Hauling Brush, or Why We're Not Getting More Done On The House!

Several people have asked me lately why I'm not showing more progress on the house. So I am showing you why. In the picture above you see the before. Look at all the broken off branches, the result of the October storm.

Here is the area right below those trees, broken wood all over the place. You can see where we have cut the branches off the firewood tree parts.

Above are two views of our road frontage, where we have hauled the brush for (hopefully!) the city to pick up. This is just the brush from the approximately 1 acre meadow next to the barn. Think of what remains to do on the other 7 acres. Yes, I am using this meadow now for an agility field for my fabulous Aussie Freckles, seen above. She is wondering why I am standing in the middle of the road, not playing with her.

 Above you can see Cy pulling down a "hanger", a broken off tree top of limb. Some of these are quite large, and called " widow makers". Hum, maybe having Cy do this work is not such a great idea.

 Here's the mess in the back of the meadow, fallen wood everywhere. We use the lawn tractor to haul the heavier branches up to the road.

 

You can see what a long fun process it is just to clear up. More work waits when we get to cut and split all the firewood. At least we won't be cold next winter!

October Snow Storm!

Here's what my house looked like the morning after the big storm.

Here's our road.

Here's the meadow and outhouse to the north.

Here's our beloved heritage apple tree, which covered our deck in flowers in May. R.I.P.

Look at the motorhome! We don't think there is any damage, but will need to wait for the snow to melt to do a good examination of the roof.

Its such a mess in CT. There are trees and limbs down everywhere. I don't think we have 1 tree without damage. Especially the oaks, they still had their leaves so they are all damaged. We will have a years work to clean it up. No power, they are saying maybe 2 more weeks! No internet or cable. We have a good wood stove, so we're toasty here, but no water. There's no power in town, so you spend a lot of time driving around looking for a gas station that has power and has gas, then you can wait in line. The PO is open, but no power for the scales so you can ship. Costco was sort of open, the whole store running on a giant generator, if you can believe it. The city plowed the snow, and came and is cutting and pulling the downed limbs that are in the road. There is a shelter for heat and showers at the Middle School. So we'll get along, but boy it is an eye opener. Who knew how vulnerable our society is.

House Progress "The New Room" Part 2

OK, OK I admit progress has been slow. Traveling, making a living, all conflict with working on the old house. However, things are moving along. Here are some pics from last March. This is the SW corner of the room with the floors insulated and down, and the washer and dryer and well pump installed.

 Here is the same corner today. We've begun to enclose the appliances with some great 18th feather edge paneling we found. Too short to use on a wall, its great for this project. The only hold up now is to find pintles that will fit these great turnip ended old hinges. Did I ever show you the wonderful old 18th C windows we put in? Aren't they fine? OK the white paint has to go. I wish you could see all the bubbles in the glass, we've been saving this glass for a long time for something just like this.

Here is the SE corner of the room, with Cy's new TV. We stabilized the wall behind the TV with some left over wood so we could wall mount. This too will be enclosed with the paneling.

Here is the NE corner, still in March, sheet rock and insulation and wiring done, ready for some mud.

This is in April. We hired the foam guys to come in and spray closed cell insulation on the ceiling, so we could be warm and still see our old beams. Here they are covering the beams to protect from the foam.

How's this for a great picture? The guy is in process of spraying foam. Man, I'm getting out of here, its really smelly!

Almost done!

Starting the clean up. They are using wire brushes and claw hammers to release the duct tape covering the beams which protected them from the spray.

Looking cozy? Should be a nice warm winter this year.

Fast forward to August. Since the foam must be covered by fire code, we choose to hand plaster it, rather than put up sheetrock. There was really no way to fasten the sheetrock without hiding the beams. So we spent a long painful summer working on our ceiling. Because the foam left hills and valleys, and is not by nature smooth, I used a teeny tiny trowel to put up the plaster, working along with the grain of the foam and going in between the beams. Here you see Cy putting the final touches on the long sanding process, all hand work, no sanding blocks would work here.

And of course what do you have to do after you sand a lot of plaster? Vacuum it up of course. I am now deliriously happy, because the next step is putting up lots of masking tape and buying paint. Yeah!

Onsite Auction in Rhode Island

Oh, what fun we had. This is my favorite type of auction, which sadly does not happen much anymore, at least out here in New England.

