Chapter 05

A New Life

Monday morning Jenny and Mort wake up to the beat of the rotor blades when the helicopter passes over the house to drop Barry’s crew on the ridge. They go downstairs to have breakfast.

Mort grins and says, “Today is the first day of our new married life. Why don’t I feel very different?”

Jenny grins, “Because we’ve been living like a married couple since you woke up after the fight. I do love how you’ve made this old house into a beautiful home for us. We still have a lot of shopping to do but we have almost everything we need.” The sound of a car pulling up has them going to the front door. Sissy, Laura, and Mike get out so Jenny says, “Come on in. I’m cooking breakfast, join us.” They all grin and enter the house.

A short time later they’re all eating and Sissy says, “Thursday an antiques man will be here to look at the trunks and the old guns. If you give me the coins I’ll organise to get them sold.”

Laura and Mike look surprised and they can’t believe their eyes when Mort stands, goes to a drawer in the bench, opens it, and takes a couple of trips to move about twenty gold coins to the table while saying, “Look at these while I get a box to put them in.” He leaves, and is soon back with a small box to put the coins in. He adds, “They’re all on the list I sent you the other day.”

Sissy grins while saying, “Our friend in Annapolis can’t wait to see them. He’s already sold about half of what we sold him and he’s paid us two thirds of what he owes. I’m investing most of it but I’m keeping a bit out for you to do things with.” Laura and Mike are switching from one to the other while Sissy and Mort talk about the finances the two guests don’t know anything about.

After they eat breakfast Jenny takes the visitors on a tour of the house. They all love the look of the house and the lovely antique furniture. Early in the tour Mike asks, “Can you handle not having electricity?”

Mort simply grins, walks to the doorway, and puts his finger to the touch-plate light switch set into the side of the door jamb. The others are stunned when the lanterns light up. He says, “We’re very modern. We have twenty-four volt direct current throughout the house. Right now it’s from a generator I’m running but the wind turbines on the ridge will be the main source when they’re finished. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to hide the fittings and to have the visible ones look like period items. All of the power sockets and network cable sockets are down near the floor and are coloured to blend into the wood.” They look, and soon find them now they know what to look for. “The fridge, freezer, washing machine, and similar stuff are hidden behind some cupboard doors.” He turns to Sissy, “You may need to get a book expert out to look at the library. All of the books look like they’re a couple of hundred years old or older. Many are not what I’d read, but some are. I figure to keep some and we can send the rest off for auction with the trunks.”

Laura is interested in the silverware and the cutlery, Sissy is very interested in the basement when they get there. The walk through the ridge is also of interest to all the guests. About mid-morning the guests leave to get back to Altoona as they’re only in town for the wedding.

Just after lunch Barry turns up and says, “Mort, I did some checking on where cables run around here. If you put in an extra turbine and a radio transmission tower on the ridge you can run a fibre optic cable to the main line beside the road on the other side of the ridge and rent out the use of the radio tower to phone and television companies.” Mort raises an eyebrow so he adds, “I looked into it because I can make money off the work. However, it is a viable business opportunity for you.”

Mort thinks for a moment then replies, “Send Sissy the details of the people you’ve been talking to, along with all of the costs. If we do this I want to be able to tie into their cable for high speed Internet access from here at their best land-line rates.”

“I’m sure you can do that. I’ll contact Sissy about it. We hope to have the shaft down to the tunnel today. Tomorrow we’ll put the ladder in.” Mort smiles and Barry leaves to organise a few more things.

The rest of the day is spent doing minor adjustments to things in the house, the stables, and the workshop. Mort also refills the fuel for the generator and checks all is well for them to have hot water tomorrow. After having a thought about what Barry said to him Mort sends an email to Sissy to investigate the idea of being an Internet Service Provider for the town through the cable to the radio tower for the world while using wireless from the radio tower for the local clients. He figures some server hardware with decent wireless gear and he can put the valley on the Internet at a good rate without having to pay the high phone Internet rates they currently have.

