1880 Farmhouse

. I took the girls out to Girl Scouts in Johns Creek, so it was a good chance to stop by Autrey Mill Nature Preserve to see the old farmhouse again - and this time get some photos!

The giant oak out front was probably a much smaller tree back in 1880, when this farmhouse was built. Though it appears some foundation work has been done to keep the house from falling apart (the entire house has seriously rocked back on its pier/sill foundation), it is a vintage home from that period, not a replica. It is almost identical in size to the cabin I'm starting to build in a week. However instead of the traditional front porch (there is just too much traffic in this world to properly enjoy a front porch), we are doing a greenhouse/sunroom.

Here are some shots of the interior. The plank walls:

The doorway from one room into the other (the house is divided into two large rooms - each 15'x16'). It's difficult to see from this image, but the entire doorway is rocked to the side with the rest of the house and nowhere near plumb:

The sign states how everything was reused or recycled back in 1880 farm life - almost nothing was thrown away (i.e. food wastes to pigs, used fats for candles/soap, old clothes for quilts/rugs).

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The stone fireplace:

An old hutch, with an oil lamp nearby:

A rear doorway, with an old zinc washtub up on the wall:

The plank floor, with a beautiful oval rug on the floor, possibly heirloom:

Here's a shot from outside. It's very difficult to show how much the house has rocked backwards on its foundation, because there's no plumb point of reference. However if you look closely, the small tree is essentially plumb, and you can see as you look higher up on the building it leans back:

Here you can see a pier made of block that has rocked backwards - who knows when this was put in . . . and obviously it didn't do the job:

Here's the rear sill which holds up all the framing in the back of the house, half-eaten away in places:

Here's one of the many joists totally ruined with decay:

The house is essentially ruined because the pier foundation failed. Obviously whatever went underneath each pier wasn't sufficient. Maybe they were stacked above unchanged ground. It's definitely a lesson for the prospective builder - no matter how beautiful your dwelling when first constructed, the question is, will it last?

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A little past the farmhouse is an enormous tipi:

The interior is rather claustrophobic and dank with a mildew carpet down, and a fire ring:

It reminds me (in a bad way) of the traditional Sioux sweat lodge I did out in Gila, New Mexico, with the moldy carpets, being way way too hot (football-sized glowing rocks, brought in with a shovel), and I couldn't figure out how to breathe the hot steam, so it felt like a torture chamber. However if there were some other type of flooring down, and furniture, it would make a very nice shelter.

Nearby is a hunting lodge made recently by a Native American (I believe Cherokee):

It's essentially a hunting blind where you can take shelter during a hunt. It's ingeniously built. Look at the roof from below:

All site-harvested materials. Here's a closeup of the overlapping bark roof:

The cobb walls begin on a foundation of rock:

Here you can see the straw in the mud. When you knock on the wall it feels like concrete - very solid:

Here's the interior:

And here's how the wall ties into the roof. Again an ingenious use of the local trees and branches. Though twine is used, I'm sure he could easily have used cordage, if given enough time - especially considering how much native yucca (yucca filamentosa) is around:

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