First workout

My "Pops" in the local paper!

Charles Neaman: Hands of a craftsman
Story by David Campiche Photos by Laurie An
Active Times
Friday, October 19, 2007

Chuck Neaman holds a power activated fastener known as a "Hilti Gun". This fastener will drive nails into concrete or steel that is 1-inch thick, and has been an indispensible tool in the construction of the multi-story water tower near Leadbetter State Park.

Chuck Neaman stands in the foreground next to two very unique construction projects that have taken much of his time over the past few years. An old wooden boat, on the left, was converted into tastefully appointed bedrooms and the tall structure is a water tower that also houses bedrooms a common rooms with lavish 360-degree views.

A spectacular and sometimes controversial tower some call the lighthouse rises nine-stories or 124 feet above the northern tip of the Long Beach Peninsula just south of Leadbetter Point State Park.

Today, a welder's bucket swings precariously on a long metal arm in the salty ocean air, nearly 90 feet above the earth. A 57-year-old man known to friends as "Chuck" is inspecting the steel structural supports - metal 4-by-4 counterparts - held together by welded joints and heavy steel bolts. The carpenter takes the height and danger into consideration and rises to the challenge. A man of strong skilled hands and a keen engineer's mind, Charles Neaman is simply doing his job; doing it - as is the habit of this master craftsman - to the best of his ability. He began carpentry like father and his before him, apprenticing with a skilled mentor. Neaman picked up the saw and hammer as a very young man and never looked back.

Neaman was raised in the small Long Island town of Massapequa, not far from New York. During his youth, Massapequa felt like a small New England village. Neaman matured like any rural boy. His grandfather was a bayman, a gatherer of oysters, fish, mussels and bait. Neaman spent a good part of his youth on Great South Bay, kicking around with his grandfather or hunting ducks and geese in his small wooden punt. The most important lesson he garnered from his grandpa was more specific: "Nothing is more important than a man's honor." The second value was a strong work ethic.

With the work ethic came skill. Neaman spent a good part of his apprenticeship with a German carpenter named Heinz Pfaff, a barrel-chested man with huge muscular hands and a big heart. One Sunday morning, the Neamans went to church. When they returned, their family home had burned to the ground.

Neaman remembers how Pfaff came around that afternoon and stood looking sadly at the rubble and at the dejected family. All they had left were their church clothes and shiny Sunday shoes. Speaking with a strong German accent to Neaman's father, Charles, Pfaff matter-of-factly declared, "You are going to need work shoes tomorrow." It had snowed hard that day on Long Island. Pfaff took off his shoes and handed them to the father, and then walked through the snow to his car.

The next morning they began to rebuild the house. Family and community hung together like the foundation of that new home, each board bound together with shiny steel nails and a liberal dousing of love and commitment.

Neaman's parents were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His father was a bishop. A strong sense of family and commitment to God followed the boy like a long shadow. Along with those values he learned about prejudice. The history of that church is fraught with hardship, but the reality of discrimination only made Neaman stronger.

Like most teens, Neaman rebelled against the authority of the church and against the strong hand of his father, but not for too long. He joined the armed services and was sent to Germany, narrowly avoiding combat in Vietnam. The young man was patriotic, but Neaman was one of two in his company who weren't sent into the conflict. A number of the young men in his outfit died.

Out of the service, Neaman enrolled at Brigham Young University where he studied for a year, then moved back to New York. Carpentry was on his mind. At 23, he was cajoled into a triple date. He met a lovely 17-year-old student with curly lustrous hair, soft brown eyes and a determination that would guide her and her family in the decades to come.

As Neaman recalls, "She was a hot-looking honey with a tube top and hot pants." Like most young men, Neaman was smitten. As it turned out, the woman had more than just good looks. Neaman credits his wife, Debbie Ekelman, with bringing him back to God, the church and his core values.

Ekelman was a Russian Jew with strong heredity back to the old country. "I brought a Jewish girl home and mom cried," states Neaman. But attitudes change and the family became tight. The Neamans had three children: Keith, Chris and Nicole. The oldest boy is now 30 and a doctor doing reconstructive surgery in Michigan.