The next two days are idle days with Mort and Jenny relaxing as well as doing some minor adjustments to the furniture layout of the house.

Note: The research Barry and Sissy do shows the extra work will pay for itself within four years because the tower will cover a few small gaps in the current cell coverage and also save the companies having to put up a new tower in the area when they go to the new shorter range frequency in the near future. Sissy does offer the tower as a repeater for the emergency services in the area free of charge as a community service.

Thursday

Ben arrives with Frank, Eric, and a load of gear. They carry a metal sheet with ridges on it down to the basement, set it against the blocks beside the fireplace, and use some rods to mark a few spots on the floor and the side wall under the fireplace. All morning they take care to drill several holes in the rock without shaking the rock a lot. Ben is worried about shaking a block loose and having the water crash in on them. Mort thinks Ben is wise to be concerned about the possibility.

Jenny drives off with her sisters to do some shopping in one of the large nearby towns so Mort works on his computer program. When he stops for lunch he goes down to see how much work Ben has done.

The metal sheet is up against the blocks, it has five rods into the holes in the stone floor. They’re attached to the metal sheet with bolts through ’U’ brackets, two low and three high on the sheet. Another rod is deep into the stone under the fireplace and it’s attached to a rod down into the stone floor just past the sheet. Ben is attaching adjustable rods from the cross bar down to the other rods and the sheet while the boys build a wood frame to enclose the whole work area. Mort can’t work it all out so he asks Ben, “OK, what are you doing here with that lot?”

Ben says, “Strong alloy plate to hold the blocks and wall in place. The rods into the floor are to stop the plate from sliding back. If enough pressure is applied the plate could pivot up on the rods so the cross brace is to resist that by holding the plate and the rods in place. The side brace is to stop the cross brace from twisting back. When I have all of the rods in place we’ll put reinforcing in which we’ll attach to the rods then we’ll pour concrete tinted to look like the rock. It shouldn’t move at all after we have it all put in place and the concrete sets properly.” Mort nods his agreement now he knows what it is they’re doing.

Mort says, “I’m about to eat lunch, join me when you feel you can.”

A little later they’re all having lunch in the kitchen and watching the helicopter drop another load of trees near the garden. Mort asks, “Ben, are those trees any good to use for making a nice split rail fence to go around the garden?”

“Yes, they are. When we finish below I’ll bring my chainsaw mill up to cut them up for you.”

“You know what to do so just cut it up and build a good fence all the way around the garden. However, I do want the wood soaked in the oil Sven left and then sealed so it lasts a long time. Also cement the posts into the ground. If you have a machine to do it turn the small stuff into mulch and toss it onto the garden.”

“It may take a few days but we can do that. I’ll make a nice double gate so you can get your tractor in and out too. What we don’t need for the fence I’ll cut up into boards for you and put them in the workshop.”

Mort grins while thinking about how much work he’s given Ben since he arrived, Ben must be very happy right now.

Ben and the boys go back downstairs while Mort cleans up the cups and plates they used for lunch. A car stopping outside has him walking out to see who it is.

Fred Kelly gets out of his truck and says, “Morning, Mort. I just came to tell you the township council voted to change their boundary last night. It’s now in line with the eastern boundary of the town properties. So the ridge is now all the other township’s concern once the state people approve the change. I sent them all a letter about it this morning.”

“Thanks for telling me, Fred. I’ll make sure Sissy knows where to send the paperwork for the wind turbines I’m putting in.”

“You sure fixed this place up good. I’ve trouble believing it’s the same building as the changes are that much. I saw it all happen so I know you only cleaned it up. But it’s hard to believe it all.” They shake hands, say their goodbyes, and Fred leaves. Mort calls Sissy and leaves a voice message about the boundary changes for her.

Mort goes down to check on Ben, and they’re almost ready to pour the concrete. Noise from the tunnel has Mort going in to see what’s up because none of Barry’s people have gone through the house.

