Narnia, Chapter V
Beauty and the Chronicles of Narnia, the Other
Chapter V
*Finishing Touches*
As sometimes happens when approaching the end of a big project, and after months of intense, unending labor, and…just when one thinks one should be rejoicing and feeling great pleasure in seeing everything that has been accomplished…the mom lost it.
She and Popsi Blui had been hammering down the roof composite on top of the tar paper covering the plywood sheathing. She had woken up grumpy and was unable to shake it. Trying to contain it wasn’t working, and she stayed in a poor mood all morning. Finally, early afternoon and having been unable to fix herself, and her insides getting tighter and tighter, she stood up, threw down the hammer and exploded, “I’m going to town!”
Popsi Blui looked at her in disbelief. But seeing that she was close to tears, wisely decided not to say a word. So off she went.
Returning home some hours later, somewhat refreshed, she unpacked a store-bought bag of cookies, a rare treat. You’d think it was Christmas how the kids all danced around!
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Soon enough, discarded windows were installed on both sides of the long, rectangular main part, and on four sides of the octagonal kitchen. Beauty’s room was above the kitchen, and she had lots of windows, too. What bare openings still remained, mostly the several framed rafters intended for skylights on the slanted roof part, got covered with clear plastic. The intention was to replace the plastic as more recycled windows became available. But that never happened. The ensuing super cache of windows from an old library in Ashland all got used up during construction of the greenhouse, the next big project. At two dollars each, the triple-paned windows were god-sent.
I watched all of this take place with amazement and admiration. It takes a certain amount of bravery and vision (as well as, I must confess thinking, naïveté) to move to a place like this, totally untamed and removed from civilization, and to start from scratch, as it were. Just a bunch of trees and tons of ingenuity and perseverance, hard work, and on a shoestring. But somehow they all thrived. Perhaps because to create something from so little gave them all insights into the possibilities of life. No one was telling them how to do anything. They just figured it out. No YouTube videos to help. These lessons benefited them all throughout their whole lives and helped make their lives successful. Whatever one truly puts one’s mind to accomplish with determination, can be done.
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As it happily happened, the grandparents were in the process of redecorating their house, discarding an old couch and easy chair. The furniture was transported up in their pickup truck, tractored in, and added a real homey, comfy touch. First, however, recycled rugs were laid on top of the dirt floor which had been covered inplastic. A Tempwood, which is a simple, wood-burning steel box, was purchased new from a local distributor, stovepipes were poked throw the roof, and kitchen counters and shelves were built in around an old sink which drained into a bucket, catching the grey water. Dirty cloth diapers were soaked in there until a run to the laundromat, usually every week or two. A single propane gas burner helped out with cooking when needed. The grandma made yellow and flowered, tie-back curtains for the kitchen windows, and a lovely blue and white fabric partition for Beauty’s doorframe. It was the first room of her very own.
They moved into their new home just in time for the first falling snowflakes.
