But you'd squawk like HELL if you had to pay his going rate for him to trim
it all by hand like I used to do in the cemetery.  Ruth




At 12:45 PM -0400 9/7/02, John Leeke wrote:
>Ralph writes:
>>And don't get your weed eater too close to the Dryvit.
>
>Good advice! On many structures I had noticed a deep groove developing over
>the past decade or so. Just above grade, all materials, especially woodwork,
>but masonry too--sandstone, bricks and mortar, even granite gets some wear
>from some unknow grooving force. I could not figure it out until I was doing
>an assessment and investigation at the Olsen House in Cushing, Maine (the
>one in the Andrew Wyeth paintings, you can see a pictures of it at my
>website under "Inturnships"). There the original wooden cellar window frames
>had the mysterious deep grooves cut right across both jams, on all the
>windows around the entire house. I had just noticed the grooves when the
>grounds maintenance guy came around the corner wacking away with his noisy
>little machine, buzzing down along the granite foundation, across the window
>frame, fwuup, fwuup, and on around the other corner. I followed him around
>the house, fwuup, fwuup...fwuup, fwuup...fwuup, fwuup...at every cellar
>window. Fwuusssp, across the riser of the back porch stairs, the board was
>nearly ripped in two--just an eighth-inch of wood left at the back of the
>one-inch-thick board. Buzzzwip, thip, thip, thip...down along the vertical
>board and battens of the barn, at the far corner of the barn there lay a
>four inch end of a batten, neatly trimmed off the building. Out by the
>parking lot the 4x4 posts for the sign were cut half way through.
>
>The maintenance guy was wearing head phones with a radio built in, he looked
>like he was enjoying his work, whacking weeds and tall grass, wacking
>historic woodwork, whatever, in his own little world, wacky, wacky, wacky.
>What has happened to people that they cannot pay some attention to the world
>around them. I'm afraid that people like this who get caught up in the
>artificial construct of media/marketing are not only a lost cause, but also
>cause loss of what is important in the real world.
>
>Has anyone else noticed the "Wacky Groove?"
>
>
>
>John Leeke, Historic Building Specialist
>
>26 Higgins St.
>Portland, Maine 04103
>207 773-2306
>[log in to unmask]
>HistoricHomeWorks.com
>
>--
>To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
>uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
><http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>

--
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Westminster, VT

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>