Debbie is an active woman with energy to spare. She has been an alcohol and drug abuse counselor, and nursed the infirm. She describes herself as "a seeker of knowledge, a connoisseur of life and an entrepreneur." Like her husband, she is also a believer in the work ethic. "What I'm thankful to my husband for is that he taught my children to work."

After spending most of their lives in New York, the Neamans spent nine years in Utah, and have lived the last five in Chinook, Wash., where Chuck Neaman has built a house with his own two hands, mostly working on the structure after long work days as the foreman at Leadbetter Farms for Craig Tillotson, the entrepreneur and a major principle in Nu-skin. Tillotson bought the land and developed a theme-park-like domain that nestles artfully into the sand dunes just north of the Oysterville Approach.

The property has remained controversial because of the height of the new water tower, a structure that rises like a lighthouse above the Pacific Ocean and supplies fire suppression for his 1,200 acres. Neaman defends the structure and the park-like atmosphere of the private property.

If the building is controversial, no man can condemn the brilliance of the construction. The edifice is an engineering marvel, built on 55 pilings sunk 48 feet under ground. On top of the pilings, Neaman oversaw the pouring of 360 yards of concrete, "Just for the foundation." There are 10 tons of rebar in that cement slurry alone. 55-foot steel beams - 247 pounds each - rise to the top of the tower, offering a view consummate with Sauron's tower in the Lord of the Rings. With the verdant landscape of Leadbetter Point State Park to the immediate north, the view is inspiring.

Neaman also played a major role in the construction of the three-story rock house called the Barn that defines the property. From the woven oak paneling whose idea Neaman borrowed from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, to the Disney-like tree houses that nestle into the old growth Sitka Spruce that punctuate the property, Neaman has left an inspiring mark on Leadbetter Farms.

Neaman refused to fall the small forest in front of his own house in Chinook, a home with a view, but a vista that weaves thorough a pastoral setting. Sitting in his living room and gazing on a salmon-hued sunset through large picture windows across Baker Bay, the Neamans reinforce each others love of the Columbia-Pacific Region and their rich commitment to each other.

"We believe in eternal marriage. Why would I go to heaven if Debbie wouldn't be there with me?" The question is rhetorical. Saying that, he sits down to an Italian dinner his wife has lovingly prepared. "I grew up with immigrants fresh off the boat, the Irish, Italian and Germans from Europe. Peace to me means men treating other men-all men-as brothers."

He talks about the National Apprenticeship Program that he has supported for most of his adult life. Today he has four apprentices of different ethnic backgrounds and remains committed to a hand-me-down program of passing on a craftsman's gift to the next generation.

Flat-bellied with a sandy mustache and leathered face from long days of manual labor, Neaman relishes a marinara sauce with meatballs over homemade ravioli. He takes a short break from the repast, and talks about his three loves: his wife, God and a European work ethic, his own brand of a sacred trinity. Eating pasta while watching a brilliant fireball of sunlight fall over the Columbia River, the man feels lucky; lucky for a full journey through life, for love and for the challenge of the eternal unknown. Studying the capable man, it is fair to venture that he is well prepared.

quick pix from last week

Gpa& Dk taking a walk

Sunday Brunch in his new Peacoat (thanks Lisa)

Men at work. laying the new floors.

Grandpa Neaman and Dakota in matching overalls!

Still in love....

Before our house exploded, there was Niagara

My mother-in-law, Deb came to visit a week before the sawdust began and a week before Keith's poor little vacation of manual labor.
So, we decided to go on a little road trip to Toronto to visit some cousins.
Leaving the country wasn't so bad but on the way back in we went through the wrong lane and had to be searched! we spent ages outside in a line with a bunch of foreigners before i marched up to the front, plopped a baby on the counter top and informed the officials that I was going to change a diaper right there and then if they didn't stop all this nonsense and let us through now! It worked well and off we went.

Canada, oh Canada!