This particular auction was at a 1691 house, see above,  named the Josiah Crane house, a lovely gambrel roof house with beautiful property. I love the fenced in flower garden in front.

This is the giant tent they set up in front of the barn. They started the auction here with the nice smalls and better furniture, like the highboy. After the exciting bidding on the more expensive things, they started a "walk around" to auction off the stuff that was arranged around the outside of the barn, iron charcoal making implements, odd chairs, drying racks, all kinds of obscure farming bits.

Apparently they found a lot of great old stuff up in the barn, and in the outbuildings. This wonderful old wagon was in parts up in the barn. It sold, of course.

After the barn stuff we all walked around to the outbuildings. Here is the Colonial era schoolhouse, with all kinds of wicker piled outside.

Sadly, here is the inside of the school house. There was an antique loom piled in the corner to the left, which I of course bought and hauled out, with risk to life and limb. Well, actually the nice son of the owner hauled it out for me. All we had to do was try and fit it all in the van, unload it, spread it out on the driveway and get out the bug spray. The powder post beetles that had destroyed the back wall had made a start on the loom, or at least I was worried they might have.

Every old farm needs an outhouse! The nice Coke machine in front sold of course

Here's something I've never seen in New England before, a corn crib.

If you look underneath, you can see rough granite pillars that hold up the crib, for air circulation, or so I was told by local people. And the holes in the side are for the same reason.

Here is the old stone blacksmith shop. All the old iron and plows and stuff inside were sold.

What a great day we had. And if you're looking for a property in New England, and maybe Rhode Island would work, here is the realtor's info, Andy Schilke 401-793-6399. The property includes all the beautiful buildings I've shown, as well as 40 acres and is on the Beaver River.

Heritage Log Cabin

What a great looking log cabin! This is the Rider homestead, moved adjacent to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT. Two stories, dormers and an ell, built in the 1870's if I remember, and full of great stuff. We went to the Museum because of its reputation for dinosaur bones, which were great, but we were really enchanted with the homestead outside.

 Look at this wonderful early kitchen. We missed them making dinner on the old iron stove, but the kids got to help iron with the cast iron irons.

Doing up the dishes from dinner. Love the drysink!

Upstairs they had a room full of prairie dress up clothes. Here's my beautiful grandaughter Nikita, the perfect prim Victorian girl.

Love the sapling pea fence in the garden.

Spring garden is coming along well, for such a late spring.

Tomato poles ready to go in.

Out back was the cabin the settlers originally used. Look at the sod roof!

Here is the inside set up for a working blacksmith.

Here is the upper level of the cabin where the diaries show the daughters slept. Don't hit your head!

Out back was a teepee set up you could walk in.

 And to top it all off, a video the kids and friends playing with Victorian toys. I've never actually seen this done, have you?

What a nice day in the summer in Montana.

Buffalo Bill Cody Museum Visit

The first museum is all about the life and times of Buffalo Bill Cody. Look at this great early poster. Those old shows must have been something else!

Look at this huge saddle he actually used, and all the solid silver. That horse must have been a powerhouse.

A stagecoach from one of the shows.

This embroidered deerskin shirt was from the special exhibition about the evolution of western wear. The embroidery was so tiny, Native American, it was just unbelievable.

Woman's elk tooth dress. Ivory elk canine teeth would survive when the body and bones of the elk withered away, so they were a symbol of long life, just right for a young woman entering her childbearing years.

Modern western wear.

These modern boots were tooled and painted to honor this museum.

 Here's the opening to the Cody Firearms Museum. Look at that great display of guns. They have 1500 guns beautifully displayed on the first floor, and another 1200 downstairs to study. Yikes.

I liked this exhibit. It was the inside of a NE gunsmith's shop from 1770.

Here is a pistol from Simeon North, 1808, Middleton CT.

Look at this great storefront and interior.

 Here's a piece of the Plains Indian exhibit. So great.

I thought you'd like this, Lakota Sioux 1890.

From a collection of headdresses, Shoshonne plains, 1890.

On our way out we had to stop for a little lesson in roping.

But have to get moving, big shootout in Cody tonight, 6 p.m. and after that the rodeo. Big doings tonight!

If you'd like to see more pics of our trip, go to our website traveloque page, where I've posted quite a few,
http://www.bluedogantiques.com/Travelogue.html