Dismantling

Sue's house, built in 1908 when southeast Portland was still farmland, included a barn for the family cow. When the family that built the house sold it to Sue in the 70s, she made the barn into a storage-and-potting-shed where she and her family have spent parts of their lives making art projects, building things, sheltering rescued wild animals, and just hanging out in another time. Despite her many efforts to re-roof, paint, preserve and shore up the barn, the wood of the floor has started to disintegrate. Soon a de-construction team will come in and dismantle it, saving any good timbers they can, and she will replace it with a much less romantic carport-and-storage. Some of her family members visited in February and helped her clear it, but a little remains, and we worked on that today. As we moved the old toys, antlers, wooden boxes, and tools into her basement for now, she stood in the light for just long enough for me to take a photograph.