Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Here is what NOT to do when retrofitting wiring in a cabin. The owner
tried to shortcut the process by installing wiring without putting the
wiring into the chinking crack. That would have required rechinking
the whole house — which it definitely needed anyway. This is neither
safe nor attractive. In the next example, the wire has been installed
properly, but the owner has not built the chase yet.
The pioneers solved the problem of communication
in a most pleasant way: They went visiting often.
Country churches, square dances, quilting bees,
house-raisings — these gatherings were the news cen-
ters, of course, and so were the individual visits to bor-
row fire, lard, or gunpowder.
A relatively recent rural community news bearer
was the late Ted Richmond. He carried topics in a pack
from his Wilderness Library to hill folks in Newton
County, Arkansas. Until the early 1950s, Ted would set
out regularly from his round-log cabin on the north
slope of Mount Sherman, bound for other remote
holdings with books and magazines. Ted lived alone,
devoting his life and energies to visiting the hill peo-
ple, some of whom never quite accepted him. We shall
probably not see his like again: the visitor on foot,
arriving to cut wood for the ill, to visit long hours, to
bring news and the magic of print.
His cabin is falling into ruin today, and rats have
shredded the topics and magazines that covered the
floor and jammed the loft. He was considered some-
thing of an oddity, choosing to live as he did when
almost everyone who could was leaving the hills
around him. It will not be many years before the
mountains swallow up all traces of him and his work,
as well as those of so many of the folks he worked with.
In the years since I visited this site, I know the decay
process has gone a long way.
Boxed-In Areas
You may have to enclose pipes from an upstairs bath-
room in a chase, which is simply a boxed-in shaft. Or
you can build in a closet to hide the pipes. Because
plumbing fixtures such as toilets and showers need
drain traps, you'll also have to box in between ceiling
