School's out!

My, do we have some happy grandkids!  School's out for the summer!

A couple of them have spent the night with us nearly every night since we got home.  Teenage grandkids, and they want to spend time with us.  Imagine that!  Now that school is out they're asking if they can, when we get another contract, go with us for the summer!  Amazing.
But while we're here at home, they are enormous help catching up on chores.  They mow the lawn with my big green tractor, dig trenches for water lines to the chicken coop, they cut down some of the trees that died in last years drought and haul them to the wood pile for burning...

Is that a big tree?  or a small tractor?  That's a big boy for certain!  He's just a sophomore, but he'll be playing varsity football the rest of his high school days.

While working the flowerbeds we ran across this itty-bitty pine tree.  Well, I don't want it growing in my flowerbed next to the house. (Pine trees are notorious for growing up big and tall then dropping limbs on your house in wind storms!  I can just see animated cartoon pine trees grinning to beat the band and yelling, "Bombs away!")  So we will move this lil' feller away from the house so he can "green up" the lawn in the winter time.

We love spring and summer in Texas.  That's when the pear cactus blooms...

             and Texas sage blossoms:

                                                This is a lime tree (see all the baby limes?)

We also planted a few tomatos, squash, and bell pepper plants.  It's a wee bit late to do that, but it'll be okay!  We probably won't be here to harvest anything - our kids and grandkids can do that - but we just love to grow things...



iPhones, Smart Phones, MiFi, Hot Spots...

The world of communication gets crazier every minute!

All I wanted to do was add two Smart Phones and a hotspot to our account for two of our kids.  One of them did the research on line so he could tell me exactly which phone they wanted.  I got online, ordered the items, got Order ID numbers on all three devices which included a summary of the one-time charges and the monthly charges.  Simple enough.

Then the emails started.  Please contact our Customer Service Center...

The rate plan I chose was not available in our area.  Huh?  Not to worry, we'll get it all straight here at AT&T.

We had more lines than the rate plan allows.  Huh?  Nothing in the ordering process said anything about a limit to the number of lines...  Not to worry, we'll get it all straight here at AT&T.

Then I received an email saying the Hotspot was shipping.  One down!

More emails.  Please contact...

Hmmm.  Seems somehow they reserved nine (9) phone numbers/lines for me.  No, no, no!

An hour and a half later, we whittle that down to the two lines it should be.  During the process however, it seems they have a "can't beat that" rate plan to switch me to.  (The AT&T billing department is gonna love all these changes.)  Supposedly, for $30 we will have unlimited texting, and free anytime mobile-to-ANY-mobile calling.  That means only land-line and 800 number calls will eat up minutes.  They suggest that, after a couple of months, I review our usage, and we can probably downgrade from FamilyTalk 1400 (minutes) to FamilyTalk 700 (minutes) and save even more money!

Well, I'm not taking anything to the bank yet.  Something tells me all this is gonna end up costing out the wazoo in the beginning, and we'll straighten out the kinks later on.  But we've been Cingular/AT&T for umpteen years and don't think they've cheated us yet, so I'll hang in there.

More phone calls are planned for tomorrow.   "Nothing in life is simple.  Nothing in life is simple.  Nothing in life is simple..."

Topping 9,000 Pageviews and 22 Countries

For our new readers, just wanted to welcome you to the party!  We've had over 9,000 pageviews and have readers in 22 different countries so far:
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By Treaty? or Annexation?

Ah, ha!  Texas gets to fly it's flag at the same height as the U.S. flag because Texas entered the Union by treaty.  Hawaii and Alaska don't get to because they entered the Union by annexation!  They, like all of the other states, have to fly their state flags below the height of the U.S. flag!  I KNEW there was a reason!!

Today's Business Environment - GOOFY!

Business is goofy nowadays.  We wanted to refinance our home to the lower interest rates being offered on every other TV commercial.  Our current mortgage holder won't lower them for us even though we have a perfect credit history with them, so we're forced to shop around.  What ever happened to the concept, "It's cheaper and easier to KEEP a customer than to FIND a customer," or "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Same thing with cell phone companies.  Our sons cell phone provider promises the moon but can't seem to even get off the ground.  So he asked us to research ours, AT&T.  He is the only family member that isn't on AT&T Family Talk.

