Log Cabin Affliction

This winter and spring I have stayed busy with work on three different old log structures. This is an affliction I have had since I was a young man. The passion I still have but in stamina I am lacking. 

Craze Cabin
 This past fall (2016) Waymon Craze and I started moving logs from one cabin site on his farm to another site to reconstruct a house for his daughter. We being two old men, worked kind of slow but with stedfast resolve. However, we persevered. The cabin is now back up and has a roof on it. These logs were first build about 1905 by the Holder family. 

Log Barn Purchased

In March 2017 I gained knowledge of an old log barn about to be destroyed near Stevenson, AL. I contacted the new owner of the land and procured for a sum of money the salvage of said barn. I hired the Bledsoe Brothers for a few days, and we deconstructed the barn and saved enough of the 1860's circa white oak logs to be used for some small structure as I see fit in the future.

  

McCoy Farm Cabin

The first of May, I hired Mike Prince and Brian Bledsoe to help, and we started work on a one room log cabin on the McCoy farm. We are going to rebuild porches on three sides and put on a new roof structure. This will preserve it for the future generations. This room of logs was built in the 1890's by a man named Tom Lewis. His family had a rough reputation; nevertheless he was a superb craftsman in every since of the word. I have been involved with many log structures and his workmanship has few equals. Therefore this cabin is still in very good condition. 

Year 3- Hay Bale Gardening

I made Becky some new salad beds from 2-55 gallon barrels cut in half and mounted in a frame that is movable 

Tomatoes growing on rotting hale bales. The hay bales were put in place in November and allowed to rot.

Lettuce and beets growing on last year's hay bales. Root crops do really well  rotted hay.

These tomatoes are growing on wheat straw to use as an experiment to compare hay versus straw bales.

Hay Bale Gardening Year Two

These are potatoes and cabbage that we started in the old hay bales from last year.  They have decomposed to only a few inches thick. Compare them to the tomatoes in new bales on the left of the picture. 

Again we are using the decomposed bales of hay for our onion bed.

We built three six foot long boxes and placed them on saw horses. This is where we are growing several varieties of lettuce, spinach, and romaine.

Rabies Scare

Several weeks ago as we were eating dinner a neighbor, who had permission to hunt deer on our property, came into the house scared and shaken. He had been hunting about less than a quarter of mile from the house on our pasture hillside. Much to his dismay, on this day, he had an unfortunate encounter with a raccoon.

He proceeded to tell us of his encounter. About dusk a raccoon crossed the field and came straight to his tree. He tried to "shoo" it off and for a moment it did walk about twenty feet away. He said it then reared up on its' hind legs, looked at him, and proceeded to run directly toward the tree in which he had his tree stand. He yelled at it, but it just kept coming. It climbed the tree, began to bite his boots He then tried to kick it away, but it was determined to get in the tree stand with him. He lowered the barrel of the gun tried to knock it away. When that didn't work he flicked off the safety of his gun and shot it at point blank range in the chest with a 30-06. Fur, dust, and blood went everywhere. As he definitely knew, this just was not normal raccoon behavior.

He immediately came to the house and shared his story. We decided to call the 1-800 number of the state conservative department. They suggested he take the dead coon to be tested for rabies. Within two days he had the report- it was not good. The raccoon had tested positive for rabies.

Not knowing the amount of exposure, doctors recommended he take a series of rabies shots. Believe it or not you can not find rabies vaccine in your local doctors office. Fortunately, he was able to find  what he needed in the ER at Erlanger in Chattanooga, TN. He received a series of 6 vaccinations the first day followed by 3 more over an extended period. He did this just to be safe because as he told us that first night, "No one has ever survived rabies".

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. This young man completed his series of shots and just this past week became the father of a beautiful baby boy. He really had a great deal to live for. And as the old saying goes, "when you wake up in the morning, you just never know what the day will bring" That's a good thing.

Fall Gardening

If you look closely at theses pictures, you will see that our hay bales have almost totally decomposed after just one growing season. There was just enough hay to plant fall cabbage and broccoli. One of the cabbages are ready to cut, and it won't be long before we can pick our broccoli. The great thing about fall gardening is the produce has great flavor, and the cooler weather makes pests less of a problem meaning no need for pesticides. Once the plants are gone, we will plow under the remaining hay to add organic material to the soil.

Pioneer Days at Loachapoka

The Pioneer Days at Loachapoka, AL, sponsored by the Lee County Historical Society, was fantastic. In fact, we had more interest there for a one day show than other art shows we attended for three days.

The weather was outstanding and lots of people out enjoying the fall day.

The cedar wooden spoons were very popular as well as the 100 year old shingle signs. We took two birdhouse trees to gauge the interest in them. Both were sold and interest high, so the old cedar tops in the woods will not be safe. We also pleased with the response to the prints, also. Best of all, we were able to spend time with Daniel and Laura, pictured above.

Custom Ordered Signs

Our signs have been a big seller at arts and crafts shows. We are now offering you the opportunity to order customized signs painted on 100 year old split oak shingles. The shingles range in size from 2 feet to over 3 1/2 feet and are from 4-6 inches wide. Choose you text and and color scheme. If you are interested in order contact us by email at mccoyfolkart@gmail.com