Today's Weather in Your Garden - 24

Deer are so cute Victor! You're so lucky to have chosen to live in an area that has plenty of those adorable brown eyed creatures!

- Must feel great being that close to nature! ☺

I want a Mountain Lion

LOL

I will take a Gargoyle at least I have a pitch fork.

Kathy, we have foxes in our Atlanta yard. They make a wide variety of very haunting calls, barks and screeches all night long. You can go on line and listen to some of the racket. They come right up to the glass walls on our lowest level and taunt the cats. We have heard the dogs carrying on at the fence lines and looked out to see a fox calmly staring back at them from the other side. We never heard foxes up at Maypop until this summer. We put up an acre of perimeter fencing to keep our dogs from roaming so I guess the foxes feel safe enough to occupy the rest of the property.

Laurel

my yorkie turned into a beagle when the fox family were out in my yard calling at night... she was howling just like them... freaked me out

WC - cute bunny! I, too, like to share our place with all the wildlife - as long as they save a taste for me! LOL This year it's a raccoon that is giving me a run for my money, but I figure she must have babies to feed, so who am I to thwart motherhood?!

Jo Anne - Thanks! I think Peter and Lydia would be happy we saved their house!

Kathy - It still has a long way to go before it looks like home again, but I will post the finished result when the clapboards are painted and the porch is all back on again. It still looks pretty rough around here inside and out. The next step is to get a plasterer in to repair the walls in 4 rooms......we have big cracks and numerous large gaps where the plaster fell off from the work. For our Family Fourth celebration yesterday, there were lots of dropped jaws during the "tour". LOL

Here's a preview after the crew had gone and we cleaned it up the best we could. The yard will take awhile too to come back!

It's a really sweet house.Did you see the first abstract? and find the name of the owner?
I love that stuff

The house if stunning even if not finished. Practical history is more fun than out of a book.

Thanks, Jo Anne and Iris. Yes, we have a copy of each deed. Since I know how to do title searches, I took ours all the way back to the land grant from King George of England. It was fascinating to see in person the earliest documents before the American Revolution. The Clerk was so kind to make copies for us. You can't do that today. We know the names of everyone who ever lived in the house, and the names and birth dates of all of the children born here in the "birthing room" that is now becoming my DH's office. Our first settlers had 12 children here in the original part of the house, and the second family had 11 children.....all survived, but the second couple, Joseph and Judith, are buried in our woods in a private tiny cemetery, because they had small pox and were not allowed to be buried in the town cemetery. We find the history very interesting.

luv it

Wow - that is such a privilege, Louise. It looks great!

Louise the house looks so cared about with all the clean new wood!! You did a great job of tidying up. Great stories, too. I have only lived in a new house for about 5 years as a small child. Since then I have always lived in an old house and now in an old barn. Our house is much younger than yours-1850. When I was putting in the gardens, I dug up broken pottery from the 1850s according to a friend who sells on ebay. She told me that they used to bury broken pottery to help the drainage around the foundation which is exactly where I dig it up. Did you find anything inneresting in this process?

My grandmother used to bury old "Ironstone" that had discolored and yellowed.
She would leave it a year and when she dug it up it was clean of the yellowing.

Regulars may remember me mentioning my friend who raises orchids and is the president of the AOS. I just got the shocking news that his wife died suddenly last night at their home in Puerto Rico. Tere was a wonderful lady, great mother and successful in her career. She was only in her early to mid-60's. I worked with Carlos, a fellow engineer, for 17 years at Columbia. He is the one who hired me. This news comes only three days after I found out our machinist, one of the truly nicest people I have ever known in my life, died after suffering for three years with cancer. Tough one-two punch.

Thanks, Victor!

Kathy - we didn't dig up much on this go-around, but when we added a new living room that tucked right into the back corner joining the original part and the ell, we found lots of cool things, like a couple silver spoons, and baby oxen shoes and a big belt buckle, plus some pottery shards that have pretty ladies in period dress on them.

I'm fascinated by your barn converted into a house. Your gardens are so pretty, so I can imagine what a great place you must have there. My Dad was an architect, then a builder, so I think I have the genes for appreciating older construction. Our settlers were just trying to survive, so our house isn't fancy as some later homes were. For example, it does not have crown molding, etc.. The only decorative part is the half circle scalloped trim (like gingerbreading) that was added around 1900. The grandson of the man who added the trim told us that he did it by hand one hard winter to keep from going nuts! Our guys on this crew had to reproduce a section of it that had rotted. Otherwise, our home is very simple. I may have mentioned this, but all of the nails that were used (and removed by the crew and my husband) were hand-crafted square nails. We kept them, and the guys had to find reproduction nails just like them in order to re-use some of the wood panels so that the nails would fit the holes. Interesting stuff!

Victor - I'm so sorry to hear about your loss of both of these people. How terribly sad on both counts!

There is alwas a practical reason why building styles are what they are.
I imagine time wasted if fancy add on was time out of the fields.
The industrial revolution is when mass produced finneals and latice work could be bought readymade by builders.

Yes Victor This must be very hard for you.I am so sorry.

Sorry for your loss(es), Victor. It's always hard to lose an old friend.

80 and humids and (finally) sunny! I tell ya, V - I'm getting enough rain for both of us. I have a quart pitcher on the back stoop that was bone dry earlier this week. It's now almost full. At least I've been spared the hour and 20 minute watering ordeal. I've only had to do a full watering twice this year. Even the EB's are staying full.

Very interesting house Louise! Did you find any grave markers at the tiny cemetary?


- Sorry for your loss Victor.