I go online to review what package we have.  I ultimately hit a wall and called a human being.  A)  I get better prices online than trying to work things out with a live person.  B)  I can upgrade the package and save a TON of money even though I get more services.

Work.  Work.  Work.  I'm beginning to believe if one spouse would stay home and live on the internet all day, the family could save as much money as if one spouse got a job but didn't have time left over to do online research.

Goofy.

Unemployment

John has filed for unemployment, as all travelers do between contracts.  Though we live in Texas he had to file in Virginia because that's where he worked.  He qualifies for the maximum amount of benefits - which isn't a lot - but he's paid his taxes faithfully for 50 years so why not get some back?

He has also registered to take some more CEU's next week.  It's just a one day deal in Dallas.  He'll enjoy that.  It means, unless he gets a contract somewhere in this area, that he can't start a new contract until June 4, but that's the way this cookie crumbles.

Kittens !

We're still waiting for an assignment.  That's always a dangerous thing.  I can only wait for so long around here without getting new animals.  So I did.

I went to pick up one of our grandsons, and on the way home (he just lives three miles away), he saw a bunch of kittens under a neighbor's pickup truck.  He was astonished when I pulled in and said, "Ask if they will let us have four."

What he didn't know was that my computer mouse pad has four kittens on it:

When he got out, the kittens scattered like wildfire;  I told him to just bring whatever he could catch.  The neighbor was delighted we were taking so many kittens off of their hands.  they had more adult cats that they needed; they surely didn't need a passel of kittens to go with them.  So she is out there with a bathrobe on and her hair wrapped up in a towel, her husband was supervising, and our grandson was crawling through, well, I won't say what he was crawling through... but eventually we had four kittens rounded up and in a little box:

They were skinny lil' things.  We could feel every bone in their bodies.  No worries.  I'm very good at fattening things up - unfortunately, including myself!  Granpa was not surprised when I walked in with a box full of kittens.  The vows say, "for better or worse, in sickness and in health, richer or poorer..."  He just didn't know that meant I'd be takin' in critters for better or worse, in sickness and in health, making HIM richer or poorer (depending on one's point of view.)  Fact is, Granpa likes babies - most especially baby kittens.

Our other grandson is now awake and ready to come over.  He had a bit of a mishap at the baseball field last night and ended up with three stitches in his arm just below the elbow.  It was swollen, and he was not his perky self.  I was sure the kittens would cheer him up.

Now go back and look at the mousepad picture.  What's missing? 

As we passed that same neighbor of theirs on our way back to our place, I pulled in, showed the kids the mousepad, and said we needed a white kitty, too, preferably with a hint of Siamese.  They took the mousepad to the door with them, showed them what the deal was, and she said, "SURE you can have a fifth kitty."  They proceeded to scoop up a Siamese-looking kitty, and things were picture perfect.

Waiting

Waiting.   Waiting.   Waiting....

We've turned this opportunity to work over to the Lord.  (Wow.  That's so easy to say.  Not so easy to LEAVE it with Him.)  We know they have submitted John's resume to Kauai, Maui, Honolulu, and all across the mainland.  The agencies will continue to put John's resume out, so it is now just a matter of:

Waiting.   Waiting.   Waiting....

A watched pot never boils, so we're keeping busy around the house changing air conditioning filters, working flower beds, lovin' on the animals.  John has given the van a brake job replacing pads and rotors, changed the oil, worked on the ol' John Deere tractor that he bought me one year for Christmas.  (I love my big green tractor!)

Today I'll plant some tomato, squash, bell peppers.  I know.  I know.  I won't be here to harvest the crop, but that's not the point!  It's spring, and you plant a garden in the spring.  Hard to break old habits.  Maybe our son will get to eat something we plant.  Isn't that what we hope for all of our kids?  We lay some groundwork, and they get to build on it.  You know what?  Life is good.  Life is very, very good.

