The foundation of farmerchuck’s house was laid down in 1760, eight years after my ancestors first stepped of the boat. The first resident lived in the basement for thirty years, constructing a sawmill after that, then a barn, then finally the house proper, which was completed in 1790. No record exists as to the length of time required for the build but it was certainly more than a year.
Their lifestyle here is such that, with a little bit of training on various small advances, a person from two hundred years ago could easily drop right in and begin working for them, just as I did a few days ago. Let’s have a look around the place ...
The house and farm buildings sit at the base of a ninety degree pie shaped wedge of valley. The ridge top is maybe 300’ above the level of the farm. This view is from the railroad tracks on the far side of the marshy field below the house.
This is the view from the porch looking out towards where I was standing, down by the little hut on the railroad tracks. That low spot has water up to knee deep – I got to wade through it my first day here, pulling up fence posts in preparation for planting the land. We’ve got a stream down there that needs some discipline; the wet spot exists due to changes that happened over the winter.
Seen from the front the house isn’t particularly impressive – it looks like just a plain ol’ house. You’ve got to get inside and look around to really see the differences a couple of centuries make in home construction.
This is one of the very best features of the farm – a gigantic outdoor boiler. You can take a six hour long shower if the mood takes you and the hot water just keeps coming. The hot water also drives the heating for the house ... and another house on the property where Chuck’s mother in law lives ... and a couple of the outbuildings, too. The best part? Once installed such a boiler can be fueled for a whole year for about $150 in diesel and chainsaw gas if one has an appropriately sized woodlot. Sixteen cords of would are needed and the hundred and twenty acres on No Snivelin’ Farm will sustainably produce five times that much wood.
The construction that keeps a house standing two and a half centuries is far different from the prefab crapola we see going up today. Just take a look at the eight inch American chestnut beams that make up the ceiling.
The livingroom fireplace is just massive – five feet tall, eight feet across, and three feet deep.
This contraption on the right side of the fireplace is a beehive oven. This is how one makes bread and other things that would be cooked crock pot style.
Take a look at these floorboards. There isn’t a level floor in this house – the living room slopes four to six inches over its fifteen foot width.
Check the Suffolk style door latches – we think these were made in Deerfield, just twenty miles south of here, and the shop that made them was in operation during the Revolutionary War.
This is a 1903 wood fired stove made by the Weir Stove Company of Taunton, Massachusetts. I love the temperature gauge on the oven.
Much of this was shot yesterday but this morning I got a nice walk in the rain. Kind of gives you that Brokeback Mountain feeling, doesn’t it?