The Jacket

December 22 was a sad day for me. Not because it was the first full day of my twin brother being a seasoned citizen, but because my nice and aged Carhartt jacket failed to zip up as I was going outside to shovel snow. I had shoveled snow in the morning using the coat so at some point, either unzipping or zipping it up the fabric on the zipper between two teeth split slightly apart, just enough so the teeth will no longer catch. Viewers of my Facebook page saw the incident first. 

Given use and age it is in decent shape

After getting another jacket to clear the snow, I came back in to examine the Carhartt jacket and to try and figure out why it would not zip up, that is when I found the small tear. My wife, who is quite a good seamstress insists the coat should not be repaired, a sister said she her friend, who also is a seamstress, might do the job. 

The tear in the zipper fabric

I received that jacket as either a birthday or Christmas present when I was fourteen or fifteen years of age. Odd that I recall almost specifically when I got the coat, with matching overalls. The overalls wore out sometime ago, and my wife got me a new pair--this pair being insulated.  The jacket kept chugging along, however, until the day after the winter solstice. I have worn it clearing snow, doing yardwork, working on small power equipment, which explains oil and grease stains, cutting wood, hauling brush, and a variety of other chores. I also wore it while playing in the snow, or certain other outside activities. I made many a snowman wearing that coat, not to mention sled runs for when the boys were young, and more recently for the neighbor boys. Yes, the fabric is frayed in some areas, and it has a few rips. through all that, the jacket has been durable and reliable. I am not sure I could even begin to count the hours I wore it.  I know some complain of the cost of Carhartt, but I think I got more than the value of the coat.  Funny thing, one of my sons told me that Carhartt used to advertise most for people ages 15-65.  I mean, wow, how coincidental that that my coat zipper broke the day after my twin brother turned 65? I have to say I was more sad about my Carhartt coat no longer being wearable then my brother being 65 years of age plus a day.

My twin brother noted on Christmas to me that Carhartt is becoming more and more trendy. In the 1990's the New York times declared it the clothing choice for hip hop and I guess that would include hipsters. They even created a Carhartt WIP (Work in Progress) for the hipsters. Carhartt is becoming the new North Face. The hipsters, and others gravitate to Carhartt and may well do to that brand what happened to North Face. North Face became worn by hipster urbanites, among others, whose idea of an outing was finding a trendy craft brewery. To show the popularity Carhartt continues to gain, the NY Times recently had their idea of influencers and popular people and made the following comment about John Fetterman: "The senator-elect from Pennsylvania is going to bring Carhartt to the Capitol." The NY Times anointed influencers and hipsters idea of manual labor would likely be lifting their glass of craft beer to their mouth. One thing I know is that a hipster worn Carhartt jacket  would not look like mine. I doubt it would show the wear and the stains from working outside. A hipster would quickly replace the jacket for whatever new outerwear becomes trendy. I received and wore the jacket for functional reasons, which included more than few trips to the hardware store, or to Hanley Implement, but I would not have worn it to a restaurant, or around town at night. For me the jacket did what it was supposed to do and for that it shows its wear. If Carhartt will be the brand of choice for those soft-handed workers in the US Capitol, I may need to rethink the brand. I really don't want to be considered trendy or hip. That is just not me.

Cuffs are worn

I did receive a number of comments on my Facebook post about the jacket, most saying it is time for a new one. A few thought I should have the zipper replaced since even a new Carhartt will not likely last fifty years. Then again, I really would not need the coat to last fifty years. I am now beyond the age of what Carhartt used to advertise as their main demographic, but they probably would not mind a seasoned citizen purchasing a coat.   

2019 with Snowman, wearing Carhartt Jacket

I think the first time I wore the jacket for some extended manual hard labor. It was on my grandfather's farm in the winter, probably just after Christmas. My dad and two older brothers were using Rudy's old McCollough chainsaw and perhaps a Stihl owned by my brother to cut down what we called piss elms, Chinese elms, along a fence row. They did the cutting, and of course, and I had the chore of hauling the brush, and helping clear the logs. Grandpa was enjoying the warm climate in Florida. I have a number of fond memories wearing that jacket, and I am sure the jacket heard its fair share of cuss words, when working on some small engines and related equipment. 

