Going Local

Going Local

Painting by Jordan Brun

    With the rise of corporations and monster chains buying out small businesses (something we witnessed en masse while visiting England some years ago as pub owner after pub owner told us about having to close due to being underpriced by one of the beverage chains, currently the owner of over 500 once-local pubs in Britain) going local is a phrase one hears quite regularly.  Buy local produce we hear, use local services, eat at local restaurants.  Sometimes this is easy to do, and sometimes not.  At one of our grocery stores, the local produce is a mixed bag of good and not-so-good veggies and fruits (much as one would find at the outdoor markets).  But behind all of that mish-mash is a lot of hard work and a lot of inching through life for the small farmer.  That bruised batch of fruit might be the difference between profit or loss to that local farmer, one who is unable to simply toss away tons of lettuce or too-ripe tomatoes or pay for the extra cost of bringing it to the store in time.  Same with the locally-run restaurant (we watched one local place thrive upon opening only to face competition months later from a well-financed chain; the local place has now struggled as they watch the other place grow and grow).  So what is the reason...obviously, a customer's money talks and for many such chains and corporate entities that money is telling them that this is what the people want.  The image given is that the produce is better, the food is better, the price is cheaper, and the volume is consistent.  But all at what cost?   It's a dilemma many of us face...need a lemon at the last minute and chances are that the local chain store will have a slew of them, each perfect and bright yellow and reasonably priced (the bruised and old ones having been thrown out).  But go to a chain store in the early hours and you'll witness barrels of bakery and produce being culled from the shelves (albeit with the arrival of "good Samaritan" laws, more dated and bruised food is being diverted to food banks and homeless shelters for use rather than being tossed into the trash, one butcher at one of the chains telling us that much of the unsold meat is later ground up and sent to such facilities).  Much the same happens with other businesses...want that extensive tile selection or a few pieces of lumber or a part for your sink?  Which store would have a better or at least a larger selection?  For the small local business, one customer makes the decision to go elsewhere, then ten customers, then a thousand customers and before long your business closes.  My wife and I are as guilty as anyone, both for having good intentions to want to go local and for vacillating back and forth with the chains, often shopping at both places and making our decisions then.

Painting by Sarah Harmon

    We faced a similar dilemma recently when we decided to have our roof replaced (it was a wood shake roof, one put on 40 years ago when the house was built and one which I would "repair" annually as I braved climbing up onto our roof and staring two stories down as I banged in new shakes to replace those which had either cracked or had been blown off by the wind...then three years ago, my wife banned me from doing any more such repairs, something that I now grudgingly admit was the right decision as my knees and balance are far from what I imagine them to be, me being more likely to land on a stud than to try and be one).  But now to get bids from roofers...where does one begin?  Some friends recommended their choices, one being that of a nearby family of questionable licensing but had done such a project "on the cheap" they said.  Uh, no.  We moved to the "local" flyers and advertisers, even though we knew that such full-page advertising was likely costing several thousand dollars for that company to advertise even as they did so month after month.  We also heard good stories and horror stories, talked to people, began viewing roofs (as with so many such projects, you don't really think about such matters until the time comes when you need them) and after all that, turned to our heating person, a youngster in our eyes but one we found to be extremely knowledgeable and honest in his dealings over the years.  Know any good roofers, we asked.  Yes, was his immediate reply, my good buddy and someone I've known since high school.  Uh-oh.  But we called his friend up and here's what we found...his father had been in the roofing trade for 40 years and he had since taken over and had now been roofing for 27 years.  He scanned our roof, climbing all over the steep pitches and taking measurements then promised to send us a bid.  It turned out to not be the cheapest price but was smack in the middle with all the other bids...and perhaps more importantly we liked him.  And here was the surprise, he worked by himself.  Really?  A roofer doing all the work alone? (his best worker came down with some personal problems and left unexpectedly was all he would tell us)  But now some weeks later, we have a new roof, and quite possibly a far better-looking roof than we could have hoped for, complete with ice dams and flashing that far outdid our older roof (he worked from 9 to 6 for well over a week, including appearing on both Saturday and Sunday).  In ten years time our roofer would likely be raked with arthritis and aching bones, his lifting and bending making me sore just in watching but he got the job done and done well.  But let me back up for one tale of this roofing job...

Painting by Bryan Berndt

    Our home has a rather steep driveway with a pitch that is steep enough to stop the heartiest of trucks from coming up (their axles or hitches will scrape bottom almost immediately at the bottom), which meant the supply truck from the roofing company.  Capable of carrying nearly 10 tons of weight, the 12-wheeler also has a conveyor boom to send the shingle materials to the tops of roofs...only, the truck couldn't make it close enough.  We placed pallets down near the back tires of the truck and added sheets of plywood near the hitch, all of which the truck crushed immediately but managed to move up another foot and surprisingly, get the boom to reach our lower roof but that was it, which meant handing the bundles --all 128 of them-- upwards over the top and onto the next level.  And for those of you who have never checked the weight of a bundle of the heavier asphalt shingles, well, they're about 65-70 pounds each.  Multiply that by 128, plus the boxes of nails and ridges and sheathing and boards and you sort of get the amount of dread that was permeating the suppliers.  Can't wait, the roofer told them.  Let's begin offloading.  The roofing suppliers climbed to the upper roof (which was now three stories up due to the steep driveway); they would lean over the edge while our roofer grabbed each bundle from the belt and lifted it up and over his head to hand to them (okay what would be worse, lifting a 70-pound weight up and over you 128 times, or grabbing such a bundle from above the same number of times while looking down 30 feet...should you tire, down you'd go perhaps breaking your fall on the lower roof before tumbling onto the concrete below).  The grunting began and soon I saw the illogic of it all.  The person loading the belt from the truck could be helping up on that roof.  I'll load the bundles, I told him.  You'll get tired, he told me.  Nah, I think I can handle it.  But he was right.  By about the 50th bundle I was feeling it...only 78 more to go (the roofers offload such material anywhere from 4 to 8 times each day, telling me that once done here they would return for another two loads destined for the next job)...obviously, my roofing days (or interest in such) were over. 

Painting by Steven Day

    Sometimes one can find wonder in the most diverse places, and sometimes one can find it right in plain view.  There's hard work and hidden skills and undiscovered talent and often that drive, that urge to get one's work or job or ideas out there.  If you've been wondering what all of those scattered images are throughout this post, they're from local artists and all (and more) on temporary display at my local library.  Local talent in one small city in one small county and one small state and all in one small part of the world.  If going local can unearth this display as well as provide me with an exceptional roof put on with but a single person, then I can only wonder what else might await...and all of it probably being just around the corner.  Local.

Painting by Nicole Murray