Very sorry, Victor---you think about all the good times--it helps. Louise, fascinating story of your house---when my DS took an old house in town down to the studs, he found some old newspapers--some just rotted, but he did frame one--mostly advertisements--loved the prices back in the 1800's! Good news here--it didn't rain today! Spent a few hours in the veggie garden weeding--did find some small tomatoes--no peppers or eggplants--the cabbages, however, are colossal!

It was 84 today and sunny. Now 75 with a nice breeze, perfect night.

Victor im so sorry, things happen when we least expect it.

Oh Victor! I feel so badly for you! That's a terrible double-whammy! My condolences to you my friend. I am sending you hugs ... virtually.

Sorry about the double sad news, Victor. We also had a sad (but unusual) death here last week. It takes the wind out of your sails. - Lynn

WaterCan - There are headstones on both graves and there was originally a white picket fence around the graves. it is quite sad because they died so close together - one probably caught small pox from the other. The posts to the fence are still there, and when my DH was a child, some of the pickets were still in tact. They died around 1860ish if my memory serves me well. Those pickets held up very well considering the elements up here.

Robin - over the years we have also found old newspapers in the walls when we have done various construction projects. We have kept them all, along with all of the fragments of old wallpaper that we found behind door casings, etc. It was so cool to discover that this house was originally painted the exact color it is now. We found that evidence when they took it down to the original boards. Before my DH painted it this color, it was white dating back to the 1940s and earlier. We were stunned to see that the current color is exactly the same as the original. I'm sure it wasn't painted during the colonial era, but at some point the rough boards were painted. When we did our corner enclosure living room, they took off the clapboards on the ell and I loved the old wide boards so much, we kept the rough boards as our interior wall and just added a forest green chair rail and wide base board to cover a couple of the holes in the walls. It is one of my favorite things in the new room.

Lynn - I'm sorry for your loss as well.
Louise

I dropped out a bit on this thread because this is about your weather, after all.

JoAnn, I think the buried ironstone is very cool. I've heard of it and have some that is yellowed. I'm game to bury it.

Robindog, we too have colossal cabbages. We started with nine green and nine red. We have used three green. One was sauteed, German style and the other two made sweet and sour stuffed cabbage. The red will probably be used with beets for borscht and with fennel and carrots for slaw.

We came back to Atlanta to attend the funeral of a close friend who died suddenly and unexpectedly. Apparently there are several of us who have had losses in recent weeks.

Lynn, I am so sorry to hear of your sad news. We too have had our friend pass away under very unusual circumstances.

Victor, I'm sorry to read about your losses. It's moving to think that people who were a significant part of your life's history are no longer here.

Laurel

Vic, so sorry to hear those news, good friends are very hard to come by! Clemen

So sorry everyone. Life goes on but never the same. We should all treasure the moments we share with folks and never take them for granted.

Victor, I hope you find solace in good memories and strength in the joys you found in their friendship. Not easy, ever. My best to you and to all who are feeling their loss. Patti

Victor - my condolensces.

My home was built by my grandfather back in the 40's - so no long history here. I also don't have to worry about the possibility of unknown ghosts!! That's what I always told my nieces. There are no ghosts in my house, their great Aunt's home or Grandmother's home. Only our family ever lived in any of them!

It's been grey here most of the weekend. I'm likin' the temperature though - not too hot

Monday...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog early this morning. A chance of a sprinkle this morning...Then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. Highs in the upper 70s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Tuesday...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Humid with highs in the lower 80s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Wednesday...Partly sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Humid with highs in the mid 80s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Thursday...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 80s.

Friday...Sunny. Highs in the lower 80s.

Saturday...Sunny. Highs in the lower 80s.

Sunday...Partly sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 80s. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Very muggy night - tough falling to sleep, but it's soooo nice this morning. 70 degrees!

Thank you all for your words of support. I really appreciate it.

76, cloudy and very humid.

Temp 84.9°, wind SE 5.8 mph, Rh 53%. ☺

Lots of dark rainclouds to the North.

Wow Louise! I'm thinking along Anita's lines... I'd be on 'ghostbuster' patrol! Cool!! ☺

Sorry to hear of your friends passing Victor. Kind, talented people passing are a loss to us all.
The sun has come out to stay a while and driven the temp up to 84. Still humid but there is a little breeze. Next couple of days hot in the 90s, humid and t-storms predicted.

Victor, condolences on the passing of your friends.
Louise, It's so cool to have a house with ll the history, I missed your original post(if there was one) as to what exactly you're doing to the house and why(other than probably making it livable for today)
Weather here cloudy, hot and humid 85 degrees with 85% humidity, yuck!

Victor so sorry about a freind passing. Life is tough in many many aspects.

Thank you, ladies.

WC and Anita - The ghosts residing here are very upbeat ones. I have always had such a nice sense of positive energy in this house. They keep me company when I'm alone here in the woods on a dark night. LOL

Jen - I can't even recall which thread had the original post about the reconstruction of our NH house. In a nutshell, we commissioned the experts in the area to replace one bad foundation sill, but once they opened up the house to remove that sill, the damage of over 250 years was so extensive, we had to keep replacing what ended up being 3 full walls pretty much from top to bottom. They also had to remove the floors in 2 rooms to get to the problem areas, and my DH had to remove our entire wrap-around porch. I shared the shock of it all on one of the threads. It took 3+ weeks of long days, but the guys doing it were hard-working and had a lot of expertise with 18th century construction. The expense was scarey stuff in retirement, but it just had to be done and I'm glad it is now reconstructed. My DH has enough work to keep him busy until we go to Fla. with the painting and whatnot!

Oh yeah....forgot to mention......90 degrees & humid here this afternoon. Ceiling fans are roaring!! Dogs are panting; I'm not moving much! DH just came back from a swim in the lake.