Jacket 

What I can say, since I got my Carhartt over fifty years ago, that I was once again a trend setter--wearing Carhartt before it became hip. It is like my jeans, they get holes in the knees from wear, but I have seen people buy jeans made that way. My gosh, just wear your jeans and do some work and they will begin to wear out in the knees. Or, when I got glasses, I was wearing horn-rimmed glasses as a teen and now look how stylish they are. Like my Carhartt jacket I was years, actually decades, ahead of the times in styles and trends. I have to say, I am a man before my time in trends.  I missed out on monetizing my distressed jeans by offering them for sale. Maybe there is a market for a distressed Carhartt jacket.

What to do at this point about a jacket, I am not sure. Before the zipper broke, I thought I would have it displayed at my funeral. I am, now, in no rush to decide what to do. Funny how one small tear in the zipper fabric leads to a coat no longer being properly functional. I suppose that small tear is telling me that the jacket has seen better days, such that the fabric by the zipper is wearing out. 

Seasoned Citizen

On 21 December of this year my twin brother will turn 65 years of age and become what I call a seasoned citizen. As he is now 65 years of age he is eligible for more senior citizen discounts, and a few other perks of which the elderly may take advantage. He can now, of course, join the ranks of Medicare recipients. The benefits he will now be able to receive due simply to age, places him in a growing demographic.

This growing demographic is of course due to aging baby boomers who are joining the senior citizen ranks. The year my twin brother was born also happened to be the year with the largest number of births for the baby boom generation. The 1957 number of births in the United States was not surpassed for any one year until 2007 when 4.317 million children were born or .17 million more than those born in 1957. Part of the worker shortage, I am sure, is related to baby boomer retirements which increased during the pandemic. Pew research has noted (source #1) that the effect of the baby boomers on the work force is particularly critical because "until the pandemic arrived, adults ages 55 and older were the only working age population since 2000 to increase their labor force participation." (Pew Study, see source #1, below.) Researchers at Pew also wondered if the pandemic driven retirements will be permanent or not. I suspect for many the only reason to go back to work is if they are forced by particular circumstances or the economy. For some, who were living on the edge to begin with, the perfect storm of inflation, reduced investment, results and housing costs can drive them into a job.

Infants
Family archives

According to a recent article in the AP (See source #2), senior citizens taking on jobs has increased due to inflation. The news article, dated 15 Dec 2022, noted that inflation particularly affects retirees who have no chance for a bonus or to work overtime. The story talks about the number of senior citizens who have had to rejoin the workforce during this period of high inflation. The AP story goes on to say: "The problem will become more widespread in the coming years as more baby boomers, who began turning 65 in 2011, join the ranks of the retired. In 2050, the U.S. population ages 65 and over will be 83.9 million, nearly double what it was (43.1 million) in 2012, the Census Bureau projects." The end of the baby boomer cohort will turn 65 in 2028, so the AP is padding their stats with the retirement of the X generation, which had births from 1965 to about 1980 (per encyclopedia Britannica), and even part of the millennial generation. The declining birth rate in the US, and even much of the world, will affect benefits. A flat, or even an inverted population pyramid is not a good thing for social security benefits which were based on continued population growth, particularly with a growth that would exceed generations before it. If US birth rates stay the same, or go lower, the population pyramid will invert. The nation's 2022 population pyramid is already showing signs of an inversion. 

2022 Population Pyramid. Source: see #3

An interesting book I read earlier this year, Nomadland, talked about itinerant Americans who live in recreational vehicles. Some are there by choice, others not. Some lost their earnings in the stock market decline of the great recession, or were affected by health issues, divorce or some other life changing event. What is interesting, is that Amazon employs a number of older nomad workers where ibuprofen is handed out like candy on Halloween. Even with their aches and pains, apparently Amazon has found a willing workforce which posses a strong work ethic. It is quite telling of the state of our national labor force if baby boomers were the only group, according to Pew, to increase their workforce participation from 2000 until the pandemic. Pew also found that the more education you have the more likely you were to retire early. Education is often related to income, but not always, so this makes some sense.

In the meantime there is a worker shortage which now has the Federal Reserve concerned since this has led to employers increasing the wages they pay. This then affects inflation. The Fed, according to Bloomberg news, expects unemployment to increase to 4.6% by the last quarter of 2023. That means over 1.5 million people will be out of a job by Oct 1 of next year. Now, if other jobs stay available they may have options, but the received pay may be decreased.

