With the tar paper over the outside walls we moved in. It seemed like only days later we had an early snow storm. I was out there with my camera like a shot. I thought it was a good omen then. Now I think it was a bad one.
In this shot Dad had not yet built the two shed like rooms on it. I just realized he put two chimneys in there, one at either end. The one at this end usually burned wood.
I'm not sure if he took the "picture" window from the Kingsbury house or not. It looks like it here. I do know that all of his windows and window frames were second hand, bought from people who were tearing down old houses.
At this end of the house I think he would later build the other shed like attachment. It was supposed to help cut the wind in winter from roaring into the house every time you opened the door. It would have possibly worked better if he had built the door in a different place. It was built almost but not quite directly in front of the inside door. No matter what, that wind was coming in the house!
This is what it would look like in later years. He called the siding that he put up, "board and batting" It referred to flat boards being nailed up with smaller slat like boards being nailed over the places where the boards came together.
When it was first done, it looked nice, especially compared to other houses nearby. It didn't weather well and deteriorated easily. Rain and snow melt ran off the roof and down the boards. There was no weatherization treatment on those boards.
In the early years he did put "Pink Panther" rolls of weatherization in the attic crawl spaces. It didn't help of course with the wind coming up through the floor cracks.
I don't know where the tractor came from. I'm pretty sure Dad didn't own one there. Behind the tractor is a sort of covered wood bin where Dad had coal delivered when he could afford it. I think we all preferred the coal because it meant a lot less work for us. Mom, Dad, Sue and I would all haul in wood. Dad was usually the one with the chain saw but I think Sue learned to use it too.
They bought wood by the cord. That's a measurement for how big the pile of wood was. It was usually supposed to come in smaller pieces I think, but maybe not. It still had to be split and stored where the weather wouldn't get it and it would have a chance to dry out.
When you lugged in the house, you usually got scratched on the rough bark and if you weren't careful you could bring in a spider or two as well.
Dad was forever working on his cars. If you squint you can see mine on the far side of the pinto. I think I was there on a visit from Ohio. I don't think I lived here then, but I might have. That is the hardest part of doing this project. I can't easily line up the order of the photos or the events.
When I was married and lived in Ohio, Tommy and I would drive out and back about once a year sometimes twice and later when I had no car, not at all.
I fudged here. I cut me out of the photo. I was showing a "butt crack". I'm just so dishonest with this one.
The truth is I was helping Mom to put down this board stuff that came in sheets. It was made of chips of wood that were glued together. There is a ten dollar word for it that I had forgotten when I started this paragraph, but now, it's Masonite. I hope it is, anyway.
That's little Tommy. He handed me the nails. We took down the stove pipe so we could move the stove around while we did the job. Sometimes they covered this with linoleum but that never lasted long either.
The green wooden rocker is Dad's. We got it at a sale somewhere in the country. I bet Sue remembers where. She tells me she's forgotten a lot from here, but I bet she remembers this. We had to tie it on the roof of the car to get it home. When he saw it he said that was his and it was.
There may be more of these snow pictures later. This one is looking down the road towards the Village of Argyle. The one above that is just the woods part on the edge of the swamp. It was called West Pleasant Valley Road. Locals called it Bean Hill. Maybe they grew a lot of beans there? Or maybe it was named for a family whose last name was Bean. I tried to do some research on that but didn't get far.
Today the house is gone, the lot sold. There are a lot more trailers along this road, some fancier homes. I think of all the bad stuff there and I can't imagine anyone wanting to live there.