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[Beekissed]

It's looking good so far Bee! How did you get the holes for your posts?
I can imagine that heavy clay would be a bugger to dig fence posts in.

The boys came out and did it for my birthday...and were completely surprised at the difficulty of digging in this soil. After about a foot down it's like hitting concrete and even getting that far has to be done in little bits and pieces with much, much effort.

The place we used to live, my boys sunk old 9 ft. telephone poles into the ground 4 ft. deep and were hitting water in the bottom of the holes(we didn't have a chainsaw to cut the posts to size, so had to sink them to the height we wanted). So, after being able to do that they were quite confident about sinking these piddly little posts...until the first couple of jabs with the posthole diggers. Faces of shock, I tell ya!

Needless to say those posts are only a foot in the ground...not too stable, so we are shimming them up and attaching them firmly to the timbers along the bottom.

 

[ninnymary]

What beautiful property Beekissed. Every time I open up this thread I hold my breath waiting for good news. Hurry up Lord, you're taking too long.

What is that log cabin structure? At first I thought that was your home but now I see another house on the other side of the garden. Did you build that also?

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

My Dad and Mom built that. It's just a log shed for storage of tools and sundry. This place also has a log cabin attached to the front of it that he and Mom built from logs on the land...my boys little then and got to help. You see, when I was 10 yrs old they bought this place~110 acres~and started homesteading, off grid and such. Built log cabins all with just the chainsaw and axe, ropes and hand tools to peel the logs(I think my butt still has pine sap on it!), etc.

This is my mother standing next to her eldest son...amazing isn't it? Everyone always thought she was Dad's daughter, though there are only 3 yrs difference in their ages.

Here's the first one, built in 3 wks time, in a hurry before winter set in....one room for living, one room for cooking, eating, bathing. No electricity or running water, water then came from a spring about 100 yds around the hill and guess who had to tote it? Yep...us kids. They still had one in grade school(me) and three in high school when they went off grid, with older kids and their spouses drifting through on their way from and to other things in life. I'm the youngest of nine children.

Lots of hard, hard work as this place had been an old home place some 60 yrs previously but had grown up to briars as high as a house, filled with junk cars, hundreds of old tires, snakes, bees...everything that could bite, sting or stick ya lived on this land. When it was finished it looked like a golf course and 6 acres around the house was mowed by push mowers(me again) while the bigger fields were mowed with a brush hog.

The next one, just down the slope from the original, was a much bigger and much more beautiful and functional cabin using larger logs that were peeled, though by that time I was the only one left in school, so I slept in the little cabin still. It was a dream to have it all to myself!

Then, when they got older they sold most of the place and retained about 20 acres and moved a single wide trailer on it...but Dad couldn't stand living in a trailer and without his wood heat, so he built a log cabin on the front of it. This isn't the most flattering angle on it but it's a darling little cabin and beautiful on the inside as well.

Here's a pic of the shed....pay no mind to Mom's getup...she does re-inactment each year on Blennerhassett Island in period dress for the tourists. We thought we'd really ham it up by giving her some props...her old shotgun and my old cur dog.

Anyhoo, the shed is not truly a log style structure as he didn't interlock the ends of the logs with one another, but just stacked them. Still sturdy as all get out, though. Dad never built anything rickety, though he never had any carpentry training in his life. The first little cabin still stands tall and shows very little aging after 40 yrs.

I know that was more than you asked for, but I had to explain the evolution of the cabins on this land and why that one looks a little funny...not fitted like a usual cabin. Don't know why Dad decided to do it that way.

 

[Smart Red]

Like! Photo five looks like an idyllic place to live.

 

[journey11]

Awesome pics, Bee. Your mom is as cute as can be. I love the content smile on her face in all of those. She looks really proud of her crew and their hard work.

One of these days, if the good Lord sees fit to bless us with more acreage, my hubby and I have talked about how much we'd love to have a rustic log cabin tucked in the back just for a quiet place to retreat. I'd rather be home than anywhere else on earth and that sounds like a real vacation to me.

 

[Beekissed]

My grandma did that in her old age...she had her boys build her a little one room log cabin on the back of her place and she furnished it with all her old things. She'd walk back there and sit in the rocking chair on the porch of that little cabin and just rock. She loved that little cabin!

 

[journey11]

I'll bet she did! That sounds heavenly.

 

[ninnymary]

What a lovely story, thanks for sharing. You are blessed to have a mom like her and that property.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

I agree! Every day I thank the Lord for them both and this peaceful, blessed life He has provided for me in all its varied splendor!

 

[Nyboy]

Bee your family history would make a great book !!! Thanks for sharing it with us.