For many years the nation has been driven by the baby boomers, and that is now again the case as the largest birth year of baby boomers has reached 65. Baby boomers drove growth in some decades, from when they were young (parents spending on them), to when they had children (their spending on their children). So much is driven by demographics, in particular spending. The stock market likes when companies see sales growth. Zoom and some other tech companies saw significant growth during the pandemic, but that growth has now waned, (like  duhh) and they are no longer the darlings of Wall Street. There is a cycle, and my belief is that many of our national cycles can be explained by demographics. There was a drop off in births after 1964, but births increased a generation later as baby boomers and Xer's started having children which led to the large Millennial grouping. The effect was not as great because the baby boomers had fewer children overall, and they spread out their marriages too, meaning first births were often delayed. 

My twin brother and I as children
Family archives

When in our mother's womb, my brother was so intent on delaying his birth that he pushed me out. I cannot say that I blame him, I mean the amniotic sac was probably becoming a little tight with two babies, even though we were on the smaller scale, particularly me. He was larger than me at time of birth, I was the runt of the two baby litter so to speak. My twin is bigger than me and he got the nickname Harold when I was playing football in eighth grade and the high school football coach went up to my older brother who was watching the game and suggested that he "talk to Harold or whatever his name is into playing football."  We of course were born about a month early.  I am not sure who had the faint heartbeat, but the doctor kept telling my mom there was only one child, when she kept insisting there were two. What does the mother know after all?  Medical professionals, we are told, know best. Of course, that does not mean the doctor did not get upset with the nurses when they were not prepared for a second child to come out. After all the doctor told them to prepare for one child. That doctor felt so sorry for me that he and his wife became my Godparents. As much as my twin brother probably wished his entry to this earth delayed, by pushing me out, he unwittingly had set forth a series of  events that could not be stopped.  After all, he made his entry into the world 21 minutes after me. 

2016 Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival
On Sunday, you can stack your own corn in the tote
Photo by Chris Hovel

I am sure many of you have been wondering why I am referring to my twin brother and not myself in the benefits of a seasoned citizen. While I am now on Medicare, but some other benefits I have had for a year or more, thanks to my wife who is over a year older than me. Thanks to her seasoned age she was able to get discounts camping at National Forests a few years ago. Last week we bought a 2023 state park vehicle pass on which she was able to get a $15 discount because of her age. We tend not to take much advantage of senior citizen discounts at other places which apparently offer them, some from age 60 on or others at 65. Most are eating places and since the pandemic we have not been eating out as much as we used to. 

Being 21 minutes older I have the title of being a (slightly) more seasoned citizen than my twin brother. 

Happy Birthday to my twin brother, Greg!

Sources:

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/04/amid-the-pandemic-a-rising-share-of-older-u-s-adults-are-now-retired/

2. https://apnews.com/article/inflation-older-americans-72c8a3ed29eb8b8183400bc161c0c9ee

3. https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2022/

Script

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is genealogical research. For the Hovel branch of the family the last arriving immigrant was my grandmother Ida Pitzenberger's mother, Theresia Kamen. She was from Ujezd, Bohemia and arrived in the United States in 1872. Ida's father arrived in the US in the 1850's with his parents and two brothers. Grandpa Rudy's father, Martin Havel, arrived in July 1868 with his parents and siblings. His mother, Amelia Duscheck, was born in Jefferson County, WI, but her parents arrived in the Americas via the port of Quebec in August 1854. Doing research of the varied Bohemian records is not easy, and that is why I had to chuckle when a Facebook post showed that a New England Historic Genealogical Society was sponsoring a workshop on deciphering old handwriting--in English. 

Class on English Script

I have done some research on the Yankee side of my wife, and quite frankly, compared to Bohemia it is a cakewalk. In its post on deciphering old handwriting, that New England society describes old handwritten records, with archaic English terms, unknown abbreviations and sometimes just illegible writing which render them difficult to rad. This is nothing compared to Bohemia. Depending on the era, you may see parish records written in German, Czech, or Latin. Occasionally you find a combination of two, or even all three. I think it was Josef and Anna Havel's marriage record which contains all three. In southern Bohemia it is not uncommon, as I have realized this year, to have what are referred to as after-the-roof surnames, you change your last name to follow the persons house you now live in. If that is not bad enough you have to add in the legibility of handwriting, with a fountain pen.  Abbreviations also occur.  In some unusual cases the script is rather elegant, but most of the time it is confusing. The letter B looks like L and T looks like S or a Y. 

