Work

[OldRedFord]

For the past 4 years I have been involved with construction work. I usually work for one of my old neighbors. He does work for one of the big property owners in the next town, and work on his own.

Well the past two days we have been hanging insulation. Today he was putting siding on a chimney so I went and finished up the insulation on my own.

When I got to the place the guy that he reports to when doing work for the property owner was there. He was like...do you want to make some hazard pay? Im like..what do I have to get on the roof? Hes like no you have to get in a crawlspace. This is me...

Turns out something had gotten in the crawlspace of a old building in Covington. Has a hair salon and something else in the building. But anyway...something had died in the crawlsapce and was stinking the place up.

The crawlspace is about 200 feet long and maybe 28' wide. The buildings crawlspace is divided up into two sections that size with a old rock wall running down the middle for support of the floor. Only one known hatch on one side to get down there. Not much room at all, your on your belly the entire time.

So we pop the hatch and (I hesitated a bit...I do not like confined spaces like this at all) we (the aforementioned property manager and I went under the floor.) We went some distance twards one end checking out under loose batts of insulation and trying to look over the rock wall down the middle. There was a gap in the wall but neither of us could fit.

A few times I got a wiff of decay. Ended up going twards the other end of the crawlspace and noticed another spot in the rock wall where it had been busted out at some point to run a drain line. Stuck my head in there to have a look behind. (Only other hole in that rock wall) Smelled a bit of funk. Then decided to look down at the ground immediately on the other side of the wall.

Then the smell hit me full force as I looked at the body of a dead cat.

Man that was rank!

I tried to scoop up the cat with a piece of siding I had (Loaded up my truck with siding from a neighbors chimney that my friend was working on). Could not get the cat on the board so I grabbed the vapor barrier and slid the cat closer to the hole. Then closed my eyes and reached over and grabbed it by a leg and tossed it on the plastic sheet I had brought with me. Then scrambled for the hatch in the floor. My head pounding and getting really stuffy at this point.

Cat was disposed of. Hopefully the smell is gone now.

My welding gloves smell like dead cat.

I was wearing the gloves when I cut and handle the insulation and thought It would be a good idea to wear for this other job.

Now for some pics of the insulation job.


Standing in the front left corner and looking to the back right corner.


Standing in front right corner looking to the back left corner.


My job was to go along and cut small pieces to put at the bottom. The batts are 8' long and the ceiling is about 10' so had to fill in. Had my pieces all laid out so I could just go down the wall and staple them in. Then my buddy would come behind me with the full batts and staple them in above.


Another in progress shot.


Finished section.


Old roof leak.

What I was doing today was going back and filling in a few places that did not take full batts. Like in the third picture I posted, about the middle of that wall is a spot right below the roof beam that is not 16" wide. Had to cut the insulation down the length in about half to fit in there. We had been going from 3-9. Why did we start so late? Took that long to have the insulation delivered.

[BobbyFord]

I came across decaying cat funk once about 10 seconds before I actually SAW what was making the smell. WOW! I'm surprised you didn't loose yer cookies, it's very rank.

[OldRedFord]

Same here Bobby. When I got outside I had to take 5 before getting in my truck and heading over to finish the insulation. Did not want to hurl all over the inside of my truck.

Guess my stomach is a bit stronger then I thought.

[1971ford]

Yeah I will stick to making pizzas...

[fordman]

you know the old saying about you cant swing a dead cat without hitting this that or the other thing?

oh man dead cats are nasty. and i hate touching dead things without gloves. atleast you had gloves. i would probably throw the gloves away now. yuk.

[oldschoolrods]

I found 2 dead cats inside a generator one day, poor things crawled in there to keep warm and froze to death. Went back to that generator a couple months later after telling the customer to remove the cat, Well when I went back I opened the door where it was and there was still a cat there........at first I thought it was the same one.......til it jumped at me and scared the hell out of me

[robroy]

Good evening Tim,

I really enjoyed reading your story and seeing the photos. You're a great writer!

Robroy

[AlleyCat]

I found 2 dead cats inside a generator one day, poor things crawled in there to keep warm and froze to death. Went back to that generator a couple months later after telling the customer to remove the cat, Well when I went back I opened the door where it was and there was still a cat there........at first I thought it was the same one.......til it jumped at me and scared the hell out of me

A coworker of mine found a black snake yesterday. It had been wrapped between a set of dual wheels on a junk semi trailer that we were robbing tires from. He pulled the outside tire and the snake fell out. At first we thought it was dead until it moved. I kinda felt bad for the snake. Poor bugger hitting the ground AFTER spinning in circles for a half a mile or so. Apparently it didn't suffer any permanent harm. I relocated it to a creek bank where it disappeared into the rocks.