It is slowly deteriorating. The wood from the barn behind has gone. The stones from the foundation under the summer kitchen on the back have been removed over time.
There are no trespassing signs hanging on the barbed wire and the wire gate that discourages many from going in to take a look.
I find it so sad to drive by. Finally I recently stopped to take a photograph to keep along with several others of homesteads like this, left behind when the last of the pioneering family moved to a more upscale home, or moved from the area entirely or perhaps died and the farm was sold to others who wanted only the land but not the building.
I've learned it requires a minimum of 1,000 acres to make a living a crop farming up here. Maybe less if you have a few beef cattle to take to the local market at Keady. Or horses. It's never been an easy way to make a living on the edge of the Canadian Shield with its rocky fields and heavy clay soil in many places. But it was obviously a good one for this family at one time. A two story house or rather one and a half, is a sizeable home.
What were they like I wonder,. How long ago did they live here, and when was the old house now in such disrepair, built? Our history fascinates me. Actually the history of any place I visit or drive through is interesting.
Do you wonder who and why and when and how, when you pass by a place that is a remnant of someone else's life?
The house probably has terrific memories to share. If it could only speak and tell us what happened there. How wonderful would that be?
ReplyDeleteLove this, Barbara. The mysteries of the past...
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