them. He made sure the water supply to the various Park areas was potable, free from pollutants.

I had never worked a lick of REAL labor in my life. Oh, I played competitive lacrosse and soccer in high school and college; I knew how to sweat. But to put in 8 hours of grunt work with a shovel... nope, I hadn't been there - done that. As a summer-hire laborer I was expected to shut up and dig... or lift... or slog in the mud. Mosquitoes? Ah they're good for you! Sunburn? That's why they call 'em rednecks, boy!

Don tried to find a useful task for me. Drive the backhoe tractor? I ran it off the lowboy trailer. Level off the backhoe trenches? I was slow and griped up a storm. Work in the sheet metal shop? I sliced up my hand on the first day. Don couldn't get rid of me because my uncle was a close friend and law partner with Stewart Udall, the Interior Secretary. One day Don must have seen one of those idea light bulbs flash on in his head... let's pair Dave up with Lyford. They can be on the road all day and Dave will be out of my hair.

None of this was said openly to me. Only later did I come to understand Don's problem and his solution. These were kind men. They would never have said to me, "Kid, you're a lazy, spoiled brat and we're stuck with you for the summer. Go sit in a corner every day and don't get into trouble."

Instead they paired me with Lyford Dore every day for most of the summer. We spent hours traveling to and from the chlorinator sites. It was obvious how much he loved the Park and its natural beauty and wildness. He told me he came from Lake Winnipesaukee and I told him I was in school at Durham. It was a small connection but it sufficed. Lyford told me a million bear and moose stories. We serviced the water chlorinators. We avoided injury from the dangerous gas. I left for school in August. I never heard of or from Lyford again... until today.

Its hard to believe almost 50 years have passed. There are a special few people who have impacted my life by their example. In the most subtle, gentle, quiet ways Lyford Dore was one of them. I still think of him gratefully from time to time.

Wayne, thank you for sharing your grandfather's pictures. I would be pleased to hear from you if you like.

Sincerely,

Dave [Last name removed]

The photo album that Dave referred to is Lyford's Photo Album.

Yesterday, Dave wrote me again.  He wrote:

Wayne:

What a pleasure to read your response to my note.

I am reminded of those cliches about tossing a pebble in the pond and the how the small ripples spread out all the way across the pond.  We don't have to try to make an impact on others... we do so simply by living.   Makes me want to be kinder. Hmmmm.

In 1963-65 I studied forestry at UNH. The summer job at Yellowstone was a perfect fit. I had steadied my aim on a career in the Forest Service. Then I hit two major obstacles: Hard Work and Chemistry 101 . I don't think I ever truly learned to toil, but I did learn to work smart. If working that Freshman summer at Yellowstone didn't cure my Utopian regard for Labor, my Sophomore summer in the blast furnaces of a steel mill sure as heck did. High on my newly acquired list of priorities to avoid: heat, sweat, repetition, boredom. College Chem 101 was another path changer. I couldn't/didn't learn the periodic tables, valences, carbon rings, etc. So... I changed my major to English... Jeez, anyone can read stories and poems and write three page papers about 'em, right? So much for a career in Forestry.

Fast-forward 9 or 10 years. Through no cleverness on my part (long story) I found my calling and have been practicing Prosthetics and Orthotics for nearly 40 years.

[...]

Dave