At times I can pick out a name or two, but I generally have to know what name I am looking for. I have come to rely on a translator, because I realized I may have gotten names right, but not places. The translator provides another level of clarity, not to mention I may have had the surname spelled wrong. I am to the point in which I may have to engage the translator to find records. I tend to rely on an index, where they are available, and the older the record, generally, the less available is an index. Of course, some indexes, like the records, use the German Kurrent script which are rendered meaningless to me.  The problem is the indexes often miss persons. I also have found persons on a page different than what was noted in the index.  Indices for the Duscheck and Appl lines are extremely difficult because sometimes they are arranged by village, meaning you have to know the village. Knowing the village is always helpful, but sometimes you lack that particularly if the marriage was in the village of the bride. As Bohemian records progressed they provide much more information even grandparents.  Knowing village and  era will help, but finding records can still be difficult.

Death Record (2nd entry from top) of a 3rd Great grandmother, 1819
3rd Column from right contains her first and then last name
can you figure our her name?  An example of German Kurrent

For example, one ancestor Marianna Rokusek married Thomas Vavruska. I have not been able to find her birth, even knowing her home village, or their marriage record. I have their marriage nailed down to a few years by finding them in what are known as the Seigniorial Registers. These registers were essentially an an annual census of some persons in a village that are subject to a domain. I emphasize some, because they were often the "landholding" class, and tenants may not have been listed. What was recorded would vary not just by domain, but even perhaps by year. You can read about them here. Finding the Seignorial Register for some villages is difficult because they lack an index, those with an index, once you know the village and how they wrote the village name is rather simple to find the page but finding the family, given the script, can be more difficult.  I found Thomas Vavruska and his wife Marianna married about 1719 and living in his home village. But, were they in his home village? There is a note by their name, and in the table I keep I had placed the record, which I share with my translator on Google Docs, but not yet designated for translation, because I was trying to figure out which of the varied records would be more helpful. The translator, who occasionally checks the Google doc, saw the record and emailed with the following information:

Further, the last seigneurial register entered in your table (not indicated for translation) relating to Thomas Vavruška in 1731… the changes remove (cross out) the family from the lodger section of Nestanice… but the note beside him states “zu Strpp in seiner aigenen Chaluppen“ and then “zu Strpp Verschrieben“…. That is “at Strpí in his own cottage/smallhoding” and “registered/assigned to Strpí”… only I couldn’t see anything to that effect in the 1731 seigneurial landowner section for Strpí or the land register, and of course a few of the seigneurial registers for subsequent years appear missing (by which time he’s taken on the Chelčice property)…but he does also appear in the Strpí section of the same 1731 seigneurial in the lodger section (ordinal 60 image 49) with the same message “In seiner Eigenen Chaluppen in Dorff”. The only explanation I can offer is that he took on a Dominikal cottage briefly. As a Dominikal cottager he would still be classed as a lodger, and so consequently won’t appear in the Rustikal land registers… there are a few Dominikal land registers for Libějovice dominion, not for the time or place in question.

 

Thomas Vavruska lined out in 1719 Seigniorial Reg.
V. of Krtely. Note beside name.

Yet, even knowing Thomas and Marianna were likely married between 1717 and 1721 (I always give a few years either side) I still could not find the marriage looking in the records for both his and her home village. It may be I just could not read either name. By 1735 Thomas is married to another woman, Catherina from Chelcice. I also know that he had a third wife, Elizabeth, as that is recorded in the 1750 Seignorial Register and I have found that marriage record. I am sure the difficulty is with an inability to easily discern the script.

Birth record of Joannes Dusek
Landsberg, 1680

If you can find a family in a Seigniorial record you get an idea of location, and age, if not the parents, at least the children. Age in the record can vary from the actual birth/baptismal record by several years. Sometimes it is almost spot on. I have to give a great deal of credit to Richard D' Amelio, who does my translations. He knows his stuff and the abbreviations for the German and Latin and now Czech. He is a member of many of the same Czech genealogy Facebook groups of which I am a member and if there is ever a translation problem he can usually figure it out. For example, I had a record I partially translated and then had another professional (before I found out about Richard) and posted it on Facebook asking for assistance. People gave opinions, but Richard weighed in and noted that some of the script was not fully formed in terms of its loops, or angles or whatever. Sure enough, I found that person in the village he recommended. Richard is the go to person in transcribing and translating the varied scripts. I am not sure how he does, it is a real gift.

