Friday, October 31, 2008

This Old House When It Was Newer


The woman whose family lived in this house from the time it was built
(about 1790) until 1942 passed away a couple of years ago in New Hampshire.
Two photo albums just made their way to the Historical Society by way
of someone who found them in the trash.
There was a small note in one of the albums to get them back to Rowe.
I'm glad someone took the time to actually look at the books and
helped them find their way home as opposed to some landfill.

These were taken in the late 1800's.  Apparently they played a 
lot of croquet because many of the photographs show the wickets
in the side yard.  Funny, we played croquet there when I was a kid.

These two photographs were taken a little earlier than the one above.
The windows are different on the house.  Would be nice to have those trees in
the front yard again.

This photograph came as more of a shock to us than the rest of them.
It is taken from the back field that Bill has been working so hard at restoring.
I tried to tell him that it was a lot different now than it was when 
I was growing up and had the little farm that we had.  It's amazing what animals
will keep clear - but it never looked like this.  We tried to locate the 
spot from which this may have been taken but it's soo grown up that
you can't even see the buildings.  Maybe someday.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

One Busy Day

Monday, October 26th we took off to get some things finished
and it ended up being quite the productive day for the boys.
After putting a new bumper on Mike's truck they  came in and 
put the last coat of paint on the ceiling.


They then took the trailer, trucks, splitter and chainsaws down
to Florence's house to take out one of a number of dead trees.
I love watching these guys work - especially doing wood.  It's
an amazing cooperative effort and they just seem to know 
what to do without really talking to each other.

Bill hit a rock with his chainsaw and was trying to salvage
the chain - but ended up not using it for the rest of the afternoon.


The beer is always flowing though - nothing like using dangerous 
equipment when you're drinking.
I think that's the woodsman's way.






I'm tired just looking at the pictures.  It was a beautiful day and 
the only issue was getting out of the woods with the mud 
and a loaded trailer.

But with Florence's direction and dog tired determination
they got out on the first try.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

And the Paint Goes On

The decision was made to use the holiday weekend to
finally get some paint on the house.  The weather will be
getting cold up here soon so a little protection was in order.

Mike came over two days out of the weekend to give
Bill and Paul help and moral support (as well as all of them
drinking a few beers).

With the primer on either side of the center it was really apparent
how bad the center looked so they decided to put the scaffolding 
up just in case the weather holds for another couple of weekends.

Cait helped with this until she got a face full of dirt (from the inside of one of 
the pipes).  We're very excited about how good at least one side looks.

Paul did remind us that there are 7 more sides to go - I chose
ignore that comment and just gaze strait at the front of the house.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Chimney and Fireplace


Last weekend Paul patched the hole in the chimney 
where the stove pipe had once been.

We used the mortar that Mike had used in his
glass furnace - now it's good to about 3000 degrees.

Bill and I had a long discussion (argument) about how to use a beehive
oven.  We couldn't find the flu but I knew you had to build a fire
right in the oven to heat it up.
I pulled out a piece of tin in the front of the arched door and found the flu.
There was probably 80 years worth of dirt, soot, leaves and I'm assuming
decomposed critters in the flu.  It fill almost an entire trash barrel but was all
worth it (even though cleaning it out was kind of disgusting).

Saturday afternoon I built the first fire I'd seen in this fireplace since sometime
in the 1970's - Bill had never seen it lit before.  We were impressed with how
much heat this one throws.  Good thing, the room is huge.

The goofy frogs on the mantel are something I made for the garden a
couple of weeks ago - figured they can wait until next spring.