When I was Josie's age or a bit older, we lived on a block comprised of new houses and vacant lots. And houses under construction. Often, after supper my family would stroll down the block and, if a house was being built and had not yet been dried in, we felt free to wander through it, speculating on what these rooms, now just spaces defined by 2x4s, would become.
If roofing was underway, my little brother and I would collect those little tin circles that went under the nails that held down the tar paper. Treasure!
That was then. Today, and here in the country, I wouldn't dare to wander onto a building site, knowing how folks who move here value their privacy. But I must say I'm fascinated (from a distance) by what is going on next door
They border us on the lower part of our property and we can see (and hear) big doings in the area below the main house. It adjoins one of our pastures below the pond (see hay ring above,) and crews of workers have been busy most days, all day until dark. They've cut and dug up and burned the bamboo a previous owner planted and are constructing what looks like a corral for buffalo.
Asking around hasn't revealed much. I don't know if the owners have moved in or what their plans for the property are. Mention was made of the large workshop being converted to a barn and caretaker's quarters, which sounds like they won't be full time residents.
Raising horses, perhaps? Rodeo broncs or bulls? Or buffalo or ostriches or zebus? Time will tell.
Meanwhile, I'm loving the look of the log wall, punctuated by old metal wagon wheels.
6 comments:
Didn't quite understand what the round circles were until you mentioned wagon wheels. That is quite a sturdy fence but wouldn't the wheels be a weak point? Keep us posted. I'm very curious now.
One would be curious. I am.
Oh that nostalgic mention of wandering through 2 by 4s brought back the fun of walking through the roughed-in walls, stepping over the footers, smelling the sawdust which of course coated our shoes just playing around in newly framed houses! Love that log and wheel wall. Very artistic. The log corral is certainly overkill for most critters I can think of. Maybe some hippos are coming. Too short for elephants!
The best thing they've done is dig out the bamboo. That stuff would take over the mountain if allowed to. It's now illegal in our county in Virginia to plant bamboo. Whoever your new neighbors are, I hope they'll be congenial and won't intrude on your peaceful life in any way.
I can remember my 5'4" petite-boned 70 year old grandmother waging war on the bamboo next to her shed with a machete. The bamboo didn't stand a chance! Unfortunately it's not yet illegal in my part of Virginia. I also remember being 10 yrs old and walking through the framing walls of our new home as it was being built. With my brother and I, it was the little punch-out circles from the electrical boxes in the walls that we collected during the wiring of the house. We would use them as play money.
And to think the National Zoo once upon a time urged people to plant bamboo so the zookeepers could come harvest it for the pandas ... This was back in the 70's, when Ling-L ing and Hsing-Hsing reigned supreme. My mother seriously considered planting some in our back yard.
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