When Mort nears where he thinks the shaft from the ridge top will come in he can see daylight in the tunnel, and he smiles. He hears voices so he goes to where the shaft enters the tunnel. It’s to the side and has a half circle cut out of the wall. The shaft ends about six inches short of the floor. Mort looks up the shaft and sees a man being slowly lowered down the shaft on a rope while he turns around to examine the rock walls. When he reaches the tunnel Mort can see it’s Barry.

Barry smiles and says, “Good rock for most of this. We have about thirty feet of dirt at the top, so the hole there is wider than the shaft to give us room to set a pipe and pour concrete around it. But the rest is good rock we can drill into. We should have the ladder in place by tomorrow night.” He turns to the machine he left in the tunnel before and switches it off. Glancing at Mort he adds, “Wireless signal for the drill operator to aim the drill at. Helps to make sure he drills where we want him to go. Can you carry this out for me, please? I’ll have them pull me back up.”

Mort nods, picks the unit up by its handle, and walks off with it. He puts it down in the kitchen. It’ll be safe there until Barry collects it.

Ben answers Mort’s concerns about how Ben will mix the concrete in the basement when a cement mixer truck with a long hose turns up. In a few minutes they’re pumping the cement through the eight inch hose running through the backdoor and the kitchen into the form built in the basement. By mid-afternoon all they have to do is to wait for it to set, so Ben and the boys go home for the day.

Later in the afternoon Mort walks out to see what the helicopter is delivering now. It has a bunch of sheets of concrete reinforcing with a few wide pipes. A few minutes later the helicopter is flying away with the drilling machine.

Jenny arrives back with a truck load of things so Mort helps her to carry it all into the house to where she wants it put. They have dinner, a hot bath, and settle down for the night after they take turns to tell each other about their day.

Friday

While they eat breakfast Jenny and Mort hear the helicopter fly over a few times. They don’t get up until they hear trucks in the front yard.

Four of Barry’s work crew are driving four trucks. They get out, say hello to them, and carry a few items down into the tunnel.

Ben and his boys park three trucks with trailers near the garden and get busy unloading things. They’re fast to set up to work on the trees. The first thing they do is strip all of the trees ready to be cut up and they set aside the better branches as firewood. Then Ben uses his small tractor to lift the logs to cut them longways with his chainsaw mill while Frank works the mill as Eric uses a machine to turn all the scrap into chips.

Jenny and Mort go back inside to sort out and put away all of the gear Jenny bought yesterday. They stop to check on things just before lunch and are surprised almost all of the trees are now cut up. Eric is packing away the chipping machine because he’s finished that task.

They’re just finishing lunch when a van stops in the front yard. Mort goes to see who it is. The driver gets out and says, “I hope this is Mallard House!” Mort nods yes. The man holds his hand out, “Rick Jones. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here yesterday, like I promised. A family issue came up. I’m here to look at some trunks and weapons you have.”

Mort grins, introduces himself, and takes the man into the parlour where he has the trunks, then he goes to get the guns for him to look at. Mort has kept them locked up for safety reasons. Two hours later Mort has a receipt for the items and is helping the man load them into his van, except for the two guns Ben wants. Mort is stunned by the value of them.

While Rick turns his van around another van pulls up. The driver gets out and she says, “Hi, I’m Lizzy Lawson. I believe you have some old books you want me to evaluate.”

Mort nods, shakes her hand, introduces himself, and says, “Yes, we have a few some ancestors of mine packed away quite a few years ago. I’ve no idea of exactly how old they are.”

They enter the house and he stops to wave at the hundreds of books in the bookshelves lining the entry. He adds, “I know the majority of these were packed away in trunks for safe keeping in eighteen sixty-two, so I know they have to be older than that.”

Lizzy’s eyes go wide at the size of the collection she sees. She gulps and says, “I came out here thinking you had a dozen books to look at, not a whole library.” She walks to the nearest shelf and takes a book off the shelf. She opens it to look at it. Then she spends about twenty minutes selecting books at random to check them. She turns back to Mort and says, “If what I’ve seen is representative of the whole library you have many millions of dollars of old books here. I can’t handle all this by myself. Do you mind if I call in some other experts to help me?”

