Memory Lane

**RBB** · 11-07-2008, 04:47 AM

Got off work this morning and took a trip down memory lane. Went up to the family homestead to check if everything is okay before my brother and his kids come up for hunting.

The place is pretty impressive. I was glad to see no one had broken in. It was homesteaded by my g-grandfather about 1900. At that time, they had to walk 50 miles on trails to buy anything. My grandfather said they would pack in salt and flour, beans and bullets. Everything else they grew or made themselves.

The building is a hewn log house with dovetailed corners. The rock foundation is all dry masonary. The homestead took two years to build. The floor boards and roof boards are pit sawn 3 inch planks between 18 and 24 inches wide. Each floor board runs the width of the building. Just walking in the entry brings back a wealth of memories. A few odd hides still hang where I remember hundreds. The walls of the entry are hung with snowshoes, canoe paddles and tools. One wall is stacked with firewood.

In the kitchen, I pull the stove pipe from the chimney and start a birchbark fire in the flue to burn out creosote. Reattaching the stove pipe I start a fire in the old Monarch wood range.

The interior walls have darkened from the honey color I remember as a kid. In the living room, the pump organ still stands, but sadly the bellows no longer work. A series of moose hides and bear hides cover the ceiling. An old banjo hangs on one wall. An old oil painting of the homestead and some Ojibwe biting art on birchbark decorates another. One wall has a series of pegs. At one time the wall was filled from top to bottom with long guns - including my g-g-g-grandfather's Civil War Enfield. He was with the 38th Wisconsin and went into the crater at the battle of Petersburg. One of the window sills is rotting, and I make a mental note to get it taken care of before the snow flies.

Needing my sleep, I head for one of the bedrooms. There is a good white cedar bough odor. Before I lay down, I fluff up the feather bed. There's nothing like a good feather bed for comfort. My grandmother made this one from wild goose feathers. Dozing off with the smell of the pine knots from the fire, my mind waunders back to simpler days when the homestead was filled with music, laughter, and the smell of wet wool clothing drying above the stove.

**crashdive123** · 11-07-2008, 07:11 AM

That sounds like a wonderful place RBB. I'd love to see pics of it if you have any.

**Aurelius95** · 11-07-2008, 07:23 AM

Indeed! Pictures would be great! Thanks for the description of the place.

**nell67** · 11-07-2008, 07:38 AM

Sounds beautiful RBB.

**wareagle69** · 11-07-2008, 08:43 AM

i am lucky enough to have been able to move back to an area up here that i spent a few summers as a kid, my great uncle homesteaded the land after ww2 and he was a pow and comes back to canada and lived the trapper life up here some of my best memories are from those couple of summers and while i have been disowned by my american family i can still hunt and fish and explore the area greatly as they are only there about 2 to 3 weeks a year and the rest is crown land for me it brings allot of happiness( opps sorry remy i probably revealed too much about myself again now ask me ifn i care) thanks for sharing your story raised by bears

**RBB** · 11-07-2008, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by crashdive123

That sounds like a wonderful place RBB. I'd love to see pics of it if you have any.

I looked through all my computer files, and I have a few photos of people standing against the outside walls - but no photo of the whole building.

It is kind of hard to see the whole structure as there are large cedar trees all around the house.