Special post..

Abby and I originally started this blog as a means to be able to remember the progress made on our farm house.  Someday we intend on sharing this with our children if we are so blessed.  To our surprise and excitement, this blog has attracted attention beyond our wildest expectations between family, friends and beyond.

One of our friends saw our blog and was so excited that they arranged to have a team of early American archaeologists visit our farm.  Words can not describe how excited Abby and I were to host our friends and the archaeologists.  Alyssa and Chris are the founders of Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants, Inc. Brooklyn, NY - Providence, RI

I will make an attempt to summarize their comments using the pictures below.

Much of our foundation is "stacked stone"  This dates back to Roman times.  In fact, Romans had a better recipe for mortar and cement than existed in the 1800's. Somewhere along the way the recipe was lost and it wasn't until the mid 1800's that the quality of cement returned.  Stacked stone foundations are self describing.  No mortar, no block... just stacked stone.

The archaeologists were also captivated by many of our fire places (we have six).  Massive hand hewn headers and log tie in's are a lost art.  

The spiral stairs on the left went out of fashion in the early 1800's 

Alyssa and Chris assume the brick was made locally

It turns out that what we assumed was a terrible taste in old wall paper (below) is actually very old and hand painted!  The blue background was painted first and once it dried every singe flower was meticulously hand painted.  After closer examination, no two flowers are exactly alike.

The star of the show was clearly the wood and craftsmanship.  The level of craftsmanship is stunning. From the mortise and tenon staircase to the hand notched and pegged framing, the pictures below speak for themselves.

Mortis and tenon stairs were common pre 1800

The experts believed that the majority of our floors are chestnut. Take notice of the square nail heads.

We were up in the air to whether we would refinish this room's floor (above) or salvage and re-purpose the wood. There are areas that are in need of repair.  They are painted brown and we didn't think the wood looked that nice.  Apparently, we couldn't have been more wrong.  From the moment the archaeologists opened the door,  both gasped with excitement. Some of the planks are as wide as 24" and they are all different.  The installer took the time and care to carve the ends for tongue and grove.  They assured us that this floor was most likely the oldest in the home.  So we will be saving this room's floor after all.  Yay, more work!

Hand notched beam and a wooden spike (nail)

All of the vertical lines below are chisel marks. Many of the beams were full trees which where hand chiseled.  Also, take notice of the wooden peg which is holding in the notched cross beam.

All cuts were made on the spot and by hand

The archaeologist admired our glass bottles that we negotiated to keep in our home purchase.  Alyssa said that these particular bottles were produced in the 1700 and 1800's as collectors items to encourage patriotism.  Each bottle has a different American symbol on it e.g.- a war ship, an eagle, and the words freedom and liberty.  She said she has books which will allow us to date the collection.

Last but not least is the den's old floor beams.  The large beams look like trees (because they are) and the narrower, more uniform beams, were installed at a later date when the floor began to sag.  They estimated the date of the upgraded beams as some time in the 1800's.  Notice the white striping on the top of the right beam.  Those are saw marks from the giant mill saw.  The large tree-like beams could be much older.  We are going to remove the tree beams since they are no longer carrying any load and use them to make furniture! Since the beams are actual trees, Alyssa and Chris informed us that we could take a core sample from the tree and have it tested for age.  The test tells you quite accurately when the tree was cut down but we won't know when it was installed in our house.

These were just some of the highlights.  We are looking forward to further consulting with these archaeologist after they have had a chance to do more research and review the hundreds of pictures that they took.  We are so very grateful to our friends Gary and Catherine, who so generously made this happen.  And to the archaeologist Alyssa and Chris, for sharing our excitement and their knowledge.