A few weeks ago I was alone in Meeting at the Newtown Square Friends Meeting House on Sunday, wondering where to begin on all the things that need work in our old Meeting House. And by sharing those thoughts online, I have had a wonderful response. A friend of mine, Scott, offered help with the project. When I met him last week to take the initial look (climbing up twenty feet on an extension ladder to a hatch leading to the attic), I also invited Bob, a local sawmill owner had had said he would be glad to help. We assessed what we would need - the attic has no lights, no flooring, and 10-15 years worth of bat guano, and is the summer home of a colony of bats. The purpose of the project is to secure that attic against entry by the bats when they return from hibernation, and also to provide alternative housing for them.
We needed a flooring surface to walk on. Bob has a saw mill and lots of boards in his inventory that he said would be good for our use. Long, but not so wide that we could not fit them through the hatch. We needed lights - and all agreed to bring extension cords to reach from the first floor up and throughout the attic, with a splitter to be able to plug several portable lights in. We needed items to block the entry points - hardware cloth and foam sealant - both available at the local hardware store. Other tools - tin snips to cut the cloth, hammer and nails to secure the flooring, step ladders to be able to reach the high areas, a saw, face masks to filter the guano air. Several people had suggested that in a closed area full of bat guano, we should have full respirators. I had consulted with a bat expert several years ago, and she had said that west of the Mississippi there is a nasty fungus, but that in this area there is no disease spread by guano. So, the basic white mask would be enough.
The wood planks were dropped off earlier in the week. Another friend, Tayo, volunteered to help. We agreed to meet this Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. The weather was not cooperating - the morning temperatures were supposed to be mid 30's - in an unheated stone building. I wore several layers. Everyone was on time - and we worked first on moving the wood up to the attic - I handed the planks one by one to Tayo, halfway up the ladder leaning against the wall, and he worked it up to Scott, sitting in the hatch, who pulled it through. Ten or twelve planks went up that way. Then we plugged in the extension cords and handed them up and into the attic. Scott had brought large spotlights - so when we fired these up, it lit up the huge old attic fairly well. We then had individual lights to move from place to place as well. We also brought up buckets with tools and supplies, and several step ladders. Everything came up the same way, carried up the 20 foot ladder to the hatch and then handed up. We constructed a boardwalk to be able to navigate the space - we would be fine with the beams that hold our weight, but in between those beams were wood lathe strips to hold in the ceiling plaster. Step on them and down you go - a long drop down. But the wooden planks, laid end to end across the beams, gave us a nice surface to walk back and forth.
With the space set up, Scott went to work on the bat exclusion - setting up a ladder, and several wooden shutters on ceiling beams as a platform for high work. Tayo started digging the piles of bat guano into a large bucket. There were stacks of old windows and decayed lumber in the attic as well, so I made several trips to cart those items out of the attic, down the hatch and the ladder, to a trash pile outside. Back in the attic, there was a small attic window that I was able to open up - it had likely not been opened in 20-30 years, but with some gentle force, it opened without breaking, and brought in a lot of additional light to that end. I looked down to the far end and could see a pair of legs hanging down from the overhead joists. When Scott needed help, Tayo went to join him, and I took over the thankless job of gathering the bat guano into the bucket, using a small broom and a dustpan, and at times gloved hands. It is old guano, not fresh, and so it has no smell. Just piles of small dark pellets, spread out in some areas, and sometimes in piles below favorite nesting areas.
We are going to use the guano in another part of the project. Part of the exclusion process involves providing alternative habitat for the bats. I had given Bob a sample bat box that we had outside for years (and that was never occupied by bats). He is working up several designs based on this sample and what he may find online. The trick then is to make the bat house attractive to the returning bats. How to do that? Make guano stew. Take the guano, soak it in water, and then dunk and soak the bat houses in the resulting stew. Then hang the bat boxes up in locations favored by bats - they need morning sun, and accessibility, yet safety from other predators. So, we are still studying design and placement issues - though we need to get a move on it as the bats return in April.
While we were working in the attic, another friend, Chris, popped his head up to check out the work. He has volunteered to build signage for the meeting house, to replace an old sign that the winter storms damaged this year. So I joined him downstairs and we walked the property to discuss sign design and placement. We have some ideas, and will work on turning them into something concrete in the next few weeks.
Up in the attic there were signs from the original construction of this portion of the meeting house in 1791. Men who had witnessed the American Revolution had been climbing in this same space, to expand the original 1711 one story Meeting House to a much larger two story building with full attic. Each joist had identifying numbers carved into the ends using Roman numbers. Each beam had been numbered below, before being brought up and laid in place sequentially. I don't know who these original workers were, but I felt a kinship with them, hopping from beam to beam as they no doubt were in 1791. Newtown was founded by Welsh Quakers, and so perhaps at the time of construction, many of the workers were members of the Meeting. On Sunday, none of these friends were Quakers or attended this Meeting. They are friends in the broadest sense - people who are willing to take time out of their busy lives to help their friends and neighbors, and work to preserve an old building in need of some love.
We don't have a lot of money to throw at this project. But three weeks ago I was in this same space, wondering where to begin with so much to do. And on Sunday, a small group of friends gathered, and by early afternoon, we had turned off all lights in the attic to check our work, and saw no daylight. We think we have made it much more difficult for the bats to re-enter the building. That's a start. Bat boxes are in the works, and we are studying up on where to install them. I am going to go back to the attic and secure in place the temporary walkways that we put up there. I have asked Bob if he can drop off more of the same type of wood, so we can extend the walkways to the north side of the attic, so that we can circulate there rather than having just one passage east and west. I may also buy some plywood to build a staging area at the hatch, so that when you are at the top of the ladder, hands full of tools, you can reach through and put them on a platform before climbing in and righting yourself on the same platform, rather than stretching and balancing on joists before standing up. I have mapped out in my mind a circuit of lights in the attic, so that the next time someone needs to do work up there, when they come through the hatch, there is a light switch waiting for them, and when they switch it on, there is light. We will need to pull wire up to the attic, but that was part of the next phase anyway - replacing the old wiring and installing light fixtures for the room below. All of these tasks are tasks I can do, with a little help from my friends.
When everyone left on Sunday, I went back into the Meeting House, and sat in silence for a few minutes, in the same place as three weeks ago when I was wondering where to begin. Now I know the answer. I begin there, sorting it out. I reach out and ask for help. I have many talented and knowledgeable people in my life, and many friends who are glad to contribute their skills and knowledge and time, if I only ask. Though the community looks much different from what it did in 1791, and we wear different clothing, and arrive at the meeting house with horsepower rather than on horseback or by foot, yet the human heart remains the same. People of goodwill enjoy helping others. Friends enjoy helping friends. People find virtue in contributing to the community. Being a part of something larger than themselves. Lending a hand so that this old meeting house, which has served the community for 300 years, will continue to do so, if we keep it up, and keep the doors open for each new generation to discover it. I am very grateful for this lesson, and thankful for my friends who made this day possible. There is more to do, but I have the lesson of the last few weeks to guide me. I am looking forward.
The view that few have seen since 1791 - looking out the attic window to the cemetery.
The beams, all marked with XVI for this particular joint.
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