For ten years she’s sat in front of our shop, turning uglier by every season. She provided untold amounts of solid maple wood for Marc to harvest for his woodshop and much needed storage space area for a bunch of miscellaneous junk. But it’s been past time for her to leave as a blight on our front yard so with the help of some equipment kindly lent to us by a contractor friend, we got to it. Ten days, $1200 in expenses like dump fees, fuel, and additional gravel, and many backbreaking hours of pickup work later, most of her was gone. What remains; the frame and axles mainly, will be further stripped and then eventually be put up for sale.
We had good weather, although some days too warm, for our work, so primarily worked during early morning hours. Watching the jaws of the grapple bucket gnawing away at the skeleton reminded me of seeing a small ant with a giant load of something clenched in its front pinchers. Forty foot of fiberglass and wood and more insulation than I’ve ever seen in one place succumbed to brute force.
Was it nostalgic? A little. She
housed our family for many years as we chased construction projects all over
the country and then finally escaped in her fulltime for many RV travels. Very
stoutly built (it’s true they don’t make them like that anymore) and heavy, it
took a special truck to safely haul her. Now, it’s all just memories, like so
much of our life is becoming….
Fall is here.
