Deconstruction

This past few weeks, I have been working for a friend, Gustavo Ocoro, helping him with his deconstruction business.
I met Gustavo a couple years ago, at Reuse Conex, the US's First National Conferenece and Expo of Reuse, held in Raleigh. I was presenting my Reptire artwork there, as part of the Reuse Exhibit, but also attended the conference, at the organizers behest.
I am glad that I did, because there, at an impromptu meeting, forming a local chapter of the Reuse Alliance, who organized the event, as we went around and introduced ourselves, I was suprised to learn that the person sitting to my left was struggling to launch a reused building supplies store in none other than Siler City!
In our discussions afterwards, he shared a little of the quagmire of regulations the he had run into there.
It is a shame that hard working entrepreneur such as this got caught up in what appears to have been a quite unwelcoming debacle in Chatham County. The upshot of this is that I recently learned that the Chatham County Economic Development Corporation, which was established in part to help bring new business to the county, has learned much from the plight of Gustavo, and perhaps other earnest entrepreneurs, and worked hard to create a system by which entrepreneurs can get all of the necessary officials in one room together. This, to my mind, was an act of practical Brilliance on the part of the EDC. They got down to the heart of the matter, asked what needed be done, and did it! I love it, and my hat is off.
Unfortunately, for Gustavo, AND for Siler City, this proactive measure came to late.
But the upshot is, Fortunately for Gustavo, and Durham, he has found a partner, and perhaps a more receptive audience, and probably a better market, at the the Cordoba Center for the Arts, also the new home of The Scrap Exchange.

And thus, Gustavo's business, and the Scrap Exchange are now neighbors together, and it seems like his business is doing well! I ran into him there one weekend, and he asked if I would like to help, as we have discussed this since.

Last week, we scraped out 2 upstairs bathrooms, down to their bare framing, for a remodel in Forest Hills.
Now this was no pretty task. It involved cutting and gingerly extracting hulking sections of both wall tile, and a beautiful white floor tile. Under the skilled hands of Gustavo and Bob, these came out like the gems that they are.
The cloud of dust was almost unbearable, and the sharp metal lathing on the back of the chunks of wall tile made it truly unpleasant to haul down two flights of stairs to the truck. However, we gleaned some really nice pieces.
Also there for the gleaning was two large cast iron bathtubs, each weighing, they estimated 250-300 lbs!....
When I learned that that they wanted me to help carry these down two flights of stairs in this mansion, I thought they had to be kidding. They weren't. There was NO WAY I thought. Here am I, have just showed up on this job/site, working for $10 / hr, and I am probably going to ending up surfing on this thing, down this flight of stairs, and punching a hole the size of a truck in the wall below it. And more likely, the tub is going to end up surfing on me! I don't think so! I told Gustavo, that I really did feel at all sure that I could safely get this thing down his client's flight of stairs.

He said he had a harness that would make it possible (a shoulder dolly, which I had never encountered). So I agreed to try out the weight, and see how it felt, on the condition that if I didn't think I could do it, we'd make other plans. Well I was completely amazed to find that with this device transfering all of the weight to my legs and hips, it was actually a bearable load!
And thus, step by careful step, we walked this massive tubs down these polished stairs, out the door, across the lawn and onto the trailer! Twice! Afterwards, I felt the particular rush of a survivor, who has, by being careful, and using the right tools, escaped the jaws of death or debt, and even accomplished something that I didn't think was possible. Somewhat how I felt after the reception for the Reclamation exhibition. What can I say, it feels great to not be dead!

This week, we were extracting hardwood flooring from a house about to be demolished. It is a beautiful old house, and the bathtub has this beautiful white tile surround. Like the last house, it is going to be difficult for me, who once aspired to lay tile, to destroy an artisans perfectly completed and functional work. However, the reality of the situation is, that what we don't extract, the bulldozer will destroy.
And so we plow forward, with more nimble hands, preserving what we can.

Perrin's Fence

Perrin has invited me back for some more projects.
Now that we have got him and his family-of-four squared away with firewood for the winter, we have a fence to build; before it the ground gets too cold to drill into.

Last week, we got things set up, and even a few holes drilled, with the farm's ancient tractor and auger.
It was a first time driving a tractor for me, and I must confess, a little bit of a thrill.

Next Friday, we hope we will be able to get most of the rest of the wholes dug out (Perrin is a holistic Vetrinarian the rest of the week).

One of the joys of working on this project with Perrin, was to see a guy, about my age, interacting with and working around his family. Living a bachelor, artist life as I do, this is somewhat of a foriegn world to me, and I found it really pleasurable to experience vicariously. Did I envy it? Not sure...

Ah, Fatherhood, how I envy ye!
I don't know what was happening behind me at this moment,
but its looks like it wasn't good!..

Maybe from time to time. Perrin's wife, Jenny, is one hell of a cook, and they were both very very generous in sharing this warm bounty with me through our work together. And his kids, Cedar and Wren are cute as buttons.