1719 Seignorial Register, Thomas Vavruska and
wife Marianna also show on this page in the same village, with note

I could write a whole blog post on the difficulties of the German Kurrent script, but it is too intricate and difficult to read, so why would I try to make sense of it for a blog post?  Of course, my handwriting is nothing to brag about. When I worked, persons who worked under me became experts at deciphering my script. 

I recently completed reading the Ross King book, The Bookseller of Florence, which involves manuscripts, codices, and books in the 14 and 15th centuries from handwriting to the advent of the printing press. Which script to use was often an issue, and he would make note of certain books made with ungainly script. This is at the advent of the printing press when each letter was handmade and handset, in reverse, sometimes only a few lines at a time to print. This is at the height of the Renaissance and scholars and monks were turning out translations of Greek texts. There was a thirst for these texts from bishops and cardinals to dukes and the merchant class. 

From Ross King book The Bookseller of Florence
42 line Gutenberg Bible

Perhaps the most difficult texts to discern in Bohemia are the Land Registers which record payments made for a property purchased, contracts between a buyer and a seller and even marriage contracts. Richard found a marriage contract between Frantisek Havel and Theresia Jiral. However, they go further. One may be given an idea when a family member who was receiving payments for the property passes away and the payments go to the domain, or one of their descendants.  It would have information on when an owner died, and when heirs of the family are paid, and how much. Richard has translated several registers for me and those for the Havel family has been very helpful. The oldest parish record for my direct Havel lineage is Simon's marriage in 1703, which is because records before 1694 are not available, either missing or lost. Using the Seigniorial, Land Registers, and the Urbarium records Richard was  able to get the family back to Jan Wolf, Simon's 2nd great grandfather to the year of  1585. He accomplished this by comparing tax or rent payments in the Urbaria records with the Seigniorial and available land register information. One cannot just rely on parish records. 

Detail of 1603 to 1606 Land Register Entry
Havel family, Ratiborova Lhota

In the US, particularly legal records, pose an issue with use of English and Latin abbreviations. These may be found in some legal notices on estates and heirs. If abbreviations in typed records pose an issue, the issue is even more glaring in abbreviations in handwritten records when the script is hard to discern. 

Marriage record of Simon Havel, 1703

This gets me to an interesting point, at least I know script and while I have difficulty reading the German, Czech or Latin in the old records, I might be able to make headway on some records, at least finding the relevant ones. The question arises, however, whether students taught today be able to do this research? Most schools no longer teach cursive, and while the German Kurrent is a far cry from our cursive, older records contain script I can at times discern, because it is more like our lettering. But, in fifty years will one of the neighbor kids be able to read even English cursive?

Cartoon from WI State Journal

As one can see from some of the images in this blog post, some of the 17th century records are easier to discern than records from the 19th century. It all depends on the script that is used. Handwriting makes a difference too, but one does not need to tell my wife that. The hard copy calendar we keep, she will often rewrite an appointment I had written in to make it more legible. Of course, now that I have a fancy cellphone, we also keep a joint calendar to access electronically. Maybe I need to start using abbreviations in both the written and electronic record to really get the wife upset, use of Latin would be even better. Maybe it is not all in the script, but being able to read the script certainly helps.

Ginger Snap Debate

For the past several days my spouse and had been talking about what Christmas Cookies to bake this season. My wife found a recipe for a ginger snap that was more like a chocolate crinkle. Like the chocolate crinkle the dough is made into a ball and then coated in powdered sugar, and when baked the dough falls slightly into a standard cookie, but with the coating no longer uniform but showing valleys, and somewhat soft. She made the recipe and of course they were good. The ginger snap version is like that chocolate crinkle, but a different color and taste due to the ginger. This brought on the great ginger snap debate of 2022. She knows that the chocolate crinkle was my favorite cookie growing up, so the ginger snap was a play on my childhood favorite cookie, ginger in lieu of chocolate.

