{"id":8333,"date":"2021-03-25T07:16:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T11:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8333"},"modified":"2021-04-15T06:43:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:43:18","slug":"episode-294-just-gettng-by-with-what-we-have-the-john-calder-story-the-stone-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8333","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 294 “JUST GETTNG BY WITH WHAT WE HAVE” THE JOHN CALDER STORY (the stone house)"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 294   \u2018JUST GETTNG BY WITH WHAT WE HAVE\u201d\u2026THE JOHN CALDER STORY (the stone house)<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2021<\/div>\n

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Just before Christmas 1983, their farm house caught fire.  Burned  to the ground and all therein<\/div>\n
was gone.  Including the plans.   Including what plans?  The plans for the new house.  Hand drawn<\/div>\n
plans from the intricacies of John Calder\u2019s brain.  Converted to paper.  But preserved in John\u2019s <\/div>\n
head fortunately.   <\/div>\n

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Eleanor and John Calder in 1985.   Look behind them and above them.  what do you see?<\/div>\n

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\u201cEleanor, we will just have to build our house of stone.  The bush is mostly cedar.  No black  cherry, oak<\/div>\n
or maple.   Dead and dying elms are the only hardwoods.  So we  best begin gathering boulders.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The old farm house was as dead and dying as the elms.   I visited  there several times.  Whoever built it<\/div>\n
had very little money.   Log foundation had settled on the ground.  Perhaps at one time these logs<\/div>\n
were set on boulders but all had now touched  the moist earth and rot ensued.  The house was <\/div>\n
crooked.  Jerry built.  But it would make do until John could gather enough boulders from the fence<\/div>\n
rows and fields to get his stone house started.  <\/div>\n

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\u201cHardly any of the granites have a flat face.  They will have to be split with flat face on the outside if<\/div>\n
the house is to look good.\u201d<\/div>\n

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So, while gathering boulders, John had begun splitting them with a 14 pound sledge.   In his mind<\/div>\n
he knew what he wanted.  Easier to build a frame house\u20262 x  4 balloon framed, bats of insulation<\/div>\n
between the spaces , ship lap siding.   Easy.  Such a house could be built in a couple of months.<\/div>\n
The house that John built took five years to complete.  And then all the plans went up in smoke<\/div>\n
in the house fire.  No one killed.  John got badly burned trying to save what he could  through a<\/div>\n
broken window as the fire became an inferno.   Christmas 1983.  All gone.<\/div>\n

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People lose their houses to fire often.   Many fires are much more  serious than the Calder fire because<\/div>\n
death is in the ashes.  John and Eleanor got out in time.  As did Anne, James  and little<\/div>\n
Douglas.   The fire could  have been so much worse had someone died.  <\/div>\n

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But there were losses.  Family treasures.   When disaster strikes, like the Calder inferno, there is<\/div>\n
precious little time to waste.  What can be grabbed as you leap for an escape route.  Today, I suppose <\/div>\n
you might grab the computer memory\u2026perhaps a  pile of computer chips.  <\/div>\n

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When the clouds of Chlorine gas were tumbling down on Mississauga during a train disaster<\/div>\n
years ago, Marjorie grabbed the kids, then the animals, then a pile of photo albums as we abandoned<\/div>\n
our home.  We had a bit of time.  John and Eleanor did not have that luxury.   We drove up to<\/div>\n
the Townsend  home farm in January to see what we could do to help.  Cousin Eleanor carried on<\/div>\n
as normal as  she could.  No time for lamenting.  She had 35 Holstein cows that had to be milked<\/div>\n
every day.   <\/div>\n

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\u201cWhere is John?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIn the cellar trying to recover some dishes.\u201d<\/div>\n