And of course, it was just a pleasure just to be there in the scenic surroundings of Blue Heron Farm.
The golden field that greets you as you enter Blue Heron, and approach Perrin and Jenny's house, has always been a favorite Chatham county sight for me. It has always been sort of a landmark for me, in terms of realizing that I am in a different, and special place...

Richard and Brooksie's Backyard 'LillyPad'

   

Well, my first introduction to this job, besides knowing both the wonderful clients, Richard and 'Brooksie', of Trilogy Fame, and the wonderful contractors, Janice Rieves and Joe Kenlan, was this beautiful truckload of Crab Orchard stone that Janice pulled up with in Joe's truck that fine morning. Ta da!

Janice, an Artist if I ever knew one, even matched this truck load, in hue, if not demeanor, to a 'T'! You know, if there is one special treat that I enjoy the most in the construction business, it is getting to work with other artists, who have an appreciation for color, as well as form and function. That pretty much completes the pie, for me. And it makes for some tasty pie, as you shall soon see...

This lovely load of stone, was to be arranged as a landing pad for the well deserved feet of Richard and Brooksie, who have a beautiful new backyard to enjoy.

By the time I arrived on the scene, Janice had already layne out the countours of this giant 'lilly pad'.

 

What was left for yours truly to do, was to remove all of  the soil with in this shape, about 5 inches down.
First, I removed the top layer of grass, which we used for turf on the lawn, and then established my depth, along a clean line, so that I could attempt to maintain it as I moved across the area.

While I didn't hit too many roots, this soil was rock hard, and rock filled, and pretty slow going. Fortunately for me, Richard himself was happy to help out, as was Janice, and by and by, together, we knocked it out.

It was nice to work with a client in this way, and in many ways, this seemed to be sort of an an ideal to aspire to. Richard was very good to work with.

Once we finally had a moderately flat cavity, carved into the surface of the ground, Janice and I re-established, and enforced, the shapes edges, using metal edging. Janice is nice enough to let me help with this fine tuning of the edge, perhaps because she knows how fastidious I am about graceful lines, and she is seeking easy and graceful passages herself, in her work for her clients landscapes. I feel quite honored that she, a very accomplished sculptor and landscaper, is willing to trust my senses in this.

Janice in 'the zone'- (aka 'the janisphere')

A sculptor at work, getting tuned in/in touch with the earth,
a beautiful thing.

Once we had the edges established for good,

it was Gravel Time.

Richard practices Zen Gravel Leveling, Quite adeptly.

Janice practices Zen pogosticking, not as adeptly.

Back in the Janisphere.

"A little help from our friends"

And finally, 

Vioala! I perfecly smooth pad of gravel, on which to...

position

A creek bed of stepping stones, cascades, and emerges...

So here is a question to ask the earth-plodding-anscestors of yore. If a Wee Leperchaun offers to help you with your landscaping job, do you consider this a boone?

Mia, gladly 'helping', to get me back in shape!

Good thing I've got 3 eyes.

Well, in this case yes. Mia, a force of sheer CHARISMA!

And Finally...

through all of our hard work together, chipping and moving and stacking, arranging, and fine tuning,

all of the pieces fell into place!.... 

And the result is the gorgeous landing pad/vista point that Richard and Brooksie had ordered up, to relax and enjoy the cathedral like space of their forest/backyard.

This is why Brooksie and Richard called a Landscape Artist!

Many Thanks to Brooksie, Richard, Zoe and Mia...

for being such a wonderfuly welcoming, helpful, hospitable, and even (on several occasions) entertaining family to work with.

I feel confident that I speak for Janice as well, when I say that it has been a real pleasure!

Steve Carr's Front And Back Yard

This past summer, I had the pleasure to work for the first time for Sculptor/Landscaper Janice Rieves, a sculptor who's work I have known for many years now since moving to Chatham County, but have only recently had the pleasure to get to know, and collaborate with.
The project was the building, sculpting and planting of several beds around the edges of local Amp Builder, Bar Owner, Musician, Entrepreneur, Steve Carr's house.

It was a real pleasure to get to try working with Janice, and I hope it will be the first of many more. However, I don't think it will ever be quite like that job, at least not in the next 12 years. For you see, we were constantly being serranaded by 13 yr old cicada! Now, you thought pubescent human 13-year-old sounded creeky, akward and annoying, try listening to these crawling out of bed for days on end. Quite a drama unfolded, in the space inbetween the canopy above, and the canopy below the oaks, that we shared with these strange visitors...the burgeoning Cicada Men, singing their cicada sonata!

It was also a real pleasure to meet the Carr Family, really nice people, every one of them, even little Max;)
One day, Max- home from school with the flu- decided he'd like join our crew to help in the garden, which his mom reported that he truly 'digs'. And indeed, Max proved to be an adept worker, and didn't even give us the bug! Perhaps some day Max will have a crew of his own. Then he will know, as we do, that he's got 'The Good Stuff'.

Perrin's Patio

Don's Fence

Last Spring, I spent a good bit of time with my friend, local Organic Grower, Don Reese, helping him to build a fence around his produce garden at his EverGreen Organics Farm, here, just West of Siler City.