Mort replies, “I don’t mind who you call in to help you. But I do want you to catalogue everything before you get a huge crew in to help. A couple to help with that isn’t an issue. We’ve got the room to put up a few people while you catalogue the books.” He points to a shelf while adding, “Those are books I’m interested in keeping to read, but I could be persuaded to sell them if I’m given other copies to read which are less valuable. I particularly like the one with all of the bird pictures.”

Lizzy points at a book while saying, “Do you mean this one, ’Birds of America’ by Audubon,” while pointing at the book on the shelf. Mort nods and she asks, “Do you really want to keep a rare book worth several million dollars just sitting around in your entry area like this?”

Mort laughs and says, “I had no idea it was worth so much! In that case I think it best be sold to a museum and I get a reproduction. I don’t want to keep something so rare it gets a lot of publicity and people come here to steal it.”

Lizzy smiles at Mort, gets out her phone, punches a number, and says, “Thank you,” while she waits. It’s answered and she says, “I need a hand here with this job in Pennsylvania, Mary. I need you, Ann, and Alice here right away.” She listens, “I don’t care. Call and cancel it. This is too important and I need the help right now!” She argues with the person for a moment then says, “If you can’t come I’ll have to call Jerry to get his help.” A pause, “Yes, it’s that important and urgent I’ll deal with the obnoxious son of a bitch to get it done!” Some more talk then she hangs up. Turning to Mort she says, “I’ll have some help here in the morning, but I’ll get started right now.” She turns and goes to her van. She’s back in a couple of minutes with a folding table and a carry case containing gloves, torch, pads, and pens. Mort gets her a chair and she’s soon set up in the corner of the entry. She takes a book from a shelf, puts it on the table, opens it, and writes it’s details on the pad.

Mort smiles as he leaves Lizzy to her work.

It’s nearing dinnertime when a long line of men come up from the basement, many more than went down there earlier in the day. The last is Barry who stops to tell Mort, “We’ve got the ladder in place and bolted to the rock. So now we only need to airlift materials. We’ve got all we need up on the ridge to get set up to pour the concrete pads. We hope to have the forms up tomorrow and to pour on Monday.”

Mort asks, “How many pads now, Barry? I saw more trees got cut.”

“There’s now four turbines. Your original two, one for the radio tower, and one for a new special project Sissy wants. The battery and control shed pad will do double duty for the tower and will have the radio tower built above it. That’s five pads with the radio tower and control pad in the middle.” Mort smiles as he points at the transmitter from the tunnel. Barry grins, picks it up, and walks out the door.

Lizzy joins Jenny and Mort for dinner then she gets her suitcase from the van to set up in the southern bedroom. However, she spends most of the evening cataloguing books by lantern light.

The generator has a timer in its controller which Mort set to turn on and off at times to provide power to heat the hot water for the master bedroom bathroom because they don’t yet use electricity for anything else. This saves on fuel. Mort sets the generator to run for a longer period and he switches on the circuit breaker for the water heater for the other upstairs bathroom before he and Jenny go to bed for the night.

Saturday

During breakfast Barry and his crew arrive then they pass through on their way to the ridge. Lizzy is stunned by the long line of men going through the kitchen so Jenny tells her about the tunnel with the shaft to the ridge. Naturally Jenny makes Mort take Lizzy for a look at the tunnel and where it goes.

Ben and his boys arrive to go back to work on the garden fence.

Mid-morning two vans arrive with four more women. Lizzy grins when she looks out the front door then goes out to greet them as she says to Mort, “Watch their faces when they see your library.”

Lizzy introduces Mort and Jenny to Mary, Ann, Alice, and Joan on the front porch then Jenny leads the way into the house. Mort waits to let the ladies in first and he watches when all of the newcomers stop in the entry to stare at the array of books. Within a few minutes there are four tables in the entry with books on them being assessed and catalogued while a fifth table is in the parlour where Joan types the hand written lists into a database she has on her laptop computer.