Waiting.   Waiting.   Waiting....

More grandkids coming this weekend.  That should certainly help to pass some time away.  The first part of next week might be resting up from having a house full over the weekend.  The rest of the week will be spent worrying about our youngest son.  He's going skydiving for the first time NEXT weekend.  Aaaiiiii !!!  I thought we taught him better than to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but I guess not.

Waiting.   Waiting.    Waiting....

Waiting For The Call

We were hoping to have some time at home ... we were hoping to get a call before even getting to Texas to send us on to another contract ... we were hoping to have time to see the kids and grandkids, ride our horses, love our land ... we were hoping to get a contract after a few days at home ... we were hoping to have a chance to do some landscaping ...

It's a good thing we can just relax through it all because our hope is in Christ and we know he will take care of everything in His time, because we've been here a WEEK :-) and no contract yet!

We have all three agencies working on our behalf.  Each one has John's resume in to a different location in the Hawaiian Islands and locations all across the mainland.  They always call before submitting him to someplace:  Would you guys consider going to ...  Finally I sent a message yesterday saying, "Oh, darlin'.  We'll go wherever you send us, sweetie."  I guess other travelers are picky about where they go.  We just pray each night for God's will in our next location.  He ALWAYS has something wonderful for us everywhere we go - we just have to have our hearts and eyes open to Him.

So, the bags are still packed, the housekeeping totes are stacked by the door, ready to load into the van and hit the road.  John has replaced the brake shoes and rotors, changed the oil, air filters and wiper blades so that the van is ready to roll.

Now, ring, phone, ring!

Texas Earthquake!

See that smile on his face?  He really does love Texas!

Texas apparently was so very glad to see us it shook up the largest earthquake ever recorded in East Texas!  We go to Kauai, and they have two tsunamis.  We go to Virginia, and they have an earthquake and hurricane.  We come home to Texas, and they have an earthquake -- in TEXAS!

They're interviewing John now for a long assignment in San Francisco.  Look out folks!  This could mean the "big one" is comin' to the Bay area.  (I mean big earthquake, not big John.)

Homeward Bound

Simon and Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" is one of John's and my favorite songs - especially today!  Then we crossed the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin, and I wondered if we knew what we were doing, really.

It's pouring down rain.  Huge rain drops hitting the windshield at about 100 miles an hour (and John never, ever goes over the speedlimit - ask his "Are we there yet?" kids.)  It's all my fault.  I filled the gas tank and washed the van before picking John up at the hospital.  It'll probably rain all the way to Texas now.  Ah well, at least we don't have the glare of sunlight blinding us...

We drove until 9 pm Central time (YEA!  Primetime is from 7 pm to 10 pm!  No more having to stay up until 11 o'clock to watch favorite shows!) and decided to get a room in Birmingham, Alabama.   I hopped on the laptop, logged onto Hotels.com, booked a room at our favorite Country Inn and Suites, and put the new address in Lil' Miss GPS.  Slicker 'n snail snot (that's an old East Texas expression - too dry for snails in West Texas...) we were checking in.

As soon as we got to the room John said delightedly, "This 'll work!"  He usually has to move furniture and search for a place to plug in his CPAP.  Sometimes he has to use our own extension cord and/or that adapter thingamajig for changing the 3-prong plug to a 2-prong.  He saw pretty quickly that here there was a 3-prong outlet in the base of the lamp on the bedside table.

He also loves his music at bedtime.  Check out their alarm clock:

They had a couple dozen Southern Maid donuts at the desk which John availed himself of.  Those and a glass of tea I thought for sure would keep him up until all hours, but not John.   He was asleep almost the minute his head hit the pillow.

This morning the complimentary breakfast was excellent (well, the hot water for a cup of tea could have been hotter...) and they even had POG!  (Hawaiian Passion Fruit, Orange, and Guava juice.)

