Tunkhannock Jobs

The Cottage was built by my grandfather, Louis Robinson, in 1910 on property that had been in his family for hundreds of years. When I was a child we used to come here every summer for two weeks. I had not been here since 1967, until Markus' 40th birthday 4 years ago. Our generation, with the addition of my mother, Andrew and Julia, and two cousins purchased the Cottage out of Louis' estate and Markus has been working on it ever since. Last summer was the first annual Barn Raising and we literally raised the Carriage House from the grave. Its roof had fallen in, the walls were splayed and only Markus could see that it could re resurrected. We got it level and put a new roof on it, though the installation of the corrugated tin had to be done by Markus after we left. This year there was another Barn Raising. Jobs included, installing the subfloor on the extension to the back of the Cottage that will eventually accomodate a bigger kitchen and a screened porch. Last year the foundations were poured and Markus put in the stringers. This year, Andrew, Bob and I installed the subfloor. I got good at using a drill to drive the screw every 8" into the stringers. Before this, you entered the kitchen via a gang plank (lots of fun with your arms full of groceries).

The other big job has been clearing the west field. Markus has spent two years with a brush hog removing all the junk trees that have grown up in the field. Andrew and Calder went out and cut down the trees while Markus followed with the chain saw to cut the useful portions into fuel for our wood-fired heater. The rest of us would gather the useless parts of the trees into big piles. We would do this every morning for about an hour (it's hot, hard work). The night before everyone left, Markus decided to burn all ten piles of wood. It was quite a spectacle and had an unintended consequence. When I drove my mother down to her B & B at the bottom of the hill, there were two fire engines at the intersection of N. Eaton Lane and various other cars. It turns out that someone across the valley called in the fires and thought that the Select Sires (source of bull semen for most of the Eastern US) was burning. When I got back the two cars were up at the Cottage and Markus was explaining what we were doing. The Fire Department (volunteer) was fine with the controlled burns but asked us to give them notice in the future. Markus made an apology to the Fire Chief the next day and offered to contribute $50 for the cost of the diesel, but they didn't accept it. We have continued to clear brush (particularly in the ditches next to our gravel road) each morning and today Markus and I finished the last of the ditch work and loaded all the cut wood from the trees Andres cut down. There are still about 50 trees to go and we'll be having another big bonfire before Bob and I leave.