The Old House

Today's post is mainly to include photos of the old house that we had demolished at the farm.

This Photo is a view of the front of the old house. The strawberry field/garden is located to the right of the house as the hill slopes down. We had already undertaken some demolition of our own at this stage for safety reasons.There had been a deck and small room added to the left of the porh by the previious tenants. Most of the wood was rotted and it was dangerous to walk on. So Jeff tore it down make it safer to clean out that end of the house. This house had been built in 1910 and I have no idea how many families have lived in the house since then.




This is the view of the front of the house. As you can see much work would be needed to make it presentable again. Even more work was going to be needed to bring it  up to code. Part of the wiring in the house was the really old kind that was wrapped in fabric. Not only was this a fire hazard but someone had stolen all the copper out of all the electrical wires in the house. The cinderblock foundation was crumbling away and the chimney was falling apart. The plumbing was also going to have be completely re-done and a new roof was needed. I won't include the MANY smaller items of direpair-I think you get the general idea-it was going to cost more to repair this one than it costs us to build the new market.

This a photo of the beginning stages of demolition. You will notice wood missing on the house under the fallen tin roof of the porch. I think I had mentioned in a previous blog that I had told family and friends that if there was anything they wanted to salvage from the house just to go get what they wanted. The night before demolition began, Jeff joked that we should have told everyone that 6 months ago and then there would have been nothing left to demolish(haha). I believe this a picture of Jon Dowd watching as one of his men runs the equipment. They started at 8 am and were finished by 3pm. That includes demo and hauling it all off.

And it's all gone except for splintered wood, the blocks from the foundation and some of the bricks from the chimney. As you can see the front steps that were leading up to the front porch are still there. In the background, you can see well house that Jeff built. We are going to keep the concrete pathway to use for the handicap parking and access which is going to be to the left of the photo shot.

In this photo is Jeff standing in front of what will be the center of the porch. You can see a cinder block standing up on the right side of the photo if you look hard. That is the corner of the front porch. I couldn't get the other corner of the porch in but it is just a little out of the shot on the left. As you can see there is still a lot of rubble to deal with and Jeff is there today to work on that.

This is a photo of the pecan tree that was at the back left corner of the old house. I was hoping that they would be able to demolish the house without damaging the tree and my wish came true! The tree will stand just a little left of center behind the new market. I am hoping that it will provide us some shade in the summer time from the lae afternoon sun. Plus, I think it will look great and complete the picture when the new market goes up. I can't wait to harvest the pecans and make our first pie or butter pecan cake from them. Also it is hard to tell from the pictures but this on a hill. We are going to have to move clay in to level up the area. There is a 2 ft difference in the height of the land from the front corner to the back left corner. We are still trying to figure out how we want to do the grading in front by the driveway. We are thinking of building a retaining wall and then we could plant flowers that would droop down over it and hopefully give a lush look as you walk up.

This is a photo of part of the strawberry field. This beg red gate is where hopefully lots of people will go through to pick the fruit. On the back side right of the field at the tree line is where we have pampas grass planted and to the left of that is where we are going to have Robin's bees set up. They will be in the furtherest left corner of the property from this view. That way it will lessen the chances of someone getting stung. In the picture you will see a little box attached to the fence-this is the electical controls for the fence. We are going to have about a 5 foot wide path along the fence and to the left of that I am going to have herb plants in graduated separated beds along the hill. We are also going to put gravel pathways between the beds going from the top of the hill down to the fence. This will make it easier to harvest the herbs and will also help with the washing that happens when it rains.

This is the last photo for the blog and it is the view as will be seen from the front porch of the market. The old house didn't sit perpendicular to the highway and so we are turning the new market to face the highway. The strawberry field is to the left in this photo. The huge tree is a black walnut. I have been doing research on how to harvest those and so far it seems like a lot of work. Now I know why the grocery stores charge so much for them. I just can't wait to make a homemade black walnut cake from them. In the little pine thicket to the right we are wanting to have some picnic tables and diferent semi-shade plantings. There is already a rhodedendra bed in there. I am waiting to do an azalea bed. A bed of hostas and I'm looking for more info on the internet for what to plant. In the are at the black walnut is where we have tables set up for the weighing station.

Today I am going to our local ag office and applying for a grant for the farm. this particular grant is project related and this year it is focusing on irrigation. We need to have an irrigation pond built here on the farm at house. We have one pond but just about emptied it this summer watering 3/4 of an acre of tomatoes. We are desperately going to need some help with irrigation with all the planting that Jeff has planned. I think this grant is based on a first come first serve basis. Jeff's uncle has been applying for 4 years now and hasn't been able to get thee grant yet. They were asked for more info this year and they are excited because they had neever been asked for these things before. They were the one's who told us about it. Even if we have to wait 4 years-it can't hurt to apply and get our my name  on the list.

We didn't get the snow or bad weather that was called for us last night which makes us very happy. Our row covers will be here on the 18th of this month. So if the weather holds out until then we should be ok. I'm crossing my fingers. Next week it is supposed to be back to normal weather and I can get out there and snip away on more plants. Hopefully I can get at least the majority of it done before the covers go on. I may post again tonight to give the info on the grant and what gets done at the farm today.