- Joined
- Dec 9, 2017
- Messages
- 12,685
Howdy all!
So THIS is where everyone ran off to! I see a lot of familiar faces here. What was it, Movin’ Day or what? I’m Woody, from the old place.
Let’s see… Pour a cup and have a seat, this may take a spell. First off, I tend to ramble some. No, no... I know I do. I get off on one thought and get a mite sidetracked fillin’ in all the details. Yeah.. Sometimes a bit too much information I guess. LOL
I’m not as old the hills… and I‘m younger than dirt. I came around after sliced bread was invented… I think so anyway. Automobiles were around long before I was too. But I remember sneaking the cream off the top of the milk, after the milkman left it on the back porch. So, I guess I’m a young’un still.
In my first life I was a logger, killed trees for a living in NE PA and Upstate NY. Great work, outside, fresh air, cold as the proverbial you know what in winter, hotter than the hubs of you know where I summer. Loved it but took to Bluestone cutting. Loved that too, but the same atmospheric conditions applied. Picked up a hammer. Still killed trees, worked the quarry and about all else that needed doing. What was the expression back then.. In NE PA… Cut trees, cut stone or starve.
Along the way I picked up a lot of skills. I tell folks I can put up a house from surveying the lot to checking off the punch list and handing over the key to the new owner. Draw and read blueprints, Backhoe, dozer, truck, mason, framing, roofing, trim, building cabinets, firplaces… Been there done that. Mastered most of them too! In spite of what folks think about jacks of all trades.
Where was I… Oh yeah… Intro… Need a refill? Let me stoke the cookstove and put more grounds in… Biscuit? They’re from yesterday, but ain’t hard as a rock yet…
So, homesteading skills. Well… Bought an 1856 farmhouse on 70 acres in NE PA. Stream by it, nice woods I could pull wood off of forever, 3 acres cleared, far enough from the macadam and anyone else so’s I could pee off the front porch... Home.
It wasn’t much when I got to it, been abandon for years, no windows, I had to evict critters… Most folks would have just burned it down. Me? I moved right in! Gutted it as I lived there. 100% down to stud walls. Jacked the floors, new electric, plumbing…
Went a year with no electric or running water. Just the creek (pronounced Krik), lanterns and an old wood cookstove I tore down, blasted, nickel plated and put back together. And a black lab pup, and a few window toss kittens… Typical PA country homestead I guess.
Put in a nice big garden, fruit trees, berries and such. It had two beautiful Chinese Chestnut trees there! Hickory trees, walnut... What a great place to live. Worked carpentry then. Worked the day, went home worked on the place at night, slept, worked, came home… Firewood, garden, puppy, fishing… Work, work, work..
Many years later.. I was still working on the place! I’ll tell ya about the inside one of these days. Every room was a different wood, made the doors to match too. You walk down the upstairs hall, one cherry door, one oak, one Walnut, one wormy Chestnut… LOL! I loved it, most folks couldn’t understand it. Why didn’t I just use HCL doors like everyone else?
So.. Experience? Spent many a year living the good life. Hard life, but good. There were bad times too, but fond memories now. Waking up to the glass of water by the bed frozen solid, cause you forgot to get up and stoke the cookstove. DOH! Creek cold showers from the bucket hanging from the ceiling. Forgetting to bring the seat in and leave it by the woodstove, and having to go out and sit bare-bottom on a sub-zero cold toilet seat, one day away the first asparagus of the season then seeing the chucks chomp it down, waaaaay too many tomatoes at one time!!! … Fun times.
Told ya I rambled some. Never had livestock though. Garden yes, love me a good big garden. Black labs, love them. Cats, I go either way but ya gota have at least one of them around. Sometimes 4 or 5 if they all rambled into my place at once!!
I’m a prepper too. Anyone who lives in the country is I recon. Gota have enough of what ya need, to do whatever needs doing at any given time. And enough to eat and drink to get ya through times when ya might need it. And... Usually more than that too, but we won’t go into that.