Mort and Jenny spend the day in the kitchen teaching each other what they know about baking. The end result is a collection of different cakes to take to Kevin to sell with many left over for church tomorrow. It’s a fun time for the two of them because they both enjoy cooking and they’re both learning how to get the most out of the wood stove.

Late in the afternoon Ben stops by to give Mort the bill for the work this week. It includes the just finished garden fence. Mort goes through his usual payment routine and tells Ben, “Being late Saturday it may be Monday before Sissy sees it to pay it.”

Ben replies, “I know. I’m not worried as I know it’ll be paid soon.”

Jenny has a hard time making the book ladies stop to eat meals. It’s also hard to make them stop at night, but they do.

Sunday

After getting up and ready for the day Jenny has a hard time to convince the book ladies to go to church with them, but she does do it in the end. The convincing argument is the fact Mort and Jenny are having breakfast in town so the ladies need to go with them if they want to eat a good breakfast.

Jenny’s family is stunned by the large array of cakes and other baked goods the couple unload from the back of Jenny’s truck. They all laugh when Jenny says, “Yesterday Mort and I had a wood stove bakery cook-off and this is the result.”

Church is good and the after church chatting is good as well. Many of the people enjoy the range of cakes set out to eat, a bigger range than they’re used to seeing. The Pastor and his wife helped Mort and Jenny unload the cakes but none of them tell anyone else who brought them, so most think the other church members brought a few each. There’s always a few cakes brought along but the amount usually varies and it’s rarely this many.

After having their Sunday lunch Mort and Jenny clean house while the book ladies go back to listing books. Mort does check and top up the generator fuel.

While getting ready for bed in the evening Mort says, “I think my wrist and ankle are healed enough for me to get back to doing my gym exercises again.”

Jenny says, “Why don’t you get Ben to make the basement nice and buy what you need in the way of exercise equipment for you to set the basement up as a good home gym for both of us?”

“That’s a good idea. I don’t need the whole basement so I can have him set up part of it as the gym and put a wall in to partition it.”

Monday

After breakfast Mort calls Ben while letting Barry’s men through to get to work on the ridge. Mort says, “Ben, I’m sorry to say, but I may soon cease being your favourite customer because I’m running out of things I need you to do for me.”

Ben laughs, long and hard, before replying, “Probably true, but it’s been very good for us while you get organised. Now what do you want me to do for you?”

“I want to insulate and line the basement while making three rooms down there. I’ll also need to have them well ventilated.” They talk some more then Ben promises to be out later in the day.

Mort checks on the ladies busy on the books then he gets busy on the Internet checking out gym equipment while Jenny looks on. In the end they’ve a good list of gym equipment they want so they send an email to Sissy to place the order for it all and to pay for it. The two use the details from the website to plan the layout of their personal gym so it fits with comfortable spacing around each item. They don’t want a lot of gear and much of it can mount to the walls or be set against the walls, which makes the task of arranging the room easier.

A check of some computer equipment sites has Mort planning the layout of a server room in the corner of the basement. He’s thinking of the space for a local ISP and he has a good idea of what will be needed. If it needs to be bigger he’ll worry about changes later.

When Ben arrives just before lunch Mort, Jenny, and Ben go down to the basement to discuss what’s wanted. Mort says, “We’ve worked out what we want for gym equipment and planned its layout,” as he hands a copy of their plan to Ben, “and it’ll be best if the heavy gear is secured to the wall.” Ben nods his agreement.

Jenny says, “We think having the largest items attached to the new wall you’ve put in will help ensure it doesn’t move.” Ben grins. “I think it best to have the main dividing wall under the wall for the Entry to help support the wall between the Entry and the Parlour.”

Ben says, “Good idea. Looking at this plan you should put a small cupboard between the new wall and the cross wall.” He walks around the room to check everything then adds, “I can drill holes in the blocks at the front to run air inlet pipes under the front porch then run some outlet pipes up into the chimney that’ll help with the ventilation due to the warm chimney creating a ventilation flow.”

Mort asks, “What’s the deepest the snow has been around here?” Ben frowns when he turns to look at him. Mort adds, “We need to make sure the inlet pipes are well above the highest snow level.”

