Ben Osterhaudt is an important figure in my life. I have know him ever since I moved up to the country, and he has been instrumental in my life. He has worked in the farmhouse, rebuilt the barns, fixed up the Pig Barn for the art shows. He’s fixed leaks in the roof, leaking washing machines, repaired broken glass, come early in the morning or in the middle of the night more times than can count.
He is a skilled carpenter but he can fix almost anything. He started his business at the outset of the recession and showed up in my driveway and we have been working together every since. Ben is also a country man, independent, fiercely individualistic. He usually works in a T-shirt or a light jacket, even in the winter. He never wears gloves, almost always has a cigarette dangling from his lips, and is shockingly strong. I’ve seen him lift things that people use tractors for.
In the winter, he works outside for hours without gloves and never wants to come inside to get warm. If you suggest it, he just laughs. He laughs at anything he doesn’t want to hear or do.
He has little use for socializing or much modern technology. He likes to red about guns, ammo, knives. I gave him an Ipod for Christmas once and he gave it to his sister. “I’d just break it,” he said. He said an Am-Fm radio is fine for him.
Ben checked out the roof in our new house and discovered scores of slate pieces were broken, and the roof was leaking everywhere. For five or six days, he has been out in the blistering sun (by noon, the slate is too hot for most people to touch, so Ben holds it by cloth or wears heavy jeans) cutting and replacing scores of pieces. When he found that one company was charging $10 for a piece of slate, he found some farmers who wold him slate for $3 a piece. I appreciate that.
Ben will never ask for a drink, but if you give him some water he will drink it. I’ve never seen him eat or take food. He dodges bees all day, their nests hidden in the slate. When dogs come after him, he smiles and goes about his business and they leave him alone.
Ben is honest and fair in his prices. He keeps to his estimates. He never complains or grumbles, or takes advantage of anyone. He won’t work with contractors who rob people.
He keeps some distance from the things in the world that make many of us crazy – technology, politics, groups of people. He will build a pole barn for us for the animals and fix up Maria’s studio barn so she can work in it when we move in. Ben and I are close, we yak like schoolgirls when he’s around. I am very fond of him and respect him tremendously. He’s curious about publishing, but his eyes glaze over when I talk to him about it. I am lucky to have Ben. I’ve been watching him for days painstakingly replace our slate roof piece by piece, cutting pieces, checking them, climbing up and down the ladder, sweating in the hot sun, nailing them in. He say she wants to get it done before the next rain. He will.