The standard ginger snap, of course, is a harder cookie, and for Christmas it is dipped partway in white chocolate. Discussing what cookies to make on Monday, I mentioned that we should make ginger snaps and the wife intones, you mean the better cookie. I asked what she meant by using the word better, and she was loading the phrase and being judgmental on our standard recipe. She gave one of her slight, maven smiles, which acknowledge that yes that is what she was doing and she was not going to back off. I now realize why she made this softer cookie recipe a few weeks ago, to get my buy in. The ginger snap debate went on. I offered that we rotate the recipe each season, but she would have none of that. I indicated that we could make her recipe but do some with white chocolate rather than the powdered sugar, but she responded both recipes are rather different. I do not think she liked the idea of dipping her softer dough cookie into white chocolate.

2022 Ginger Snaps
Notice the difference as to baking

In the end, we were thinking about making both (I think she has now decided not to make her better cookie recipe this year), so I started on the standard recipe, although I agreed to half the recipe. The full recipe makes a great many cookies, and I could understand her ambivalence, after all they are one of the last cookies to be fully gone. This is because the full recipe makes so many, not because they are not well liked to eat. 

She was kind enough to get the ingredients out, and placed out two eggs, along with the containers of the varied other ingredients, like flour, sugar, vegetable oil, molasses, ginger and whatever else may have gone in. I made sure to follow the half measures, written on the right side of the ingredient, not the full measure, which was written to the left side of the ingredient. When I got to the eggs, I cracked both, and as I was looking at the next ingredient I realized it should have only been one egg. Of course I now had one egg too many, although she removed the yolk. If I was a conspiracy theorist I would have thought I had been sabotaged. Less tasty ginger snaps for the Christmas holidays. But, no, I figured it was just a rare oversight on her part. Come to think of it, her oversights are so rare, was it really was sabotage?  We had recently watched the movie "Where the Crawdad's Sing" and the Swamp Girl pulled off a fast one killing a man. Was Land Girl pulling a fast one on me? When it came time to form the cookies, the dough was quite sticky, so we added more flour. I thought it was the egg, she thinks it is because I have a lackadaisical approach to the flour, where I use my finger to level it off, which, she said, causes it to be concave. She is very exacting. I also did not tap to make sure air pockets were out. I suppose, it could have been a combination of the two. After baking the cookies were not as well formed as in prior years so I think something happened.

Stock photo of ginger snaps from Google

I am not sure how they will taste, but I am hoping as good as usual. The cookies were on two different sheets, and were switched halfway through baking, but while the cookies on each rack looked the same, the appearance varied by rack.  The lower rack (see top row in first photo) came out looking different than the top rack, and were flatter than usual.

How is it that a woman who eats herring, sauerkraut, and drinks kombucha, can not like ginger snap cookies, or what I now have to call standard (maybe the best) ginger snap cookies? The white chocolate coating provides a complimentary taste for the discerning palette to the ginger snap itself. Perhaps, as a compromise we can do her recipe and mix some white chocolate chips or chunks in part of the dough to see how they turn out. After we completed a few cookie recipes today, she commented that she may not make her ginger snap recipe. That is too bad, since it would be good to compare the two side by side. The great ginger snap debate of 2022 has been settled, so far, but for some reason I am concerned that I may have won the battle, but lost the war. After all, how often does a woman lose a discussion point, or more to the point how often do I win a discussion with the wife?  So far, sabotage or no sabotage, the best ginger snap recipe made it to the oven.

 

Animal House

It began mid-morning on Thanksgiving day. My wife and I arrived in Sun Prairie somewhat early for a holiday, about 7:30 am, to get the turkey in the oven so it would be completed in time for the Thanksgiving feast. After getting the turkey in the oven, the dressing made, and the squash warming up, we sat down in the living room to do some reading. My wife, in a chair by the sunshine, and I sitting opposite, by the fireplace icing my feet, while reading.  During this time, I heard a noise in the fireplace. I somewhat ignored it, but then my wife heard the noise. I mentioned that I heard it earlier, but I got up and looked, nothing in the fireplace, but figured something was just above the damper. I did not say anything when I first heard the noise, since my wife hears noises in our well capped chimney and I just think she is hearing things. That is until one day I heard the noise. Back to the present time, I decided to not try and open the damper not knowing what might fall through. I can say, that it was at that time an animal house.

