The end of an episode

We'll be leaving here soon. I'm looking forward to the city. Deborah's looking forward to going out after supper without worrying about cougars. It'll be fun to meet up with old friends. To have a TV again. I miss the West Island... We've been working on this project for a year, naively planning what kind of place we want to build in this beautiful place. We sat on a stump a year ago and decided to do it, to buy the land from Michael and build a house like his cabins, massively wooden, surrounded by Cape Breton beauty, quiet and really a great place to invite all the family and friends for really good meals in a sensationally beautiful spot. And in the home of Gaelic culture in Canada and in sight of Chapel Island, the Mic Mac site dedicated to Grandmother Saint Anne... Of course we wouldn't have launched out on this project without the Master Builder. And the Master Builder said he could do it, do it all, and I knew he could because even if he is a solitary sort of guy, and not the most communicative companion on the building site, he's a very big man who won't be defeated by any thing and ultimately, even after 8 hours putting up metal panels on the roof, he's still able to smile at the absurdity of our little setbacks. He is an amazing problem-solver and expert user of all kinds of tools. And I gave him a few problems this year as I tried to find out how a house is built and how a 65-year old can hold out during those 8-hour labouring sessions. We had a lot of fun in those slogging sessions. But I was frequentloy slogged by the end of the day. But yesterday I finished the day feeling like I still had that huge appetite for physical life which I had as a younger man. I felt really strong again, not a heart-fibrillating wuz in his sixties. Not ready for a rugby game on the weekend but not far off. And to witness the Master Builder bent over on the roof for 8-hours, roped to the building, struggling with fussy drill bits, not losing sight of the end, getting it built in time to leave for Switzerland and his winter job. I can understand why they want him back there: for me he is a phenomenon, and bit like brother-in-law Paul's Helmut, massively strong and what else can I say but what fun it's been to work with him, watch him struggling with his machines, finding solutions to all the problems we've thrown at him.. Not a day's sickness, hours of back-testing work. You can see that I'm a Master Builder fan. Come a see his art work in Cape George. If you're lucky you might get to work with him for a few hours. Don't expect a fine line in conversation but you will get the results. I'll post the final photos before we leave.