Our room was so nice I had trouble getting John on the road.  But the urge to get home prevailed, and we're "on the road again" as Willie Nelson would say.  It's supposed to be sunny all day - but the entire state of Texas is predicted to get rained on tomorrow.  Hmmm.  I think I will simply have to sit on the front porch in my rocking chair with a hot cup of tea lovin' on our dogs and cats and just feasting my eyes on our horses, forest, and land! They ain't no place like home! 

We are leavin' for home!

Adios, Amigos!  We are outta here!  Not that it hasn't been fun, but, as they say, "there's no place like home!"

The van is all packed - and I DO mean ALL PACKED.  No need to worry about the load shifting; there is no place to shift to!  When I was taking John to work for his last day we saw a turtle crossing the road.  "Aw, man!  I should stop and pick up that turtle for the grandkids!"  (It really was pretty, having been washed clean by last night's rains.)

John just rolled his eyes, sighed, and said, "Just where would you put it??"

I don't know if it's legal for a turtle to cross state lines.  I'd hate to get arrested for turtle-snatching.  So I reluctantly drive on, saying very quietly to myself, "He's not very big at all."  All the way to the hospital and back I kept thinking of that turtle - and if it's still there when I get back...  It wasn't - but there was this tiny little bunny rabbit...

The bedsheets are in the washing machine, all the little waste baskets are empty and the trash will be carried out on my way to pick John up.  All of the dishes are done, the oven is scrubbed, stove top cleaned, floor swept.  The refrigerator is clean, but I've had to leave all the pickles, mustard, ketchup behind.  If Cheryl doesn't want any of it, we hope she can take it to the homeless shelter here in Danville.  I've dusted. The shower is cleaned, the washbasin, and toilet.  Linens are all washed and folded and put away in the linen closet.

There are only the floors to vacumn and we're gone.

One of our agencies is trying to get us back to Hawaii - probably back to Kauai.  As I told our son:  paychecks are nice; we'll take whatever we can get.  No Occupy Wallstreeters here!  Stay tuned.  You'll know almost as soon as we do where we're headed next!

Contract Ending. Where to now?

Well, we've been in Danville, Virginia, the last capital of the Confederate States of America and city of Churches, since August, 2011.  John's contract here has be extended three times.  Nine months we have been scurrying around Virginia, North Carolina, and Philadelphia ...

...and there is still so-o-o-o much we haven't seen!

 
We've been working with our agencies and they have put John's resume out to Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado, Maine...  No one has called John for interviews yet, but that's not unusual.  Department directors are pretty busy folks, and they generally get around to calling the week before they need someone to show up for work, so maybe John's phone will start ringing today.

He does the interviewing, I do the logistics.  Our plan of action as of this moment (and it could change with the ring of the telephone) is to go home and wait for a phone call.  I'll take him to work Wednesday morning, go back and pack the car, pick him up from work and try to get five hours closer to home before the sun goes down.  We should be sleeping in our own bed! by Thursday night.

What we've learned about Virginia is that it has broad, deep rivers - and lots of 'em.  In Texas we have broad rivers, a couple of which could be considered deep.  It's just that they aren't every forty miles or so apart, more like two hundred and forty.

We're also surprised at how sparsely populated Virginia is.  Given how long it's been settled I guess I expected it to be pretty packed with towns and people.  It's not.  The way environmentalists talk about doomsday and over population...  They say it's not the number of people, it's the lack of land to grow food for those people.  My mind jumps to west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and mountain states.  But Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania...  They are all sparsely populated and the land is excellent for growing things.  People that never drive across country can be fooled into believing some of the nonsense that's put out there.  I long ago decided to trust my own eyes and not propaganda, but Virginia still surprised me by how not settled it is.

Virginia is beautiful and her people are wonderful.  We are impressed by their genuine kindness and generosity.  I don't think we have run across a single grouch here.  The mood is gentle and the people are productive.  Maybe that's why their tourism slogan is "Virginia is for lovers!"

We will be forever grateful to our landlords, Cheryl and Jerry Ashworth,  for having a wonderful home for us to stay in and the thoughtfully kind way they've treated us - and I do mean "treated."  Each holiday Cheryl has produced delicious baked goods, and Jerry has helped in so many ways above and beyond "landlording."  They have even included us in family celebrations!  If you're looking for a charming country retreat for a week or a year...

