Trimming Grass and Weeds Around Old New England Property (Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures - Part Twelve - "The Pot of Gold"

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around

Old New England Property

(Antique) Landscape Fixtures

Part Twelve

"The Pot of Gold"

            Buckets... full of old New England well water... drawn quietly by oneself... through an old New England property well’s (antique) granite ‘well cap stone’ do not defend the old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures from violation, destruction and their follow-through escapades (Parts Nine and Eleven).  This (drawing well water) does offer a suggestion of good sense... of a good direction... to have good sense of.. when looking over old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures.  IF, too... such a fixture is discovered leaning against the outside wall

Of a ‘store’...

Or is

Half buried

            By the

            Front door...

            One may wish to draw, too... from the ‘quietly by oneself’ ‘good sense of a good direction’ to carefully notice

            One has choices... of choices... when “having” ‘granite landscape fixtures’.

            A beyond... is there?

            I do not have to seek far to find an actual ‘saving grace (a redeeming grace of God).

            Presuming that the reader has discerned that... from reading this vignette (group of blog posts)... the old New England property’s wealth of (antique) granite landscape fixtures and... their poise of ‘original state’ in their ‘original habitats’ “undisturbed” and often “hidden away” appeals to one... and... one finds... that... to be a precious old New England property... landscape fixture... worthy of one’s notice when an opportunity ...flits... before one’s eye... as if one... spying old New England granite... is a... birdwatcher in the field with prowling ‘old rocks’ eye...:  Yes... I suggest ‘bird watcher’...; it is the least foolish behavior with (antique) granite landscape fixtures.  Spy them, notice them, look at them.  Review their current state and habitat and... enjoy doing that.  One will find one “always” “looks” at a ‘one’ that one has ‘spied’ “ALWAYS” when ‘going by’, et al.  Yes:  “ALWAYS” including the ‘heaven forbid’ coming by and “it’s been moved”.  Cleaned... or (“NO!”) gone.  This “ALWAYS” view watch... includes the negative states... too.  Finding a long noticed ‘half burial’ millstone suddenly “GONE” is, actually, a deep experience for the ‘watcher’.  One’s sight collection of ‘icky’ (front door) steps... never ends with ‘recent sightings’ ‘daily’ but ...rare is the notice of a ‘real one’ (true... old New England property [antique] granite ...step) (Part Seven).  Those always turn the head of the ‘watcher’.

            [These images (above) show true old New England (antique) granite foundation cap stones ...being used as steps.  They are NOT old New England (antique) granite steps.  Review Part Seven for clarity].

           [These images (below) show true old New England (antique) granite foundation cap stones... being used as landscape border blocks and... as an (antique?) granite decorative... sculptural... ‘vertical thrust’ within a landscape fixture (yard bed?) (in front of a cement and cinder block foundation wall)].

            One understands the premise?  It is a very safe harbor... and wonderfully ‘plentiful’ in ‘sights’ for a ‘watcher’ as one... rambles around ‘old New England’.  The ‘old rock’ is everywhere.  The new rock is everywhere too.

            Too.

            “OH BOTHER”.  Well... it does... AND the industry seems to be flourishing

            Too.

            So that’s NASTY... unless one’s sense of good taste in ‘old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures... laughs out loud at a ‘new’ ‘fake’ ‘millstone’ that has been ‘half buried’ ‘out in front’ ‘by the road’ as a residential sign post with... (red) bark mulch spooned by “THE LAWN CARE COMPANY”... about the “KEEPS THE WEEDS” “DOWN”...:

One WILL ‘see that’.

            “POSTS” are a NIGHT... MARE.*******

            And everyone should be the ‘knows better’ about this... granite post fetish.  That’s the biggest goof of it all.  But they do still... ‘just stick it out there’.  Truly... ‘in the face’.  A lot of once ‘new’ ‘posts’ have ‘been around’ long enough now to ‘have lost their glow’; slightly ‘off’ vertical (“leaning”)... etc.  And always... ‘not old’ “LOOKING”.  Does one ‘think’ a ‘colonial... old New England... homestead’ had a (‘vertical thrust’) symbolic post poised ‘out front’ in the yard?

            “It looks stupid”.  That’s what the antique granite spy eyes say ‘on the street’.  Old New England had fence posts... hitching posts... property boundary (corner) posts or (and otherwise)... no... post.

