Back On The Farm

Finally back in the woods, shovel and screen in tow.

This time, the yellow-flagged lines march over hills and across small ravines. The dominant trees here are pines while more open spaces support dense colonies of sweetgums. Many of the pines bear witness to recent fires, their papery bark still soft charcoal to the touch. The sweetgums, most too young to bear the little spiked gumballs, have flourished in the wake of destruction. Logging has been the major disturbance over the past 50 years, though bomb craters do occur here and there. Now and again, a shovel test produces a bit of shrapnel, a machine gun bullet, a lead fuse. A few foundations from prewar days survive, guarded over by massive old hardwoods. One site is somehow entangled with an earthwork and associated trenches yet retains an old cast iron kettle, metal roofing, and what seems to be the iron frame for the bodywork of a small buggy. Another is limited to an open foundation of three rough stone walls atop a hill.

Today's subject is the fallen chimney of a small cabin in the crook of a forgotten road. Only one shovel test has been dug near it so far. Though handmade bricks stud the ground, the hole yielded little besides a pair of 3" wire nails and two bits of old glass lamp mantle. Nothing clearly pre-dating the 20th century. It may prove older, though. An olive bottle fragment was found some distance away, perhaps spread on a former field mixed in a load of manure.

By 1 o'clock, snow began to fall and it continued off and on..just enough to filter down through the trees, until it was time to leave. So, not much to report at the moment, but here is the chimney site, with a quick guess at how it looked.

Old homesite, lost to the woods. The chimney remains, as do stones marking the footprint of the structure.

Many creatures have settled into winter quarters, these gem-like beetles nest underground and occasionally turn up in the screen as we dig.

Chimney with a characteristic fireplace formed of large stone uprights and a lintel (partly visible at left). At least one other nearby site shares this feature, possibly the work of the same builder. The outer wall is parged with cement.