...the Ashworth's can be contacted at healthier2morrow@gmail.com.  Tell them that TheTravelersTwo sent you!

Our animal friends came to see us off ...

Wait a minute!  If you leave, who is going to put out corn for us?

Did you hear the news?  They have to move on!

And of course you know from this blog how MANY things there are to do here in Virginia and North Carolina.  (I include North Carolina because Danville is only about ten miles from the North Carolina state line...)  Even so, as I said in the beginning, there is so much that we haven't gotten around to seeing.  God willing, we will come back to Virginia soon for another contract.  Until then, it's back to Texas!  YEA-A-A!

What's that you say??

Sunsets everywhere are truly beautiful to behold!

Upstairs at Centre Hill

Here we have a bedroom full of terrific items:

A four-poster bed with an easily removed headboard (probably helps the air to circulate on still summer nights), a cedar trunk at the foot of the bed big enough to hold those voluminous skirts women wore in the 1800's and earlier, beautiful hair combs that would lend to the regal nature of ladies living in this home, baby cribs and carriages, a small spinning wheel unlike any I've ever seen, ...

Another sampling of unique.  We think we are so smart.  Well, folks back then were just as smart!  Check out this shower: 

Photo Courtesy of the Petersburg Museums, 

City of Petersburg, VA

.

(Aw man!  I thought we had a picture of the showerhead, too!  It's just like the big, round "rain"shower heads we see marketed today as though they are innovative...  Well, trust me, it's there!)  Outside of this shower are gas lights, so I guess they had "candlelight" showering.  How romantic!







The rooms are huge and airy up here, too. 

In the Study there is a small secretary desk , a twelve foot high mirror (certainly tall enough for even Lincoln to see himself in had it been here during his visit!)...

Portraits of former Petersburg citizens, one showing a lady with her best jewelry on - and in a clear case below the portrait, the actual jewelry!  There are giant wardrobes, huge four poster beds, beautiful Crazy quilts...  (The Crazy quilt was very popular during the Civil War, but this one we could get really close to - not just to photograph, but as a basic tour person!)

Photo Courtesy of the Petersburg Museums, 

City of Petersburg, VA

There are love seats of all kinds:  low back, high back, straight back, carved with intricate, very ornate detail...

There is a sewing machine unlike any antique sewing machine I have ever seen...

And, folks, these are just the items that struck ME as unique.  I have to believe that there are pieces there that you have never seen the likes of yourself!  Go!  And take your time.  Enjoy!

Centre Hill Double Entry

Oh, this place is so cool!  I could do about a dozen posts about this place!  Now, would that be fair to you?  or Centre Hill?  Probably not.  So let us suffice with a couple of photos on this floor and on the second floor.  If you're intrigued and want to see more, well, you'll just have to go there yourself!

Let's see.  Where to start and what to leave out.  Goodness.  Hmmmm.  Well, I guess a sampling of "unique" would be a good place to start:

Photos Courtesy of the Petersburg Museums, 

City of Petersburg, VA

I have never seen a sofa with huge round wooden arms like this  The wood finish is beautiful!  The carved detail on the face of these arms and across the front at the legs is great!  And notice, in the top picture, that the center of those arms is a drawer.  Now, you tell me.  How often have you seen a sofa like this?

In the south parlor there is an elaborately decorated grand piano, a harp, a floor lamp unlike any I've seen before...

In the dining room, how about a floor plate under the table that the person sitting at the head of the table can tap and ring for a servant, (remember the date of construction), an enormous side board, elegant mantle pieces, wonderful woodwork in the trim and fireplace, inside the fireplace is a forerunner of today's microwave...

In the library, several unique chairs including a small folding Moorish chair with beautiful inlay...