BACKGROUND OF A GOOD FRIENDSHIP
Don has been a good friend for a long time, and we have worked on several projects together in the past, most notably, what I like to call, 'The Great Wall of Pittboro', a 300 ft (?) long wooden gravel-dust barrier, for my employer at the time. So Don and I are veteran fence builders (and he has brought me in on a couple of jobs since then, including helping to build a studio at home for his partner, Gourd Artist, Carol Tinsky).

DANCING 'PARTNERS'
And finally, Don and I co-organized a series of Ballroom Dance Classes for Beginners, which we held for several seasons at the beloved Mina Beana's Cafe, before their closing in the summer of 2009 (?). Don and I dreamed the classes up during our lunch breaks, while working on 'the wall', when we learned that we shared a common interest in partner dancing. Don and Carol did a wonderful job of teaching the classes, and I did my best to support them and the cafe in this endeavor, and continue recriuting more inteprid couples, who made alot of progress over the course of the series, including yours truly.

THE CHALLENGE
But while Don does love to dance, his real passion is growing healthful organic produce. He believes in  it, religiously, and loves it with each and every one of his taste buds. Unfortunately, as Don would point out, so do his neighborhood deer, out there in that beautific, glady glen, in the midst of which he has established EverGreen Organic.

And these deer are not the kind to give up easy, Don knows well. No quite to the contrary, they seem to enjoy a challenge, any chance to show off their athleticism.
Well, a challenge they've got, because Don Reese is serious about his fence building. Actually, he is mostly serious about his produce, but to the deers demise, Don has 50+ years of experience putting up all manor of structure in the natural environment. You see, Don, in a previous life, was a big time Builder. He ran crews of 100 guys, in the Baltimore Area, laying down asphalt, putting up entire subdevisions.
But by and by, he became utterly disillusioned with the contracting business, and decided that he would rather persue his life-long passion of organic farming, culled, in part perhaps, from a subscription to Mother Earth News.
Yet, Don did bring several choice tools and skills with from a lifetime in the construction business...

SMALL GUNS
First, the little guns, Don's practical whit. Don is quick on his feet, spry, and independant minded. A pistolero, that one, so to speak.

THE BIG GUNS
But, that there pistol ain't the only gun Don owns....No. Don also brought with him major skills with a front-end loader, which deftly he operates like a second set of hands.
So, as a hired hand, I have to say, I was pretty fortunate that we had this kind of equipment at Don's service.
As I said earlier, Don is serious about his fencing. And there was a whole lot of post holes, and trenching, which were work enough with this mamoth work horse at our side. I hate to imagine having done with out it.

Previous Projects

MY BRIEF HISTORY WITH THE ART OF LANDSCAPING

HIGH SCHOOL

I think my first experience landscaping that I remember well was as a sophmore in High School. A neighbor from Chicago, Mike Dennis, hired me to help him with project that he was working on, building some steep terraced flower beds around the back or his driveway, using railroad ties. Mike was a burly bear of a guy, good to talk to, and as a teenager, I enjoyed the chance for some strenuous labor. But to be completely honest,  I think the kicker was when my friend walked up, with his new friend from artschool, and saw me heroically hoisting these 'massive timbers' (in my own mind, at least), untouchable, my sense of pride was palpable, and I was hooked.

My senior year, I took a job assisting a bathroom and kitchen remodeler, mostly running a wet saw for the tile work he did. Through out my college career, I would take various jobs in construction, and did a lot of digging of foundations, which I found that I actually enjoyed. Later on, in college in the Bay Area, I hooked up with an independant landscape contractor in Berkely, who abruptly dissapeared one day (hauled off to jail, can't say I missed her, though I did miss my pay). Either way, this outdoor labor provided a welcome counterpoint to the mostly academic bent of the SF Art Institute, where I was studying.

EAST BAY CONSERVATION CORPS

Perhap I liked it a little too much. For, before I know it, I had dropped out of college (for the second time), and found myself working for the East Bay Conservation Corps, through an Americorps program, teaching Health and Gardening to K-2nd graders. This was to be one of the most enriching work experiences of my career, and I (with some extraordinarily good company) relished every moment of having my face down to the ground, so to speak (trips to gather horse manure from the stables up the wild cat hills stand particularly in my memory).

So much so, that I decided to try out a career in Landscape Design and Construction, undertaking an apprenticeship with local garden building genius, Frank Hyman, of Cottage Garden Design & Construction, back in Durham, NC.

Frank and I hit it off well, and we had many great projects together.

But inspite of this, it was a really rocky time in my life, and by the time my trial period had ended, and it was time to commit, it became clear to me that I wasn't in the right place to proceed with the rest of the apprenticeship. This was a difficult decision to make, and sometimes I wonder if I made the right one.

The life Frank was offering to me, was in many ways quite attractive. I enjoyed the materials, the comradery, the challenge, the artfulness of his designs. 

But I also felt like I was taking on someone else's vision, a vision, which was not the one that I ultimately saw for myself.

However, in the wake of ending our apprenticeship, I did undertake several projects on, on my own, and found that I learned from these experiences immensely, and I am very proud of the work that I did for these clients.