Monday, April 14, 2008

The Old Homestead

One part of owning our land that we love is exploring on it. The last time we were there, we crossed a stream and saw jonquils in bloom. We remembered a good friend of ours, who is an old park naturalist, say when he was out walking our land with us that if you see jonquils it is an old homesite. Jonquils are not native so someone had to have planted them.

Well, we saw jonquils and then found this!!!!!!

If you look close, you will see an old fireplace in the distance and right at the bottom, center of the picture are rocks that were used as footings for a home. All four footing rock piles are still there.

Here is the back of the fireplace, pretty cool stuff.


This is the front of the fireplace. Right in front of it you will see a huge cedar tree that is estimated at 80 -85 years old. So, the home has been gone at least this long.


When we walked a few feet from the old homestead site, we found the hand dug well! People, this is some awesome stuff.

My mind just goes crazy thinking of the people who lived here a hundred years ago ~ what their life was like, what the kids did way out in the middle of nowhere, how they had to work hard all day just to put food on the table and wake up the next day and do it all over again.

Big Buckaroo has found a few more wells on the property and we have more exploring to do. We are going to have to borrow a metal detector, can you imagine what we will find!

The Park Wife's Life/Love story will continue this week, stick around,

The Park Wife

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is awesome. I totally KID YOU NOT, The Boy is currently going through the couch with his metal detector looking for spare change. He leaves for school in about ten minutes, but in the meantime he is looking for anything that may have fallen out of pockets the past few days.
I am so excited about your find. I get thrilled about stuff like that too. Maybe you can write a novel about the imaginary family who homesteaded there! Put all those thoughts into a spun story!

Mommy Lion said...

That is so neat! I can't wait to come visit you sometime up there. The adventures the boys will have will be endless.

Auntie Martha said...

Awesome! Like you, I wonder about the people who lived there long ago and their story!
Maybe you could use the rocks someway in the cabin your going to build. I love old homesteads, I'm excited for you.
Ala. Grandmother

Blessed said...

Now that is the kind of stuff I can really get in to! I hope that some day when we're able to buy some land that we get to make those kind of neat discoveries too!

Marge said...

Oh, my, that is so exciting! We walked around on an old farmstead where hubby's family had lived, and in our minds we constructed the farm from the few clues that were left after 100 years. An old homeplace like that makes me think of peace and quiet and unhurried lives. I guess I push to the back of my mind, the tremendous hardships they suffered just to put food on the table daily! Enjoy your land, and know that I am jealous!

Marge

Amy said...

History is so much fun!! Our family owns a home that has ties to Sam Houston. It is in Austin. We have found MANY well on the land.

***Please put caps over them or fence them off. You could use iron fencing to keep with the period of the well.

We used the iron fencing. Just made a small square out of it.

You may want to go to the local county office, look up the owners of the land, from way back. You will find a lot of history!! You may even come across grave sites!

How wonderful to be able to preserve this for others to see! That fire place could even be reconstructed and used as an out door pit area. Great for camping out and family events!! We did this on our land up in the panhandle.

What a great home schooling tool!!
Have a blessed day! :)

Valarie Lea said...

Taht is the coolest thing, I love finding stuff like that. We live on the same road with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Family Land. :) Well my Sister-in-law has a grave yard in her front yard. Its actually pretty neat.

Memaw's memories said...

It would be just wonderful to use the stones from the old place in your new home. Maybe construct a fireplace in the new house from the old stone. And if you could find out about who lived there, that would be great too. You'd have a great conversation piece.

Anonymous said...

How neat! I see many amateur archaeological (?? you think I could spell it being an Anthropology major huh?)digs in yours & the Buckaroos future!

:Jayne said...

How cool! Those bricks should have a spot in your new cabin someday.
Watch the wells with the buckaroos running around. It's cool but very dangerous!

:J

OKGardners said...

WOW! I just started checking blogs and found that YOU have an historic site! That is great. Think of the history you 4 might dig up. Get that metal detector and discover what is out there on your land. This proves that someone back in history thought your cabin site was a great place to live.

I'll be watching for your life/love story to continue....

Betty in Oklahoma
with a BRIGHT, SUNNY DAY today

The Diva said...

I see I am way behind in my reading. I love this post. So cool to find what remains of this family's life.~~Dee