Vancouver Ch.# XXVIII- "doing some business."

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Chapter # XXVIII

Doing some business

The next morning, the brothers repeated their routine from yesterday. That worked for Ian. He got to talk to Laura every day.

“Good morning Jim, Ian,” said John Lowry, as they walked into the diner.

“Good morning, John,” said Jim. Ian had already walked into the kitchen to talk with Laura.

“We will have the usual, John,” said Jim. “If you can pry the almost newly-weds apart.”

“I will try, Jim,” said John. “What are you lads about today?”

“Believe it or not, we are calling on Hank Phelan about some business.” said Jim.

“The same Hank Phelan, whose boys you and Ian laid out flat?” asked John with surprise.

“The same, John,” said Jim. “Apparently Mr. Phelan has better judgement than some of the clowns that work for him.”

“Well, best be careful around those lads. They have long memories,” said John.

The pancakes and syrup arrived with coffee. The lads attacked the food like starving dogs setting on a meat wagon.

After breakfast, the brothers climbed aboard their mounts, waved goodbye to the soon to be Mrs. Mac Adams and rode down to the G Grenville Bridge. They dismounted, tied their horses to the rail and entered the offices of the “Phelan Lumber Company.”

“Good morning lads,” said Hank Phelan. “It is good to see you again. Come on into my office.”

“Have a seat, “ he said. “Can I get either of you anything?”

“No, we are good Hank,” said Jim. “Barney Finnegan at Staunton’s gave us your message. How can we help?”

“Well, we are thinking of putting up a barn for our buzz saw. We will of course have all of the newly cut wood that we need. But, I want t o to lay a solid cement floor foundation in and then set in a four-foot high wall of bricks to build the wooden structure on,” said Hank

“I would need some specific dimensions of the space to be used for building,” said Jim. “That and an exact height of the brick wall. If you give ius that, I think we can work up and estimate for you. You would want red fire-baked bricks, would you not?” asked Jim.

“I guess I don’t really know, Jim. My business is lumber, not bricks,” said Hank.

“I have samples of both bricks here for you, Hank.” said Jim as he handed the samples to Hank Phelan. “ You can see that the fire-

baked bricks are denser and have a smoother finish and sharper edges,” said Jim..

“They look pretty good, Jim,” said Hank. “And we aren’t building a palace up there in the woods. What would you recommend?”

“Well, adobe bricks are cheaper of course,” said Jm. “But, they lack the tensile strength and durability of fire-baked bricks. With all of t the moisture from rain on Vancouver-island and all of the saw dust flying around, I would recommend using fire-baked bricks. But, I

will work up an estimate, based on the figures you give us, for both kinds of bricks. And, if the project is not too large, Ian and I can e even come out and lay the foundation and brick walls for you. It wouldn’t take more than three days or so. I will include the cost of the la labor and materials involved for you as well.”

“That will help me,” said Hank.

“The only complication that I see,” said Jim. ”is that we would have to ask you to take delivery of the bricks on the Vancouver wharf. I don’t yet have shippers lined up to run the bricks over to Victoria or further up the island to Nanaimo.”

“That’s is not a problem,” said Hank. ”We use commercial freighters all up and down the coast, to ship our lumber. I can make that a arrangement myself.”

“Fine, then we will wait for your area figures and get to work on figuring a cost estimate for you,” said Jim.

“Oaky, Jim,” said Hank. “I will get you those dimensions as quickly as I can. I will have one of my lads ride them over to your yard in a few days.

“I hope we can do a deal, Hank,” said Jim. “And we certainly appreciate your thinking of us.” With that, the two brothers left the office, mounted up and rode off.

As they rode up towards their yard, Ian yelled over to Jim. “What do you think, Jim?”

“Well, I think we can compete favorably with the production costs of brickyards in Seattle. Without the shipping charge, our costs should be more favorable for the Phelan Lumber Company.. I threw in the offer on the masonry work, to sweeten the deal,” said Jim.

“Good thought, Jim,” said Ian. “Now all we have to do is get to work and turn out a small mountain of fire-baked bricks.”

Both men thought of the dangers of entering the logging camp to build a wall. But, that was a problem for another day.

The brothers rode up to the yard. A usually, the quiet of the forest seemed eerie compared to the busy tumult of the harbor area. They unsaddled their mounts, rubbed them down and set out water and oats. Then, Jim hooked up the water wheel power source.

“I will throw a load of clay in the cruncher, Ian,” said Jim. “Why don’t you try and get a fire going in the Kiln firebox?”

“Okay, Jim,” said Ian. “let’s get the production line rolling.”

The cruncher ground up the clay plugs. Then, Jim shoveled the clay pellets into the pug mill, where he added dirt, sand. lime and water. The axle stirred up the mixture until it was evenly spread out. Then, the power axle pushed the thickening mixture through the extruder machine and into the clay molds. They were ready for firing.

“We can try a whole load in the drying process,” said Jim. “It shouldn’t take more than two hours. Then we can build up the fire in the kiln firebox and bake the bricks for another three hours at a higher heat range. While we are waiting for the cake to bake, we can start up another load of brick mix through the cruncher and pug mill.”

“Aye,” said Ian. ”I think this is a dance that we will get used to over the next few weeks.”

“We will,” said Jim with determination. “Once we get rolling, I am going to look into hiring another man to help us out. His help, and that of young Selkirks on Saturdays, will free one of us up to make sales calls.”

At days end, the brothers removed the newly baked bricks from the kiln. They inspected their product for rough edges and shattered bricks. They then stacked them on a wooden pallet. It was a rhythm and a routine that they would follow daily.

As the light faded, the Mac Adams Brothers saddled their horses and set off for Vancouver. The dream of a Mac Adams Brothers Brick Yard was now aborning.

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( 1,182 words)

Joseph Xavier Martin