General Comments about the Travis'es and The Gate"

The restoration on the summer kitchen is almost complete. The stone work is phenomenal. The David Travis Stonemasons and Restorationists are the best. They are professional, take re-purposing to an art form, arrive on time, do what you ask, have excellent suggestions and are all around good guys. Jason Travis, David's nephew has done the bulk of the work with David's guidance. The other workmen have been Robert, JoeJoe, Jimmy, Gentry, and Ray. Jason humbly told me that they do work for the Belle Meade Plantation, so if they are working there, they are very good. The Travis family have been stonemasons for many generations and it shows. David enjoys making iron gates from re-purposed things. He has made me a doozy to go between the backyard and our horse pasture. I will post a photo. I laied out the design, and he used only items found here on the farm or actually in the summer kitchen. He found most of the things himself, and, of course, I had to add Nancy's horse shoes:). Here is a photo of that gate.

It will be installed sometime this week or maybe the next week.

Making Progress

The chinking is complete, and the ladder to the loft has been installed. AND it took four men to do it but, they managed to get the scalding trough into the loft. It is very big! That is it in the photo with the big black plastic bag suspended in the air (actually covering the light fixture).

More Treasures

I'm stumped. What are these???

The Summer Kitchen - Plow and Sewing Machine

While tromping through one of our pastures with our contractor, David Travis, looking for things for a gate I'm having made and things for the summer kitchen, look what we found! I researched both (research might be a stretch, but did find info on the Internet), and learned that the plow is called a "Single Sulky Plow" and could have been pulled by either a mule or a tractor. It is probably from the early 20th century. David pulled it up with a Bobcat and we will probably put it at the opening of our upper hay field. The sewing machine still had a legible plaque on it and it is a Singer. It says, "Singer Manufacturing Company" which dates the machine from sometime after 1865, again could be late 19th or early 20th century. It was a treadle machine, meaning that it was connected with a belt to a floor pedal that was pressed by the seamstress which in turn moved the needle up and down. Tooooo much fun these things we are finding!!!!

Cappuccino

Announcing: Cappuccino!! The newest equine addition at LFF. He has been lent in perpetuity from Cathy Taber who sold me Lucy. Unfortunately, Lucy did not work out and is back with Cathy. So we now have sweet Cappuccino. He was bought for Cathy's step daughter a number of years ago, was for the last eight years lent to her friend in Atlanta for her grandchildren to ride, and now I have him. He is so sweet, about 17 years old, maybe a Quarter Horse cross, and just my size at 14.2hh! Welcome Captain Chino! (as Andy calls him)

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.