Throwback Thursday

Here in blogger land it seems to be customary among some circles to have a Throwback Thursday, where you blog about the past...however long ago it may have been. I shall attempt this off and on as I go.

Here is a picture from long ago, where I grew up in Northern California. Many folks think, when I tell them I am from N CA, that I come from San Fransisco or thereabouts, but no, my hometown is much further north than that even. San Fran is a a drive south of several hours. Anyway, this picture (and I am not sure of the quality here) is of the house I grew up in. It is pretty much surrounded by Douglas Fir trees with the occasional alder thrown in for variety. The willow tree is hiding the front window.

The front part of the house was built by a bachelor logger who first owned the property back in the '40s I believe. The back half of it was added on later by my dad and uncle, who finished it off for their mother to live in. She bought the property originally. The house is covered in redwood shakes, under which bats roost occasionally. You can, on occasion, hear them squeaking during the day when you are outside and close to the house. We had electricity and running water of course, but relied solely on the wood stove for heat. My father bought me a small ax for my 10th birthday (or Christmas, I forget which) and it was my job to cut kindling. We moved into the house a year or two after my grandmother died, I was about 4, I think. My father not being the most progressive type, the house remained without a foundation; it was propped up on regular cements blocks. Only by God's grace did it not slip off them during earthquakes. There was a large crawl space under the house where the dogs slept, and where the occasional skunk visited. (Ugh)

The small building to the right is the well house. There in N Ca. the wells were dug, not drilled. So we had a couple of the large round cement well liners rolling around. We made teeter-totters from them using long boards propped on them, or we would crawl in them and roll each other around.

After my father died in '95 my mother continued living there for a year, then had to sell the place because she couldn't keep it up. Thankfully, a couple who runs a landscaping business bought it and they added onto the house, maintaining the redwood shake theme and adding a foundation. It looks fabulous now, but still has the rustic air about it. They also have done, as you might expect, quite a bit of landscaping. I try and visit them whenever I go back there, they are really friendly.

So anyway, since I lived there for some 23 years it is no wonder that I ended up back in the country.

That is my Throwback Thursday!