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I am not an outwardly emotional man.  No blubbering. Somewhat Stoic.  But the image<\/div>\n
of John trying to clean deeply scoured soot from a few dinner plates rescued after the<\/div>\n
fire hit me hard.  John may have made light of the  tragedy.   May have  sincerely felt lucky<\/div>\n
since no one had  died.  But he was hurt all the same.  And this pile of dishes, hopeless<\/div>\n
looking dishes, was getting his full attention.   He was in shock. Never saw him that way<\/div>\n
before or after.  But that moment in the Towsnend cellar I knew the stiff upper lip posture<\/div>\n
that John and Eleanor maintained  was partly bravado.<\/div>\n

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Others knew that as well.  Help came from all around and  from distant places.  Help for what?<\/div>\n
Help for the new house.  Help that was more psychological than physical.  Physically John<\/div>\n
built the house himself.  He never said that but everyone knew it.  Only John knew what to do.<\/div>\n
 John had begun construction and he now entered the full speed<\/div>\n
ahead  phase.  John was not a quitter.  He may have revealed that they had been hurt<\/div>\n
by the fire as he scrubbed the black from the porcelain dinner plates.  But that revelation<\/div>\n
was soon gone.<\/div>\n

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For the next few years John was really busy.  We dropped by now and then as John<\/div>\n
piled stone on stone and the stone house grew out of the ashes of the log house.<\/div>\n
He  could not do it all alone.  James, his oldest son, and  Anne, his daughter and,<\/div>\n
of course Eleanor  must have been part of the project .  But every time we drove<\/div>\n
in the farm lane, John was alone pushing boulders into place, mixing cement, erecting<\/div>\n
a catwalk around the pile of stone.<\/div>\n

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When  the job was done,  or nearly done, in 1985, Harrowsmith Magazine sent a reporter and<\/div>\n
a photographer who marvelled at John\u2019s great achievement.   And the writer captured<\/div>\n
John\u2019s dismissive comments about what he had achieved.  The article is titled<\/div>\n
STICKS AND STONES, HARROWSMITH MAGAZINE.  (copy below).<\/div>\n

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I do not have the skills of John Calder.  Nor the patience.  But I am able to appreciate<\/div>\n
greatness in the human spirit.   <\/div>\n

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I just would like  to make one  comment about John.  Every time we pulled in his<\/div>\n
laneway, he put down his cement trowel or his rock splitter and took time to <\/div>\n
welcome us.  We were received as if we were visiting royalty.  He asked  about our<\/div>\n
lives.  He offered to convert our logs and Massey Harris rescued timbers into planks.<\/div>\n
It was as if he had nothing better  to do. Which was not the case.  He had  a house<\/div>\n
to build.  He did not need  us around.  But he was glad we were there.  <\/div>\n
John kept his light under a bushel.   What do I mean by that? Just that It was not in his<\/div>\n
nature to glorify his achievements.  <\/div>\n

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The journalist from Harrowsmith  praised  John so nicely that I think<\/div>\n
quotations from his featured article will help you understand  John Calder and his Stone House Falderol.<\/div>\n
Folderol?   Yes, John built two stone houses  one inside the other.  <\/div>\n

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A FEW POINTS WORTH HIGHLIGHTING ABOUT THE HOUSE THAT JOHN BUILT<\/div>\n

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1) \u201cIt\u2019s what we could do with what we had,\u201d John Calder mutters through the flare of a match in his pipe.  What he means is that<\/div>\n
he and his wife Eleanor built this imposing 2,000 square foot house near Belwood, Ontario, without an architect, a<\/div>\n
contractor or a mortgage\u2026The wood  and stone came, literally, from the land; the labour , all from family hands.<\/div>\n
      Charles Long, Harrowsmith Magazine.<\/div>\n

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2) When they came here in 1979 \u201cthe old house was sitting on the ground\u2026.the bottom logs all rotten.  John took<\/div>\n
one look at that and decided to build a new house from logs he could get from the farm forest.  All he found was cedar<\/div>\n
so he  decided \u2018the new house would have to be made of atone\u2019<\/div>\n

