A different kind of day

An inhabitant of the deck (a skink), sun bathing on a Sunday morning.

Is it weird in here, or is it just me?

~ Steven Wright

It’s hard NOT to think about it now.

Happy Autumn!  I was going to put together a post showing you what the first day of autumn looks like here at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch, but I had the oddest day yesterday so I thought I’d tell you about that instead.  Autumn, I think, will be slow to unfold here.  We’ll have plenty of time to get back to it.

Bicycles and gun turrets in the basement

It all started at 5:00 in the morning when the phone rang.  It was an alert from a local university with a recorded message informing us that a student had been shot off campus.  The suspect had fled the scene and was armed.  We were advised to be alert and vigilant.

House hunting?

I was still half asleep as I listened to the alert and thought at first that it was from the local prison.  We are signed up for text alerts should a prisoner or prisoners escape.  When M and I realized it was from the university, we decided we didn’t need to patrol the perimeter or send out the guard dogs (which we don’t have so that would have been impossible to do and, frankly, the cats, being cats, are not inclined towards any kind of duty that we ask them to perform making them useless in this regard).  There was not much on the morning news about the shooting, but I’ve heard the victim is recovering and that’s all they’ve had to say about it other than the alert went out.  Well, that’s not news to us since we got the alert.

Cornered

The rest of the morning proceeded normally.  We had a nice breakfast.  I went out for a walk and spent some time with the butterflies in the meadow.  I also made my way to our little cemetery.  No one has used the entrance path lately and it’s becoming overgrown.

The neighborhood manor house

Not far from us, there is a house for sale.  I hesitate to call it simply “a house” as it’s much more than that.  It is a grand manor house.  It was built in 1785.  The original land parcel included 3500 acres.  It now comes with 77 acres which is still nothing to sneeze at.  The original price was somewhere around $1.8 million dollars.  It is now priced to sell at $799,900, and they held an open house on Sunday afternoon.

We’re open. Come on in.

M and I have often talked about finding a big place that would comfortably accommodate us and other family members.  We’re aging, our family is aging, and some of the younger people could use a hand up.  A family compound, of sorts, would be helpful for all as long as we each had separate space (because sometimes you need to get away from each other).  A lot would have to come together for such a thing to happen (there is no way we could afford $800,000 on our own), and it seems unlikely that we could get every piece of the puzzle to fit into place at this time.  While our interest in the house is real, we mostly went to look out of curiosity.  We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a look inside.

The Grand Hallway (facing the back of the house).

M and I did a lot of dreaming as we walked through the house.  It is a beautiful place.  The Grand Hallways (one downstairs and one upstairs) alone are worth a look.

The Grand Hallway (upstairs).

It is a seriously sturdy house with interior and exterior brick walls 24 inches thick.  The basement, an interesting place in and of itself, has gun turrets, slits in the walls designed for shooting at people while offering protection.  They needed the turrets and a safe room back in those days because of pirates.  The house is located near a creek which was, presumably, the main way to get to the house at the time as there was no Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  There probably weren’t many roads on the Eastern Shore in 1785, either.

The Library (my favorite room).

There are seven Federal fireplaces, 14 foots ceilings, and incredible trim and woodwork.  There is a separate, but attached, apartment with a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and full bath that has its own entrance on one side, and has access to the solarium on the other side.

The Solarium

At one time, the property included an outdoor kitchen, a barn with two side sheds, a granary, a stable with two side sheds, two corn houses, a smokehouse, a meat house, a schoolhouse, a necessary house, a blacksmith shop, a poultry house, a windmill, and an ice house.  Now it is pared down to the manor house, one garage, a stable, and a guesthouse with three bedrooms and two baths.  Eighteen acres around the house are beautifully landscaped and include quite  a number of majestic old trees.  There is also an in-ground swimming pool.

The plantation, with 74 slaves included in the property list from the late 1700’s, had orchards with apple and peach trees.  The main crops were corn and tobacco.

The spread of this tree is incredible.

I thought of my youngest daughter-in-law while we were touring the house and property.  The house and grounds would be perfect for a bed & breakfast as well as hosting (for a fee, of course) weddings and other events.  Mere has a dream of having a place where she can host weddings, and I think she would love the house and grounds.

Stable

All in all, it was a different way to spend a Sunday, and we learned a little about the history of the area.

Pardon the graininess of the photos.  I didn’t take my good camera long, but always carry Lulu so all photos were taken with the little point-and-shoot.

Another one of the gun turrets. That’s a Dom Perignon champagne bottle sitting in it.

Thanks for joining me on a tour of the estate.  Did you have a good weekend?  Did you do anything different or exciting?  You didn’t by chance take a tour of any interesting houses, did you?

One of the upstairs bedrooms.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  And go ahead and dream.  Who knows?  It might come true someday.  🙂