What’s shaking at the farm?
The ground. You should be able to feel the earth move under your feet …
I haven’t been at the farm since mid-February, because the power has been out and the road torn up and I’m fairly certain the dogs won’t be white after a visit. Why? Because the site prep for the new house has started.
Here’s what the house looked like from the north side last fall:
The farmhouse is there in the middle behind the bushes to the right of the quonset barn.The big tree between there and the trailer is an old willow that looked nice, but was diseased and dropped branches if you looked at it sideways.
Here’s a picture my brother took at the end of January (between 12-24″ snowfalls):
There’s the house. Now the lilac hedge is gone, as is the falling down fence it hid and the deer trap - er old swimming pool. No more fishing dogs or deer out of there - hurrah! I have lilacs in the front yard that I’ll be getting starts from after the new house is built to start the new landscaping. I have to say though that when I was there in February, I felt very exposed any time I was in the kitchen. With the hedge gone, you can see straight up the road to the neighbor’s front yard and door, which is a little disconcerting. They even cleared the brush from the back side of the quonset. I have plans for that end of the barn. More about that below.
Since this picture was taken, the new road has gone in, as has the electric (I think anyway, it was supposed to have been done this last week or so, but my contractor has been a little sidetracked by his own wedding). The pics of the new road aren’t too interesting, except where they took out the trailer …
My only regret here is that *I* did not get to drive the excavator to take the dang thing out. I have hated that trailer with a passion unparalled since the day I bought the farm. Money pit does not begin to describe it. We were going to give it away, but when they started to jack it up, it was too structurally unstable to move. So they took it out in pieces. The guys did go through and salvage all the sinks, faucets, etc., which were only about a year and a half old. Those were donated to Habitat for Humanity. The stove was moved to the farm house as it was nicer than the one my grandfather had put in there a year or two ago, and the fridge is stored in the addition, and will be used for my dyeing stock later. It’s smaller than a regular fridge, and the perfect size. And since the last tenant stole the washer and dryer (no, really she did, the witch), we didn’t have to store those too.
This is perhaps my favorite picture. My sis went out to see how what progress was being made week before last and sent me this - the remnants of the trailer:
That’s Sue and her son Riley standing next to the steel under structure from the trailer. Isn’t it beautiful? Best shape that thing’s been in since I can remember.
The other thing that went to make way for the new road was the willow.
I’m fairly certain my niece Ashley and nephew Bobby are cheering about this one. They had the unenviable job of cleaning up the yard the last few times there was a bit of wind. What you couldn’t see in any of the pics was the pit next to the willow. It was the cellar of an old outbuilding my grandfather burned down years ago. I remember going down under that building when I was a child to get vegetables or put them away down there - it was my grandmother’s root cellar. After Grampa burned it down it was used as a burning pit. Now it’s all filled in and part of the road.
There is one thing that was saved - other than the addition that was next to the trailer. There was a set of half round steps next to the trailer. They ran along the side between the door and the addition. I don’t remember why they were they, but they may have been to the house that used to be over there. The guys saved them for me. We’ll use them in landscaping the new house, or maybe even for the steps out the back door.
So I mentioned that I have plans for the end of the quonset barn. It’s the perfect place to paint a quilt block. Why? Check out my buddy Deb’s blog for today. I should do one there and one on the old hay barn, which you can see from the road coming from the other direction.