84 Piney Mountain Road, Leicester, NC, USA
February 2002 – January 2003
The advertisement in the paper said “Traditional log cabin in the mountains”. I had visions of a log cabin with a productive vegetable garden and a cow. All I need do was ride on a horse to town every six months to get spices for pickle-making. It wasn’t quite like that.
The house, well most of it, was logs. It was on the corner of a not very busy road in a hilly area. It had a terrific-sized veranda and spacious grounds. It was next to a creek, and apart from a couple of houses within view it was set in forest and farmland.
So much was new to me coming from little New Zealand! Snakes and turtles and groundhogs and salamanders and skunks and racoons and squirrels and woodpeckers and bats and hummingbirds and… New Zealand didn’t have any of that. We had sheep and cows with a few native birds nearing extinction. I revelled in it! At least I did until the family of groundhogs I had encouraged decimated my vegetable garden overnight. I was busy purchasing anti-groundhog things from the garden centre when an old man told me he’d dealt with groundhogs in his garden for seventy years, and this is what you do. I did it, and the groundhogs moved house!
Eric made a nesting box for the bluebirds, and I fed the hummingbirds.
We had apple trees that produced apples by the thousands. I made apple sauce and apple pies and quite frankly anything with apples. A bale of turtles set up their living quarters under the apple trees for the duration of the season. A large snake (I don’t know what sort but it was fat and long) would bask in the sun on the ledge of the garden shed. A woodpecker that we called Charlie was profoundly attracted to our tin chimney and would wake us early each morning. Rata-tat-tat-tat. Rata-tat-tat-tat. The only drawback was a family of Harley-Davidsons living nearby. I don’t know why Harley-Davidson has never heard of mufflers. The creek next to the house had whistling frogs and you knew when they began their evening whistling that it was time perhaps for a pre-dinner glass of wine.
Just up the road a family from Florida was building a two-story log house. Janice and Ted had three children, and young Jed was wheel-chair bound and had been so all his fourteen years. He had a wish: to mow a lawn (what fourteen-year old doesn’t?) A lawn-mower manufacturing company donated a specially designed mower that he could pull behind his wheel-chair. It arrived! Dad Ted set it up. Down Jed came to mow our lawn! We were the first clients for “Jed’s Earth-Friendly Lawn Care”. We gave him a cap with his logo embroidered on the front. And we gave him an envelope with his first pay. I don’t want to shock you as we were shocked, but there’s no way around it; the next day Jed died. It was profoundly sad.
Janice and Ted remained our good friends for a few years, but over time distance can cause people to drift away.
I had never liked dogs much. Growing up on a farm with sheep dogs we were encouraged not to view them as pets. I had never had a pet dog and regarded those who had them as a bit silly. At the log cabin we had a visitor; a large long-haired dark brown-black dog that looked like a cross between a collie and a chow-chow. It learnt to take the lids off our trash cans at night and would scatter rubbish over our lawn in search of food. The mailman told me where the dog lived. He said the owners tied it up and would beat it. Nonetheless, I took the dog back to its owners. I didn’t see the dog for three weeks.
Then one day it was pouring with rain. I was on the veranda. Coming up the road was the dog. He was drenched. He saw me and began to run. He dashed up the veranda steps and all seventy pounds of saturated canine leapt into my arms. He was covered in welts and flea nests and gorged blood-sucking ticks. He never left again, and since we did not know his name we called him Doggie. I started to love my first pet dog! He was the most intelligent dog in the world! And the best looking!
Once again we had the opportunity to own our own home. Our log cabin adventure was to end. It was a time filled with happy and sad memories. But our new place was to be not far away. You know you haven’t moved far away when you still buy groceries from the same store!
How wonderful Bruce!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Cindy. Delighted to have you read it!
LikeLike
I am so glad Doggie found a good home for the rest of his life. Dogs and cats know how to pick the good people.
That was so sad about Jed. He looks very chuffed with that pay envelope.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Later, in Quebec, we had to give Doggie away. Yes, Jed was very chuffed!
LikeLike
It must have been so hard to say goodbye to Doggie.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It comes up in Chapter 6!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A sad and happy story. Isn’t the NC wildlife great? We had all sort of animals at our former residence. Even a bobcat! I’m so glad Doggie managed to persuade you to keep him!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes – the NC wildlife is wonderful!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great/awful story about Jed. Not even Bruce Goodman could make one up like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes – it was pretty shocking. He went in for a small operation and never came out of the sleep.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And to think that you helped him get his wish. That part has to be a cool memory.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sure is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“but over time distance can cause people to drift away.” ain’t that the truth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And it keeps repeating on me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is as amazing as travelling to a distant planet. Each of these pieces can fill the pages of a full fledged novel happily. I was shell shocked about what happened to Jed, perhaps he can mow all the lawns of heaven now without a wheel chair.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s what Jed’s parents said!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Doggy is my favorite! Gosh, that story about Jed though… This one pulls at the heart strings.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks – it is a heart-puller.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can only imagine.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad Jed got to accomplish that before he passed…damn that is so sad.
I’m glad you kept Doggie…anyone that beats pets should be beat…along with Richard’s brother.
Great post Bruce…btw…I’ve never heard of whistling frogs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Max. Whistling frogs make one heck of a racket!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve started sharing this story with Frances, my wife. She was reading chapter 3 before I could do so and had to stop herself telling me about Jed. Yes, you must have been dreadfully shocked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes – it was very sad and sudden. But I think he was extremely happy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sad, but these events pepper our lives with memories and make us appreciate every day I feel.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s too true Chris.
LikeLiked by 1 person
People with pet dogs really are kind of silly and Doggie sounds wonderful. I’m afraid, though, that I have to correct you. My dog is the most intelligent in the world and the best looking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excuse me ma’am: you bias is showing.
LikeLike
I only report the absolute truth, like any good journalist would do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds a lot like our new place. I’ll have to ask you the secret for ousting groundhogs. 🙂 And I think you literally gave Jed the best day of his life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ground hog (wood chuck) remedy : I put it because no one will now read it: they always have a second exit. So pour boiling water down their hole and they’re run away via their second exit, Shh! It sound cruel but it worked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like boiling an anthill. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never seen an anthill but shall boil it when it do!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poor Doggie! He was a very intelligent dog indeed. What a sudden death for Jed. I’m glad he got to mow a lawn. I love the tales of all the wildlife.
LikeLiked by 1 person