Sunday, November 15, 2020
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I regret to tell those of you who knew Jack Nowlin, the man who designed and built the Catman2 Shelter back in 2000-2002, died a few days ago. His daughter has asked me to ask if any of you happen to have a picture of Jack with his dog. If so, she would like a copy to remember him by. I have many pictures of the dog but none of Jack with the dog. If you do, or know of anyone who does, please E-mail it to me or send it to my PO box PO Box 2344 Cullowhee, NC 28723. For those of you don’t know, Jack and I built the shelter together. We carried most of the lumber up from Franklin because there were no big lumber companies here back then. Sylva Lumber was here, but it didn’t have all of our needs. We used medieval methods of building like using a block and tackle to pull things up to the roof or to lift the 20 walls. The rope was pulled with an ancient Jeep truck. The only two things we paid hired help to do was the foundation, built by an out-of-work Christian who usually built them free for churches all over the world, and to put the shingles on the roof. That was only because Jack said he couldn’t spend that much time down on his knees anymore because he’d spent too much time, before that, praying on his knees. Jack was a good Christian man but he didn’t mine it too much when I cussed unless I took the Lord’s name in vain. With the two of us working together for almost two years, and me paying Jack $15 dollars an hour, the 4000 sq ft building cost me around $200,000.00 dollars. I worked for free that time. In comparison, the building for the Museum of the House Cat, built by contractors, (3400 sq ft) cost me over $450,000 in 2019-2020. I was busy working at the old Museum location at the time and the contractors would not allow me to help even if I’d work for free.
