Master Builder

The rain changes everything. I felt it deep in my right hip two days ago and said to Brenda: “It’s going to rain.”

“Yeah, it’s because of all the chemtrail shit in the sky. They’re making it happen.” She got back to working on the roof over her garden. In Havasu, the summer sun is so hot that it scorches vegetable plants. Only the most heat and drought tolerant can survive in this desert. Even the rocks turn brown in a shimmery, glazed patina. “I gotta hurry up and build because they're spraying again today," she pointed to the parallel white lines in the sky, the ones with definite stopping and ending points. There were about five today. "I need to protect my tomato plants,” she said, picking up the nail gun and laying into a sheet of CDX.

The project started because the dogs kept digging up the things Brenda planted along the pool wall. The dogs—Ranger, Cowboy, and Buena--dug deep holes. I’ve watched Cowboy and Buena work on holes together out on the desert. They egg each other on in the digging and inspect each other’s holes, so I imagined the three in Brenda’s back yard were no different here.

So, Brenda and Merry got a great deal on cinder blocks, and took the trailer out to get them. I was the unloading crew…actually, the three of us were. I was the one who climbed up in the trailer and fed the bricks down to the end, hefting each one and stacking them in neat rows at the end, while Brenda and Merry used the dollies to retrieve the bricks and stack them in the side yard. Then, when I had everything pulled forward, I took over one of the dollies and started hauling bricks. By this time, Brenda and Merry had decided where the different sizes of cinderblock would be best stored.

Then, one day when I got home from work, the 3’-high cinder block wall had been built. Amazingly, the wall straight and level. “But, I think the dogs can still get in and dig holes,” Brenda lamented.

So, Brenda got a great deal on white dog gates. She had an idea. This was around Thanksgiving. I don’t know how or when Brenda went to Vegas to pick up gates, but one day I popped in on my way to work, and Brenda had all these white gates, hardware, and the boxes they came in. While I was busy at work, Brenda was hard at work on her 2x4 and gate theory.

“I think I’m going to need a few more gates,” Brenda announced. The lady in Vegas still had more gates.

“Who has this many gates? What’s the deal?”

“It’s some lady on Marketplace,” Brenda said, adding that she was a really nice lady.

Who has hundreds of gates in their life? Where do they store it? Gates? Why? I wanted to find out.

I had an idea, too: I wanted ham from the Honey Baked ham store for Christmas. So…somehow we worked it out where I drove to Vegas to pick up gates and ham. This was also the day I took a side trip to the Hoover Dam.

Gates, ham, and a dam.

When I returned to Lake Havasu City, unloaded the ham first and then the gates. Brenda was at Mahjohng or Pinochle, so I just stacked the gates inside against the couch. She only needed three.

Then, I got really busy at work. It wasn’t until a few days later that I could see the finished project with the gates.

“No, it’s not finished yet,” Brenda announced. She wanted to add a roof. “To keep the chemtrail shit out of my vegetables!”

Somehow, Brenda built a bunch of trusses in an afternoon. This woman is amazing. She has every tool and knows how to use it. When she sets her mind to a project, it gets done. Truly inspiring!

I offered to help her put them up, but she was deep in thought and kind of waved me off. That’s the day I ended up in Oatman.

The very next day, she had the trusses up. We stood by the garden in the warm Havasu sun that afternoon and talked about what came next.

She pointed to the large 4x8 sheets of wood stacked by the fence. I helped her lift the first one onto the trusses, but then I had to go to work. She told me not to worry. She’s built a house before. This was nothing.

Over the next two days, she had the entire roof up.

Brenda says there’s still a little more to go, but it’s almost finished.