The Ghosts of Centre Hill

Of course we are not allowed to take photos inside the museum.  How unique is this collection?  At the end of the tour I actually get up the nerve to ask permission to photograph!  Much easier said than done.  They refer me to the curator, Ms. Laura Willoughby.  She'll bring it before the Board and, if they agree, a contract will be offered.  There's no cost, it's just that some of the pieces don't belong to the museum, and they will have to get written permission from the owners of the different items.  Golly.

I submit a list of the items, permission is eventually given, a time is set for a non-tour photo visit, and we return again to Petersburg - a pleasure I assure you!

One of the first things we discover is that Lincoln was not the only President to visit Centre Hill.

William Howard Taft, President, 1909-1913, came to Petersburg to dedicate a monument honoring Pennsylvanian soldiers who served during the Civil War's Battle of the Crater.  Taft's father was Secretary of War and Attorney General under President Ulysses S Grant.  Taft himself road the path to the White House paved by fellow Republican Theodore Roosevelt.  He was one of the few Presidents that had a professional "life" after the presidency:  he became the only President to also serve as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1921-1930).  (See our blog post "America's First Supreme Court.") and only the second former president to serve as the head of a different branch of the federal government.  He is the only former president to administer the oath of office to another President, and the only Chief Justice to serve with associate justices whom he had appointed to the court.  (Whew!  And that's just a sampling of what you might discover if you take a few minutes to research him!)


What struck me as interesting about his visit to Centre Hill is that the ladies weren't allowed to attend the luncheon on the grounds.  I'm thinkin' that was not so very unusual for the times, but, not to be igonored,  Mrs. Davis set up a luncheon in her dining room for some thirty of the city's finest society ladies.

Photo Courtesy of the Petersburg Museums, City of Petersburg, VA

Here in the basement we also found a tunnel that lead out from under the original front of the house a hundred yards or so to the street below Centre Hill.

Photo Courtesy of the Petersburg Museums, City of Petersburg, VA

Ghost Watch occurs every January 24th, a date when residents living in the house heard what they believed to be soldiers' footsteps walking up and then back down a stairway.  Reservations are required, but on this day visitors get to go into the tunnel and then up to the third floor where no one is ever allowed to go (not even us with special permission to photograph!!)  How very wonderfully creepy!

From here we are taken upstairs and the treasures there to be revealed!

Centre Hill, Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg has such potential for a long-visit destination spot!  After nine months here in Virginia, we've made more trips back to Petersburg than any other location   One of the rarest gems here is Centre Hill.  Located on the high spot in the city center it is a home loaded with the most unique furnishings I believe we have ever seen in a single location.

This was the original formal entrance to the home; over the decades, for different reasons, the other side of the house became the entrance:

Never rush into a place - there's history to be seen on the outside, too.  The interpretive sign in the foreground tells you a bit:  Abraham Lincoln, wife Mary and their young son, Tad (he's the one that waved the Confederate flag from the Union's White House upstairs window - see our post of April 15, 2012, "A New Museum of the Confederacy.")  The Lincoln's came here on April 7, 1865.  Centre Hill was being used as the headquarters for the Union's commanding officer of the Petersburg garrison after the siege of Petersburg succeeded.  The Lincoln's would have entered through the original front door. 

Mary was accompanied by her confidante and dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley.  She had been a slave in Petersburg before working for the president's wife.  I'm kind of a fan of the Lincoln's and was well aware of Ms. Keckley - but I don't think it ever registered with me that she was originally from Petersburg.  How things must have changed both in the look of Petersburg (especially after nine months of constant bombardment and shelling from the likes of "The Dictator."  See our post of October 10, 2011, "The Civil War Dictator."), and in the fact that she was now FREE!

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, one of Lincoln's closest friends was also there with the Lincoln party.  Eight day after this visit, Lincoln would lay dying after being shot at Ford's Theatre.  Senator Sumner would be with him there, too.

We approach the museum entrance at the basement stairs and find what must be an absolutely ancient Crepe Myrtle tree.  The trunks are enormous, the cinnamon bark peeled away revealing wood of variegated colors.

 

They remind us of the rainbow bark trees on the island of Kauai.  I wonder if they're related??  I wish I had asked the museum guides if they had an idea of how old these trees really are.