With a big grin Ben says, “Could be issues if we don’t. I best bring the pipes out just inside the edge of the porch then run them up beside the porch supports to make sure they’re clear of any snow.” He thinks a bit then adds, “Instead of having an open pipe with insect screens I think I’ll make it like some car air filters with the intake facing to the house so it’ll limit the entry of dust.”

Walking to the front of the house Mort says, “I want a five foot deep room across the front with extra ventilation and a door in the middle. Access will be via the gym. The area under the entry will be for general storage and access to the ridge.” Ben frowns at the access to the ridge so he adds, “They’ve made a shaft from the tunnel up to the ridge and put a ladder in. It’ll be the access to the wind turbines and their controls.”

Ben nods his understanding as he did wonder how they would set that up. He says, “That means you can have a tighter control on those assets as well as easier access.”

“Yes. The plan is to put in a door that’s not far short of a bank vault and the high security lock will only allow access after someone goes up to remove the steel bars first. The lock is only to lock the door when a person is up there working so it’s not left open when they’re busy on the radio tower or a turbine.” Ben frowns about the tower, “A tower for cell phones, radio, and television is going in too. It’ll extend the range of phones in the area while improving reception quality.”

“Good idea. I’ll get started in the morning as this is an easy job.”

Mort agrees with him and they go to the kitchen to have lunch.

Jenny spends the afternoon with her family while Mort works in the stables and the workshop to ensure everything is arranged and set out how he wants it to be.

When Barry and his crew pass through at the end of the day Mort asks, “When will you be pouring the concrete, Barry?”

Barry grins as he replies, “That’s what we’ve been doing all day. It’s quicker to airlift it in from the main road on the other side of the ridge. We made a sort of turn off on your property below where the radio tower is going to be so the concrete trucks stop there, fill the bucket under the helicopter, and he brings it up to unload into the forms we made last week. Tomorrow we’ll start getting some parts of the radio tower and turbines ready to go in when the concrete is set. We should have it all up and working by the end of the week. I’m planning to do the final tests and sign off on my work on Saturday. The connections for the cables at the road is another issue and out of our hands. Some of the repeaters will be microwave so they’ll be on-line as soon as we finish.”

Mort’s response is, “You do work fast. I thought it’d take a lot longer to get it all done.”

“Putting the shaft and the ladder in cut several days off the plan because we can all get up the shaft faster than we can be airlifted in. So it means we get going much faster and it reduces the amount of time getting out again as well. It may be only an extra ninety minutes a day, but it does add up and it affects the work flow schedule.”

After dinner Mort goes down to the gym in town for a light work out while Jenny visits with the book ladies who go back to work. The ladies are in a big hurry to get the work done because they get a commission on the sales to others when it’s done. The sooner the catalogue is done the sooner they can sell the books and make money.

Mort and Jenny go to bed when he returns from the gym.

The rest of the week

The days are starting to be fairly routine for Jenny and Mort. One point Jenny raises which Mort hadn’t considered due to the lack of experience on his part, is the planting of their garden. She says, “Mort, what do you intend to plant in the garden, and when? I think it’s getting a bit late to expect much out of it this year.”

Mort thinks on this because it’s now summer and they no longer use heating at night, nor do they use air-conditioning due to how well the house is insulated now. It maintains a nice even temperature. He says, “I’d not thought about planting anything. I had too many other things on my mind until now. I don’t know much about growing crops, but what I do know is you have to plant in early spring to harvest in summer or the fall, depending on what you plant.”

When they walk over to look at the garden they see something has been planted so Mort calls Ben to ask about it, and Ben says, “I knew you wouldn’t get a crop in this year so when I was turning over the soil to mix the mulch from the trees in I also ploughed in some alfalfa to help rejuvenate the soil for next year. It’s actually too late in the year for it to really grow, but it will do some good. I’ll let you know when you should plough it in. Your rebuilt tractor and tools will be ready in a few weeks. I’ll show you how to use them all when I deliver them.”