"Grampa's Shack"

The sun had set and dark had settled in....the stars were out but not adding any light to the darkness.  The girls started making a ruckus.... I looked out the window and barely made out a truck and figures of people.......

I turn on the out side light......it's dim against the darkness but I recognize my daughter and her boy friend.  The were unloading something....it was a little wood stove for "Grampa's Shack."

Tom stepped outside to see what was going on....... in the darkness he sees Sandy.......but still confused about what was going on..... "We brought you a wood stove for your shack," she tells him.  "Oh my goodness" he says with excitement in his voice....... You could tell he could hardly believe it was true.

I think it was back in 2004 ....... Tom wanted to build a "little shack"  He spent the most significant part of his life in shacks with his Dad....."a logger" and they also had the "hunting shacks".......

He didn't think it possible. I said anything is possible but it depends on how bad you want it because only you can make it happen.....
 

 So "WE" built this little shack...... When we were done he sat down on the deck and wiped the sweat from his brow and said......"Now I'm Home"

Those words were said with such passion I got a chill.  I will never forget that moment and those words ......and unbeknown to me years later those words would carry a significant meaning  as Tom digresses into the world from which he came.....

These past years this shack just sat there..... it took on storage items after time..... after all he didn't use it........?

But I've been listening to what he tells others about his shack..."these days" along with his "trapping stories"......... it was simple and doable.

 So yesterday we threw the storage out and put in the wood stove.......by evening there was a warm fire crackling in the stove......

I could see through the small window in the door......

Tom sitting at the little table rolling cigarettes, listening to the radio and talking to his old hound dog "Maggie" who lay on the floor by his side.

As I got closer I heard him tell her "soon ol' Dad will have a bed in here for us....and than we can spend a night or two in here together"........
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In Toms mind, putting in the wood stove was a breeze... it went well and we had fun doing it together.....while the girls scampered around the yard playing with there balls and sticks.

Tom did well when we went to the store to buy parts for the stove..... There was a time we loved shopping together and than the time came that shopping for Tom became a night mare to him.....

Since the new medication he was fine in the store but I still had to help him find what he was looking for.......and when we got to the check out I sent him out to check on the girls in the van......

Tom struggled with what order to do things...... he had trouble fitting pieces together......really wasn't sure what to do... so I tried to guide him in a way he didn't notice.... he did a lot of screaming and hollering out of frustration, but I would calmly redirect so he didn't notice his own confusion.....

BUT I DID LAUGH when he asked me to put the tar (in a caulking tube) on the part that went on the roof.... he watched me struggle to squeeze the caulking gun and yelled out orders like a drill sergeant.... "more here...not to close to the edge .....come on your squeezing it like an old woman.... more over here...geeze I should just do it myself".............  I laughed and said "why aren't you doing it?"  He said "because you want to"............ "No I don't" ....... "Yes you do because you think you know everything."  I said "here...you do it........I want your job.....I want to sit and tell you how to do it and where to put it."    He so didn't get it but did finish the job. LOL

So I agreed with him that it went well and we all had fun doing it together.