If you follow me on social media, you'll probably realise that I spend a lot of time on the farm where I grew up. And, by 'a lot' I mean I've reclaimed a bedroom and have ordered my parents to live long and well, while I save to buy out my brother's share. The property calls to me with a deep sense of ancestral belonging, and several of my books are set there. My youngest, Taylor ~ aka The Kid on my social media feeds ~ is always with me. Sometimes we camp in the heritage scrub, other times we stay in the 100+-year-old farmhouse.
For a whole year, this guy would accompany us whenever we camped. As he was wild, I've no idea what happened to him. Hopefully, he discovered a forever family.
Taylor and I always have multiple projects on the go -- to the despair of my parents who maintain they're afraid to walk anywhere on the 150acres, for fear they'll fall into some deep pit we've dug. Now that you're concerned for my parent's welfare, let me share the reason for their (almost unwarranted) fear.
I've always known there was a low stone wall, about 60cm high and tapering to nothing, on the steep side of the winter creek.
A couple of years ago (and that's a very loose measure of time...the older I get, the more EVERYTHING happened 'a couple of years' ago!) I showed it to Taylor.
Intrigued, we decided to clear away the dirt from the base of the wall and dig out the boxthorns to expose the beautiful stonework. Little did we realise that the 40cm wall actually extended more than two metres into the earth...we had actually discovered a limestone kiln, used for burning the local rocks to create limestone mortar and wash, which was then used to build the magnificent stone outbuildings that border the farmyard.
As Taylor and I are both a tad obsessive about such things, we couldn't stop until we had cleared the entire pit. It was definitely a better investment than a gym membership!
After this excavation, we also uncovered the foundations of the original 1880 cottage, a blacksmith's forge and a cobbled floor in the old stables. More adventures (and pictures) to come! Lee x
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