The Mast-Head: Thank the Animals

This winter has been hell on man and beast alike, and it has been hard on houses as well, with frozen pipes, ice dams leaking under soffets, and over-taxed furnaces. Our house has taken a blow or two, including a never-before freeze-up on a kitchen drain, and, one morning this week, a door that came apart in my hands.

I think it was Monday morning, after a rainy Sunday and a cold dawn. The wooden front door, already looking a little ragged from the pet pig’s depredations, had swelled then frozen stuck. Annoyed by the swirling mass of dogs (we have three) and swine at my feet, I shoved and shoved again, and suddenly it all gave way. Part of the door remained on its hinges and swung wide, but the portion along the side with the entry lever remained in my hand.

Whether the animals went outside at that moment or not, I can’t remember. My guess is that they scattered amid the thunderous outbreak of profanity that ensured.

The sun had not yet emerged over the scrub oaks when I found myself stapling up some metal-coated insulating plastic sheeting over the screen doors to keep the wind off the porch. After getting the kids off to school, I was able to find a similarly sized door leaning up against the family barn in East Hampton and get it installed before lunch. It was a heck of a way to start the week.

To be honest, my wife, Lisa, and I had long been thinking about getting new doors. The one that came apart was drafty and, as it turned out, beyond repair due to rot behind a veneer of paint. The animals, for all their annoying early morning impatience, probably did us a favor.