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3 \u201cI learned  from John that if you want to build a house the first thing you do is build sawmill,\u201d said Eleanor to Charles Long.<\/div>\n
So John scoured the Countryside for bits and pieces until he had a sawmill and planer.  Then he began to saw  the lumber<\/div>\n
that would be the floors, beams and walls of the stone house  The joists are 6×6  cedar  and spoliated elm planks clothe the<\/div>\n
 walls. The  massive spruce  <\/div>\n
beams were too big  for the planer so had to be planed by hand.  \u201cThe respect for material shines through most clearly<\/div>\n
in this revealing of native wood.\u201d , wrote journalist Charles Long.  <\/div>\n

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4) John planned a double stone wall.  A stone wall within a stone wall.  A \u2018stone sandwich\u2019 if you will.  The air space<\/div>\n
in between would act as an insulation barrier.  All built using farm boulders.  The building inspector was flabbergasted.<\/div>\n
\u201cYou better get a consulting engineer to look at it.  If he says it’s  OK , I\u2019ll approve it.\u201d Approval came in 1978 and John<\/div>\n
poured his twin stone wall foundation  using his s small cement mixer driven by an antique gas engine.<\/div>\n

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5) Dead centre was a  massive stone pier.  The foundation of the twin flue chimney. One flue for the main floor wood stove<\/div>\n
which would be the primary heat source backed up by an oil heater in the cellar.<\/div>\n

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6) The journalist, Charles Long, estimated that John used 200 tons of concrete along with the tons and tons<\/div>\n
of field  stones.  John did all this \u2018with the help of the kids\u2019  (James and  Anne) and, of course Eleanor.  \u201cThe result is a stone sandwich<\/div>\n
26\u201d thick. \u2026cross section consists of  8\u201d of stone and reinforce  concrete\u201d  then an air space \u201cand another 8\u201d of masonry.\u201d  This is<\/div>\n
a simplification of the process.  Suffice it to say that John had a system that held the dead  air space vertical while the stone<\/div>\n
walls were built around that dead air space.<\/div>\n

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7) And so the house began rise.  The granite boulders split by hand were set in concrete with their flat faces outward.   At every opening<\/div>\n
for windows and doors John tied the two houses together with mesh and concrete.   Stable.  But just in case of weakness John <\/div>\n
\u201cWrapped the entire house at each floor with a double loop of galvanized steel cable tried in the concrete behind he boulders.\u201d<\/div>\n

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8) Building the stone hose was not easy.  It took five years.\u201dPerhaps time, like the stone, is not an expense to be counted..\u201d<\/div>\n
wrote Charles Long who was clearly moved by John\u2019s experience.  In 1983 the old log farm house burned down.<\/div>\n
The plans  for the new house burned with the house.  But the plans were still in John\u2019s head\u2026survived.  And the work<\/div>\n
continued\u2026roofing, insulation, floors, partitions, doors, windows, plumbing, electricity, heat.<\/div>\n

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9) Then in 1985 the task was over.  The kids became adults in between. <\/div>\n

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I FEEL GIULTY\u2026TO THINK I WAS THE EARTH AND  SKY<\/div>\n

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While John was doing all this and not saying much about the scale of his project.  I had the colossal nerve<\/div>\n
to come up to his sawmill with my beams.  To take his time.  To think I was the ‘earth and sky\u2019.  Let me<\/div>\n
adapt the words stolen from My Fair Lady.<\/div>\n

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What a fool I was, what a dominated fool
To think that I was the Earth and sky
What a fool I was, what an elevated fool
What a mutton-headed dote was I <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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No, my reverberating friend
I am not the beginning and the end.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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All I ever did was watch\u2026observe the impossible becoming the possible snd finally<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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the masterpiece.  The Stone House.  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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JOHN  AND ELEANOR just had a way about them that minimized their achievements.  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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alan skeoch<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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March 2021<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 294   \u2018JUST GETTNG BY WITH WHAT WE HAVE\u201d\u2026THE JOHN CALDER STORY (the stone house) alan skeoch March 2021 Just before Christmas 1983, their farm house caught fire.  Burned  to the ground and all therein was gone.  Including the plans.   Including what plans?  The plans for the new house.  Hand drawn plans from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}