Peonies and Roses

I love spring here!

Totem Pole

I do not know what possessed me, but this totem pole spoke to me. It was made by Jacob Travis, the brother to the contractor, David Travis who is restoring the summer kitchen. It is about 8 feet tall, eagle on the top, then a bear (or a mouse, not sure which), a bagger, a fox mask and finally decoration. The wing span of the Thunderbird is about four feet. It is very cool and is now on the far front hill of our farm. The pole to the right is a stabilizer, and will be removed when the totem pole is securely in place.

Drain Board

This is a board that we found during the restoration of the summer kitchen. It appears to be a drain board of some sort. A friend of mine told me that it was used to salt newly butchered hams. It is about 2 1/2 feet tall, about 1 1/12" thick and about 20" wide, solid piece of wood.

Summer Kitchen

Work is going great on the summer kitchen. Here is the latest exterior photo with the roof painted Sherwin Williams' Hunter Green.

Summer Kitchen Chimney Coming Down Video March 23, 2012

This is the video of the chimney coming down.

Summer Kitchen What is This?

In the storage space on the boards sitting on the ceiling rafters, Jason Travis found this item. I have no idea what it is. If you do, let me know. I will also post it to Facebook. Addendum: My friend, Lynne Thompson found a photo of one of these. It is a washing machine. We are having it restored!

Summer Kitchen a Week Later

A week after the restoration started we have made it this far: The floor boards have been jacked up and stabilized, all of the clapboard is off, the chimney is down, the interior and exterior have been pressure washed to remove the remaining paint, the upstairs storage space has been emptied, next entry will show what we found there (a prize to whomever correctly identifies the item), the walls have been as squared as much as possible, squaring has started on the front door, and general pick-up around the site. We have decided to move the boards that were sitting on the ceiling rafters to the far left end of the kitchen to make a loft of sorts that will be accessed via a ladder attached to the wall through a hole in the boards. The boards were not nailed to the rafters, so I think they were added as some later point for storage and moving them will be easy. I am still trying to decide what to do with the roof. The David Travis crew have been great, show up on time, do a great day's work and seem to enjoy talking about the project.