Ashes to Something Other Than

Three Saturdays ago, we breathed asbestos for a day, but at dusk we had a large pile of siding and shards to show for our labor. Now we wait for Cousin Frost to haul them away before we contact the fire department. We're hoping that they'll perform a controlled burn for us, which would help us avoid less controlled, more time-consuming burns we'd do ourselves.

John worked for an hour and a half by himself until my mom and I came down to help him. Then Luke showed up (on a weekend visit from Connecticut) and helped us for a while.





Joel showed up for about five minutes, just long enough to break a hammer and to procrastinate from a paper he was supposed to be writing.




I'd like to keep this little shed intact. When we were younger, Luke and I would explore the burned house and the shed. I like the look of it; plus, it's a treasure house.


See? Treasure.





I was the only one lucky enough to wear a mask. I took it off after this picture, though, because the day was too beautiful to waste by protecting my lungs.


Here's John and the last barrowfull. The house, all around, is stripped clean.