Once inside we have no clue as to the treasures we are about to uncover...

Archeology at Poplar Forest

Lots of folks might pass right by this, but I like discovering what reality was back then.  Interpretive signs tell of finding clues to slave diets:  Bones from opossum, rabbit, raccoon, white-tailed deer, squirrel and ground hog indicate that slaves hunted these animals for food.  Raccoons may also have been killed for their pelts.  Bones from fresh water fish suggest that residents spent some of their "free time" fishing.

Now, I have eaten rabbit and deer.  I've even shot at a 'coon eating my chicken's feed.  Granpa killed one climbing our White Georgia peach tree.  (Granpa truly does love his peach cobbler and homemade peach ice cream...)  Opossum are nasty, scary lookin' critters with jaws full of razor-sharp teeth.  I'd shoot one of them in a heart beat given the chance!  But these animals as steady diet?  I don't think so.


The signs also share which plants slaves (and probably all peoples then) used for medicines and food:  amaranth, carpetweek, dock, goosefoot, jimsonweed, knotweed/smartweed, pokeweed, purslane and verbena.  Today we haven't a clue what ANY of these plants even look like!  I'm guessin' we'd starve to death if someone took away our supermarkets...

During reconstruction a literal rats' nest was discovered.  Somehow they determined that the lil' rats started stealing items around 1846 and continued until the 1960's.  (Now, how did they figured THAT out???)  The neat thing about discovering a rats' nest is that normally decaying objects didn't decay.  But the rats stole anything and everything they could get their lil' paws on:

 










                             Newspapers                                                                             Corn cobs

Wooden items, bits of fabric, fruit and nuts. 

Rebuilding Poplar Forest

The basement and wing of Poplar Forest was for Jefferson's ever-necessary wine cellar, French-style  kitchen, and routine things such as laundry, servant quarters, etc.

All of the bricks were made on-site by hired men or slaves.  Because they were, Jefferson had bricks of three different shapes made so that he could achieve his perfectly octagon-shaped home.  Very, very few nails were used; it was mostly mortise and tenon construction where wood or timbers were used.

Subsequent owners removed the roof and added a second floor.  When it was finally claimed for history tourism, quite a bit had to be done to restore it to Jefferson's original plans - right down to the use of  old growth or "antique" wood and replicating the construction techniques.

An interpretive sign says, "Jefferson spent most of his life ordering and reordering glass from Europe and then Boston and Philadelphia."  If you consider the number of windows he had at Monticello and Poplar Forest it's easy to see why!  In June of 1819, a major hail storm broke out 77 panes of glass just here.  Naturally, the restoration required glass and they were faithful to use hand blown panes just like Jefferson would have used.



The walls of Poplar Forest were over a foot thick.  Jefferson had the window openings beveled so more sunlight entered the rooms.  I laid a brochure down at the standard 90 degree angle so you can see how much of an angle was used.

I wish I had thought of this in the building our log home.  The logs are 9" deep and then we have window trim, too.  The angle would have been nice as I have about as many windows for light as Jefferson did, but our glass is tinted for privacy.

Thomas Jefferson's Private Retreat

Monticello was well known.  People were constantly coming to visit.  Poor ol' Jefferson could hardly get anything done for all of the entertaining he did for "drop-in" guests - almost a moral requirement in the 17 and 1800's.  When he was a young man he inherited Poplar Forest plantation.  It was just a few days travel by carriage from Monticello.

In 1806 (the same year Lewis and Clark completed their famous exploration of Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase) Jefferson began construction on a small place at Poplar Forest. 

No, really, it was small - only 2 bedrooms, a dining room, study, and two small rooms that could be used for storage.  One of the other tourist wondered why only two bedrooms.  BECAUSE IT WAS A RETREAT!  About the only people Jefferson invited to Poplar forest were two granddaughters.

Jefferson retreated here for the purpose of solitude.  He studied his books, reflected on issues of the day, attended to correspondence with friends, to refresh and regroup his thoughts...