Anyway. Thanks for inviting me in… and listening to me ramble. Any questions just ask. If I have anything to add to a conversation I will. I have country courtesy and expect the same in return. Nothing more. LOL
So THIS is where everyone ran off to! I see a lot of familiar faces here. What was it, Movin’ Day or what? I’m Woody, from the old place.
Let’s see… Pour a cup and have a seat, this may take a spell. First off, I tend to ramble some. No, no... I know I do. I get off on one thought and get a mite sidetracked fillin’ in all the details. Yeah.. Sometimes a bit too much information I guess. LOL
I’m not as old the hills… and I‘m younger than dirt. I came around after sliced bread was invented… I think so anyway. Automobiles were around long before I was too. But I remember sneaking the cream off the top of the milk, after the milkman left it on the back porch. So, I guess I’m a young’un still.
In my first life I was a logger, killed trees for a living in NE PA and Upstate NY. Great work, outside, fresh air, cold as the proverbial you know what in winter, hotter than the hubs of you know where I summer. Loved it but took to Bluestone cutting. Loved that too, but the same atmospheric conditions applied. Picked up a hammer. Still killed trees, worked the quarry and about all else that needed doing. What was the expression back then.. In NE PA… Cut trees, cut stone or starve.
Along the way I picked up a lot of skills. I tell folks I can put up a house from surveying the lot to checking off the punch list and handing over the key to the new owner. Draw and read blueprints, Backhoe, dozer, truck, mason, framing, roofing, trim, building cabinets, firplaces… Been there done that. Mastered most of them too! In spite of what folks think about jacks of all trades.
Where was I… Oh yeah… Intro… Need a refill? Let me stoke the cookstove and put more grounds in… Biscuit? They’re from yesterday, but ain’t hard as a rock yet…
So, homesteading skills. Well… Bought an 1856 farmhouse on 70 acres in NE PA. Stream by it, nice woods I could pull wood off of forever, 3 acres cleared, far enough from the macadam and anyone else so’s I could pee off the front porch... Home.
It wasn’t much when I got to it, been abandon for years, no windows, I had to evict critters… Most folks would have just burned it down. Me? I moved right in! Gutted it as I lived there. 100% down to stud walls. Jacked the floors, new electric, plumbing…
Went a year with no electric or running water. Just the creek (pronounced Krik), lanterns and an old wood cookstove I tore down, blasted, nickel plated and put back together. And a black lab pup, and a few window toss kittens… Typical PA country homestead I guess.
Put in a nice big garden, fruit trees, berries and such. It had two beautiful Chinese Chestnut trees there! Hickory trees, walnut... What a great place to live. Worked carpentry then. Worked the day, went home worked on the place at night, slept, worked, came home… Firewood, garden, puppy, fishing… Work, work, work..
Many years later.. I was still working on the place! I’ll tell ya about the inside one of these days. Every room was a different wood, made the doors to match too. You walk down the upstairs hall, one cherry door, one oak, one Walnut, one wormy Chestnut… LOL! I loved it, most folks couldn’t understand it. Why didn’t I just use HCL doors like everyone else?
So.. Experience? Spent many a year living the good life. Hard life, but good. There were bad times too, but fond memories now. Waking up to the glass of water by the bed frozen solid, cause you forgot to get up and stoke the cookstove. DOH! Creek cold showers from the bucket hanging from the ceiling. Forgetting to bring the seat in and leave it by the woodstove, and having to go out and sit bare-bottom on a sub-zero cold toilet seat, one day away the first asparagus of the season then seeing the chucks chomp it down, waaaaay too many tomatoes at one time!!! … Fun times.
Told ya I rambled some. Never had livestock though. Garden yes, love me a good big garden. Black labs, love them. Cats, I go either way but ya gota have at least one of them around. Sometimes 4 or 5 if they all rambled into my place at once!!
I’m a prepper too. Anyone who lives in the country is I recon. Gota have enough of what ya need, to do whatever needs doing at any given time. And enough to eat and drink to get ya through times when ya might need it. And... Usually more than that too, but we won’t go into that.
Anyway. Thanks for inviting me in… and listening to me ramble. Any questions just ask. If I have anything to add to a conversation I will. I have country courtesy and expect the same in return. Nothing more. LOL
