As “normal” teen-agers, Tim and I did just as we pleased and didn’t take orders from ANY grownup. I’m sure glad I finally “grew out” of that attitude, which is why I have been gainfully employed all these years. Unfortunately, I don’t think I quite yet “grew out” of it when I was married!  (Which reminds me of one of my great questions in life; “If a man was ALONE in the middle of the Sahara Desert with NO WOMAN anywhere within 1,000 miles of him and he made ANY statement, would he still be WRONG???”   Tim and I theorize that since we were born and raised on a farm, we are used to working for ourselves and it’s always been hard for us to take orders. I think the Navy helped both of us to better subject ourselves to superior authority, however. One reason (among 4,855) of why I’m looking forward to retirement is that I can “get my life back” and finally be left to “my own devices,” under which I operate much more efficiently!  One day Tim, Kit, and I decided to build a basement under ‘THE ROOST”.  We sawed a (somewhat) square opening in the middle of the wooden floor, found some old hinges and made a trap door just like in the westerns.  I don’t recall the reason for digging a basement, we just did it.  Teen-agers don’t need a reason to do anything!  We used a bucket on a rope and eventually, the basement hole got bigger and deeper. We spent shifts in the hole digging and enlarging the edges with a pick. As I seem to recall, I think Kit even hooked up an old wooden pulley we found in the barn, to pull up the spoil-laden metal bucket. While working in the hole, we used a candle that we placed inside a woodchuck tunnel we had unearthed about half way down the side. It had a small tree root coming down in front of it, which was cut off, and it looked like a big “throat.” The candle eventually caused a big thick black carbon build up on the top of the woodchuck tunnel. When the large basement was finally completed, we spent a lot of time down there. Just why we preferred to spend time in a dark, clammy hole in the ground rather than sit “upstairs” in chairs with comfort and light is anyone’s guess.  Soon afterward,  “THE ROOST” burned down and our excavated basement was full of ashes and debris. Not ones to admit defeat, Tim, Kit, and I decided to remove all the debris from the hole, roof it over, and still have “THE ROOST”.  We spent several days toiling and cleaning out the big hole, then thought about how to construct a roof. One of us looked at one of the “pig houses” that sat in the field about 400 feet west of where ‘THE ROOST” had stood. Aha! This was perfect! The roof was just the right size and already constructed of wood and metal! We headed for the “pig house” with hammers and crowbars and removed all the nails and braces holding the roof on. We then got the Ford tractor, grabbed a chain, and headed to claim our “prize.” We hooked the chain to the underside of the front of the roof. Just as the roof started to move off the “pig house,” Uncle Ned finally noticed what we were doing. He was running toward us yelling, “HEY, HEY, HEYYYYYY…” We all just looked at him, “flipped him off,” and pulled the roof off to the ground with a SCRRREEEEECCCCH CAROOOOM!!! while he continued with his frenzied tirade! Hmmmmm, no wonder he “drank heavily”!  We dragged the ready-made roof over the hole and spent many more times in the dark, dank, humid, clammy “ROOST 2”!