Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Tuesday, August 18. 2009

Fixer-upper

My hunting pal has bought an old farm in Schoharie County, NY. He invited me to come up on the weekend and help get the old place ready in time for hunting season. House looks fine - except it could use some plastic nailed over the windows and maybe a coat of paint - but the place could use a little landscaping.


Actually, I think it's a job for ACORN (they do housing, don't they?), or maybe Habitat for Humanity:


 


 

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 05:00 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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It's beautiful! I hope your friend will secure it from water damage and do more with it than make it into a flophouse for use by hunters.

In my part of the country, old buildings are few and far between, not only because Europeans got here rather late but because hurricanes tend to knock everything down periodically. You scarcely know how lucky you are to have fine old places like that up there.
#1 Texan99 on 2009-08-18 10:50 (Reply)
He says it was 1840, timbers are solid, stone basement. I see no chimney in the photo so it probably had wood or coal stoves and stovepipes.
#1.1 bd on 2009-08-18 11:13 (Reply)
Oh, I have to settle down. I read that, "...they do houses, don't they?"... as "They shoot horses, don't they?" (I just read an article about stress and how the current relentless stress we Americans are living with makes our synapses wither.)

The house is great. We bought a refurbished house built about the time of your friend's. It had a stone foundation and a tree trunk, hand-hewn, that was the width of the house. It was about two feet thick and wide. I had to stop and think about Texan99's statement. I live at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and any road off the beaten path will take you back 150 years. It's the perfect time-travel as the beauty and old houses and farms makes your head spin. It's a 'trip' into the past that evokes a ghostly but spiritual nostalgia - for something you never lived through. It is that powerful.
`
#2 Meta on 2009-08-18 11:57 (Reply)
oops... Forgot what I meant to say about old houses and hurricanes. I must be under a lot of stress. :\

Our plantation house is right on the water of one of the Sea Islands in South Carolina's Low Country. It was built in 1820 and there is not a nail in it. It was put together with wooden pegs. Imagine how many hurricanes it has been through?

Painting it is no fun. Too bad it's not a plastic house like I live in.
`
#3 Meta on 2009-08-18 12:10 (Reply)
Here is a way to start -
http://thereifixedit.com/2009/08/02/epic-kludge-photo-that-new-storm-door-really-spruces-the-place-up/
#4 John A on 2009-08-18 15:15 (Reply)
Must be good "deer" hunting in that area.....
For bird hunting, I suspect Ct would be a better choice :)
#5 Bonasa on 2009-08-18 16:11 (Reply)
The job I just started is pretty rough but the house pictured gives it a run for its money. Mine dates from arounf 1780 with gothic wing added in late 19th century...should keep me busy for several years.
#6 thud (Link) on 2009-08-18 18:08 (Reply)
Yes good deer hunting in Schoharie valley area, also a good lumber mill in east berne for Hemlock beams, if needed. Run by Rudy S..
#7 Chas on 2009-08-19 00:08 (Reply)

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