What came before the Stone House? An Old Barn.
To follow-up from the previous blog about the Stone House, we offer some more personal insight about the farm and land. This drawing is of the “Old Barn” that sat above the Stone House. The neat part about this drawing is the frame. The picture frame is cut from actual lumber from the barn. Who doesn’t love authentic barn wood? Especially a barn built in the 1800’s. Over the last 160 years a lot of detail of the barn has been lost or forgotten. There are some stories that the family lived in the barn for a time while the Stone House was being built. There are other stories that suggest the family lived in a small cabin about 50 feet from the Stone House.
One of our blog followers reminded us of the old cabin after reading about the Stone House. Although the old cabin from the early 1800’s is long gone…It is intriguing to know that there are still remnants of it on the farm. A casual stroll in the fields, one would probably never know. But, to us…the memories still hold true. Today, there is not much more than a slight depression in the ground with some cut stone remaining to outline part of the cabin’s old foundation. Interestingly, JL and Mit resurrected some of those stones in the early 2000’s to use for landscaping their home next to the Old Nixon School House. Pretty neat to know that they are using the same stones ancestors used 200 years ago.
Back to the Barn…In the early 1970’s the barn was starting to fall in. To cherish this treasured barn, an artist was hired to draw this picture (while the barn was still recognizable). In the fall of 1979, Dad was pulling logs out of the woods for firewood. He did this using his team of work horses, “Bill” and “Charlie”. He would connect chains between the horses and the fallen tree. Then on command, the horses would begin pulling the trees out of the woods. One Saturday morning while doing so, one of the trees/logs rolled over Dad, pinning him against a tree. Needless to say, Dad spent the rest of that fall and winter in a wheelchair and cast. This all occurred in the same location where Mark and Cheryl’s house is now built, at the edge of the woods overlooking the lavender field. How does this story relate to the barn you may ask?
Since our family home didn’t have a furnace, it was solely heated using two wood stoves. Therefore, seasoned firewood was in high demand for the Weaver family. With help from a family friend, Jim Oerly, the completely fallen in Old Barn was used and cut into firewood. Little did our ancestors know they helped one last generation of the family through the winter.
Some of these stories may seem so primitive, but many folks over the age of 40 can think back to a day or time when we didn’t have computers, internet, cell phones, twitter, facebook, cameras everywhere…etc. It’s nice to think of the simple times and enjoy a relaxing story and savor a moment. Therefore, we want to encourage you to try our newest product of the week…Bath Melts. Take 15 minutes for yourself, out of your hectic lifestyle and embrace a nice relaxing bath with our newly released Bath Melts. We pride ourselves in using top quality ingredients and offering a premium grade product. We promise…you won’t be disappointed. Also for you history buffs… we want to let you know that a portion of the proceeds from all of our products will be directly invested in the restoration of the Stone House.
We hope you enjoy these memories. The pictures today include: The original artist rendering of the Old Barn with the original barnwood frame, a picture of where the Old Barn had collapsed during the winter before, a very fuzzy but neat picture of dad with one of his work horses and buggy, a snapshot of the horses grazing in the now lavender fields,
an old pic of dad coming home in a wheelchair after the accident… and of course our relaxing Bath Melts (just so you can see what they look like).
Relax. Enjoy.
-- The Stone House Lavender Crew :)
