Sunrise on an old Home
The Funky House
Daily Photo
Like an egg cracked open, this battered shell that once housed us is empty and decaying.
By kerosene light, my husband and I grew to know each other inside these peeling walls. I baked my first bread in an old oven here. I chopped wet fir on the front porch in freezing cold rain the year we didn’t put up enough firewood. Here, I learned to change propane tanks and babies.
I was married on the long high finger of land in front of this place as the sun came up.
My middle son was born on a bed surrounded by family here.
My oldest son stood and took his first steps across this floor. Now my youngest brings his friends here to search for forgotten treasures.
It’s no longer liveable but its ugly lines are soft in my eyes.
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Wow. That’s seriously all I can say to this picture and posting. What an awesome and humbling experience you’ve shared with us. Thank you.
Hey Kym, You think that’s funky, you should see my place. LOL
Even though the house is old and decaying, I, too, have some wonderful memories of those first few years you lived there.
I think of the day you were married and the ceremony was upstaged by a huge buck standing just off camera. I remember how not only family but the Salmon Creek community arrived with armloads of flowers from their gardens to decorate your home.
The night your middle son arrived by kerosene light surrounded by family and friends is a very special memory. I felt that I had stepped back in time 100+ years.
Wonderful stories to share with your grandchildren some day in the future.
Gosh it has been a long time since I’ve been to that house. You must have added that tall section with the sloping roof after I was last there. I would never have recognized it.
Nope, that tall section was where our bed was except the two times I got so pregnant that navigating the narrow stairs became dangerous.
Ok, I guess I was looking at it from the wrong angle! I was thinking the little bumpup on the left was your bedroom. So the deck would be on the shady side then?
Are you saving the tub in the living room as another blog story? 🙂
A rich memory, Kym. Or should I say a houseful of rich memories?
The deck used to be where the berry vines are now.
The tub in the livingroom with Adonis rising? Hmm, I’m not sure that fits the family nature of this place but…? Maybe?
I am so glad you posted this photo. I got a little misty eyed looking at it. I so love our old homesteads and the way they hold stories of families who lived in them. When i see them I think of all the things I learned out in these hills by the light of kerosene lamps. Pure magic in this one Kym.
Not only a cool photograph, but a reminder of fond memories spent on Iron Peak visiting with family friends who had homes much like that.
how much rent do you want for the place? looks like some fine sohum housing to me.
Sohumborn, Kerosene is such a magical light–too bad it isn’t that healthy for you. I think all my memories of that time (and we lived by kerosene light for about 15 years) are tinged golden because of it.
Eric and OMR, Homes up here can look a bit ramshackle! Don’t let code enforcement know where places like that are. I don’t think they’resympathetic to the romantic view of living in a cabin.
Looks like a bit of paradise to me. Rest in peace.
Rest in peace? Why not bring some life back to it? Install some lights, plywood for the windows, a big jenny –I know where you can get a used diesel tank that doesn’t leak too bad …
I really liked how you framed the house. It nice that although the house is the focus, it does not dominate the photography.
How wonderful to have your first house together still standing as if waiting for you to return…it’s willing to age and wither because only your presence will satisfy it!
Chris, nicely said…sounds like a story.
Maggie, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of it that way.
Headwrapper, After seeing Hacker Creek, I think I’ll pass.
Noble, It was and is a bit of paradise.
Wow, I used to live there!! It’s changed a lot, that little box on the left we built for my brother so he could have his own room, lol. That seems like it was forever ago…
Mara, The place is slowly settling into old age. It provides a home for a feral cat and her ambulatory dinners the mice and rats.
Somebody mentions this on Iron Peak, I was wondering if it’s the Iron pk. up Spy rock rd.? Or mabey theres another Iron pk out Salmon crk. I ask because I have family who live on Iron peak. Its magnifacent up there! Lots of snow though.I look forward to more of your posts.
Crystal, Thanks for your nice words. Eric was talking about another place (by Ukiah where he lives,I think). I don’t know of an Iron Peak on Salmon Cr. But as long as I’ve lived here, someone is always surprising me with something new I didn’t know.