The house, what would best be described as a mid-century (20th) ranch, (knowledgeable millennials use the term mid-century modern) so one story, was built starting in 1957 and occupied in the spring of 1958.It is the house where I grew up. I suppose many years ago, with seven boys, two girls and our parents neighbors may well have considered this an animal house, given all the activity that took place. But, my mom had control of the house and kept it clean and in order. It has four chimneys, three for fireplaces, and one for the furnace. The furnace was replaced for the first time a few years ago, and the furnace flu is no longer used with the high combustion gas furnace which replaced the over sixty year old oil burner. The old furnace still worked, too good, the problem was the controls stopped working correctly and it would not turn the dampers on /off correctly. The motors and damper controls at over sixty years of age were no longer available--hence the need for a new furnace. 

Evidence of critters on the roof has been present for many years. Animal droppings on the roof, which for some reason is always in one of the valleys. And, evidence of the redwood roof side vents being gnawed or clawed at. Those side vents were covered up with hardware cloth about four years ago. I think there was even evidence that some animals had gotten in through the side vents into the attic, as there was disruption to attic insulation. 

From Google Images, but not unlike what I 
saw, minus three raccoons.

As the day progressed and more persons arrived, we pointed out the noise in the flu of the fireplace. In the mid-afternoon, a couple of people went up on the roof to look down the chimney and could see at least three racoons. At that point we really did not know if they fell in while exploring, were hiding, nesting, or what the deal was. We figured they were trapped in the flu. I mean, could raccoons really pull themselves out of a chimney flu? We doubted they would be able to make their way out. A couple of calls were made Friday and a company was found that would come out Monday to assess the situation.  

On Monday, about noon, I got on the roof and looked down a few of the chimneys, and sure enough in the flu for the living room fireplace I saw a raccoon looing up at me. The flashlight I had was not very strong so I did not try to count, one is enough. We had not heard the raccoons from our arrival Monday morning before 9:45 am, so we wondered if they had perished while in the chimney. Monday afternoon a couple of young men from the removal company arrived and got up on the roof and looked down, but did not see any raccoons. The thing is that the area above the damper is larger than the flu so they could sneak to the side and below the flu. The raccoon must have departed sometime after I shined a light in its face, and the arrival of critter control. No raccoon(s) followed me down the ladder. The two men did note they could see paw prints on the side of flus giving evidence that they could climb in and out.  

I tried picturing a raccoon climbing out and wondered how they did it? Do they stretch out and put front paws on one side of the clay flu and back ones on the other and gradually move up, or can they get a sufficient grip to climb up on one side only? Looking at photos on-line it appears they can simply crawl straight up, which makes me wonder if they have suction cups on their paws. Critter control, not having seen any critters in the flu from the roof then came in the house and opened up the flu of each of the two fireplaces on the main floor and took photos with their I-phones, which showed, they said, droppings and racoon hair, but no raccoons. We went to the basement, the fireplace which was converted by a piece of sheet metal to hold the stove pipe for a wood stove that was used to help heat the house for many years, likely lengthening the life span of the oil furnace. We could see evidence in that one too, as we pulled the sheet metal to the side a bit and which they used their phones to take photos. The basement flu was open due to the connected wood stove.

Red shows possible entry points from trees to house
accommodating raccoons access to roof.
The four flu openings are seen in center of house

At this point of the day they only had one chimney cap, so the plan was for them to come back Tuesday to install chimney caps over three openings, and place hardware cloth, screwed and caulked to the concrete cap over the large family room fireplace flu, since it was too large to handle a cap. I was concerned that the raccoons may return and take up residence once again in the flu, so they duct taped cardboard to the top of each opening. I stopped by Tuesday afternoon to see if they had completed their work, but they had not yet done so. They arrived sometime after I departed. I went up to check the cardboard and duct tape and was relieved to find everything in tact with no discernable destruction by raccoon paws. 

The men arrived back late Tuesday afternoon as evening set in on that late November day. Hopefully, the critters in the chimney will be no more. The moral of the story, cap your chimneys, and keep trees away from your roof. I learned that raccoons are more agile and mobile than I had thought. I mean, I never expected them to be able to climb down and up a clay flu. How long the ranch functioned as an animal house I do not know. It may well be TMI.