While looking at the map it suddenly accured to me that the infamous Niagara Falls couldn't be too far. So I called my darling for a quick map quest directions and we agreed it would definitely be worth the hour and a half detour.
Here are all the cousins looking at old family photos and reminiscing.
While there Dakota's 3rd cousin came to visit! She's only a few months older so they had fun pushing each other over



This was baby's first trip out of the country!

What a beautiful day it was for us too!

Then we thought, heck, we've come this far- why not visit the town of "Niagara-on-the-Lake". I had never heard of it before but it was the most darling little town I've ever seen! (and I've seen a few)

We stopped for lunch and looked at quaint shops but the highlight was definitely all the candy stores. Mmmm, exotic Canadian candy.....

Pastries, cookies, fudge and caramel
irresistible!

Disaster strikes

I am in the middle of a HUGE mess! some of you are waiting to get messages from me but just know I have no time for the computer now but will contact you soon.
got stuff everywhere. the kitchen is in the living room. In-laws are half here. we just painted the kitchen cabinets and realized what a mistake it was and that we dont know what the heck we are doing! Mistakes are going to cost us thousands of dollars of debt that we cant handle right now.
Baby crying. dust from sanding coats everything. Paint splaters on good clothes. food not being put away! people yelling at eachother. calling credit card company. another home depot run. who's watching the baby. head hurts. cant find my keys. calls to return. Attorney wants me to dig up pictures of my murdered grandmother. What time is it? out of my way!

Day one of Keith's week vacation.

Unstopable!

It's getting harder and harder to put him in a safe place while I do stuff.

How horrible am I?

Okay, I've had this cat of mine ("Monkey") since she was a kitten.
It's been over two years now and we are the only family she knows.
I've snuggled, groomed, punished, spayed, swam and even moved with her.
The things is, once I became pregnant, I found myself strangely overly upset with her for everything and anything. I figured it must be hormones and I'll try to be nice to her today.
But almost year after giving birth and I still can't stand her sometimes. Yet, sometimes I love her.
My biggest problem with this cat is that even though she is litter trained, every now and then for no apparent reason she poops in a sink! This happens randomly but about once or twice a month. If she is stressed or confused it is mush worse. for a week recently she had a stressed induced bladder problem that made her have to pee so frequetly that she jumped into every sink in the house (and left blood too). Now I have always been mad at her for this but found myself reluctently able to forgive only because it was in the sink and not the carpet. (execpt once I found sick cat diarrea and vomit but fogaave because it was to be removed soon anyway)
I would just freak if I found a single mishap on the downstairs carpet where Dakota plays.
My other major problem with her are the fleas.
I have managed to ignore this for quite a while but NO MORE.
I hadnt treated her for a long time because I didnt want any toxic chemicals to hurt the baby of course.
But here is the most dreadful part and I am embarresed to say,
I found a flea running through Dakota's head!!!!!!!
Now that was a last straw for me. I immediately posted an add for "FREE CAT" on craigslist and have recieved 2 replies.
I am going back and forth with this.
How cruel is this?
To give away a grown cat just cause you're sick of it.
Even though she loves and adores me and is already stressed from this big move.
What should I do? What if the new home is not good?
What if she poops in the play area?
I need your opinion.

this could go on for ages sometimes

It is the middle of the night. I have been up for 2 hours with Dakota.
He is still screeeeaming his head off. drank bottle. rocked and rocked. music.
I am so tiered. Oh, and now daddy is up too. his first night of real sleep is destroyed.
i am very upset.
Parenthood is not all fun and games people.

My monkeys in a tree

Another reason to lower the toilet seat

I finally found a moment to sit down with my usual breakfast of egg whites & sugar-free maple surup when 30 seconds into it I noticed it was quiet. I jumped up to see where Dakota had crawled off to and found him past a sleeping daddy in the bathroom with arms elbow deep splashing in the toilet!!!! I gasped and quickly threw his arms under the sink while I fervently rubbed one hand with anti-bacterial soap as his other was grabbing the head of my toothbrush!
Strangely, I don't seem to have an appettite for breakfast anymore...