A hard life

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly Nov 3, 2010


Where do you turn if your stock pens need welding, your drywall needs plastering, you are a retired widow, you live on a ranch 15 miles from the nearest town, and that town has a population of 25?

Loudell Eudaly called Club Ed.

Eudaly lives by herself on the home place - a working ranch somewhere along the Llano River. The house was built in 1930, and the barn went up in 1878. “You have to hold your mouth the right way to make things work,” she said of her historic place. “And when a cow kicks something off, I need to put it back on.”

The native Texan is anything but helpless. “I’ve been helping my daddy know what to beat on since I was a child,” she insisted. “And my daddy was pretty picky how things were taken care of.”

But with her daddy and her husband gone, and she needed some minor repairs done, she was stymied. Her cousin was farming peanuts, her neighbors were busy, and hired help? “Oh, Lord! They are so expensive there is nothing left for me at the end of the year,” she said. “I’m a nurse, and they shouldn’t make more than I do!”

But her daddy had left her a good welding rig. So, like the independent Texan she is, Eudaly decided to call Club Ed and learn to weld for herself.

She was also interested in learning more from our other classes, from how to use a computer to how to fix some broken drywall.

Apparently one of her helpers was too eager when working in the attic. “He had a ‘whoops’ and put a foot through the ceiling,” she said. “He was going to fix it, but that was three years ago and I don’t think it’s going to happen now.”

Eudaly has other small repairs on her “To Do” list. “I live in a museum - a house full of antiques,” she said. She read a book on repairing drywall, but is not quite ready to attack it. “Besides,” she said, “no one looks at walls: they aren’t dangerous; just ugly.”

So when Eudaly heard about Club Ed on her radio, she called up and started signing up for classes. Even though it’s a bit of a drive, she is willing to make the investment.

“I don’t want to have to pay others to do it,” she said of the work facing her. “I lead a hard life, but I want to be able to fix little things like drywall and fence. And,” she added, “I don’t want to live in town.”

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