            The ‘this new granite’ is made (manufactured) differently than the old granite.  No surprise there.  The Civil War dawn line forward applied mechanical precision to ‘cutting granite’********.  The old New England property ...at this same dawn line... ‘stopped’ ‘making’ granite... ‘very much’.  End of rainbow; the design forms (such as ‘troughs’, et al) ‘disappeared’.  The new pot of gold was very precise ‘cut’ ‘stone’.  Today it is even more very precise cut (counter tops) (of imported Brazilian granite from ‘up the Amazon’).

            Yep.

            And from ‘then on’

            Meaning that with the ‘new’ ‘posts’, for example, the “hand chiseled surface’ on the “It looks stupid” post is

            Done by (a) machine (created to DO THAT “look”)

            And from then on...

            To the end of the rainbow of

            NEW

            Old New England property granite landscape fixtures.

            ‘They’... have not completed the ‘what’ ‘can be made’ out of “GRANITE”.

            The reader already knows this from... daily contact?

            “Saving grace you say?”

            The saving grace is to go back to the original pot of gold at the base of the ‘old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures... rainbow... and... visit it... every now and then to ‘remind’.

            That is... after one ‘finds one’; this pot of gold.

---

********:  The U.S. Customs House in Portland, Maine... (1866)... is the ‘a splendid’ example of Civil War dawn line mechanical precision ‘cut’ ‘stone’ granite.  The whole... Gothic Victorian masterpiece... of granite is... stunning to the eye to this day.  Yes so often ‘viewed’ when “I pass by” (?) today I call for one’s next viewing to include the notice-to-self that “THAT” is “MADE OF GRANITE”.  Too.  It is worth the special trip... on foot... although turning the corner ‘on it’ at the stop light... once understood as “THAT” is “GRANITE”... becomes, as noted above, an “ALWAYS”.

---

******* :  The ‘a best’ for what is ‘one seeks’ in posts is found, traveling west out of the Calvin Coolidge, Plymouth, Vermont ...historic village....:  On the left, leaving the village, is splendid group of about two dozen ...just the (fence) posts... undisturbed in their original setting.  If one is seeking ‘a post’ THAT is what one seeks.  Actually ‘getting one’ (a real one) is ‘competitive in the market’.

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around Old New England Property (Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures - Part Eleven - "Actual Object Violation"

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around

Old New England Property

(Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures

Part Eleven

"Actual Object Violation"

            The escapades of fraud, negligence, intellectually phony presentation, bad taste, bad art and... site violation... carrying on to... actual object violation... and destruction... does not leave me in a self-sense world of ‘hidden away’ and ‘undisturbed.  It (the escapades) seem to follow a sirens call... sung by and from... my self-sense world (of old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixtures) that... surely wrecks the sung-song follower... on their... very own ...decorative landscape fixture ROCKS... before me...

            ‘Ever after’

            “For (my) eternity”.

            The words ‘stone’ ‘wall’, I suggest, quicken one’s notice of ‘that’ (the escapades).  Again I say that... true... I am headed that way but we

            Are not there yet.

            No.  And I continue by... grabbing another iconic horrible... as if there can be an ‘iconic horrible’ left to grab.  Yes there is and yes I must.

            The title of this ‘old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixture’ is

            “Well Cap”

            “Stone”.

            Or just ‘well cap’.

            I have mentioned this... distinguished... true New England... ‘old rock’ several times but now define it and ...save the reader’s appreciation FOR it... and... that reader’s ...to be too... saved from its... siren’s sung-song wreck. 

A well cap stone is a thin (six to eight [‘five to seven’] inches thick) large flat... cut granite stone, usually between four and five feet wide by five to six feet long... with an ‘in dead center’ twelve to sixteen inch circular hole pierced through it... by hand.  The notion of function is that the ‘cap stone’ sits on top of the... hand dug field stone wall lined well of drinking water for a ...colonial New England home (but continuing as a ...design form in New England stone... into the 20^th century... because they... ‘worked so well’ [ha, ha; well.  Get it?] at ‘capping the well’ and many of those (drinking water wells) are... in New England... STILL BEING USED.

            My ...colonial property’s well... with its cap stone... IS STILL BEING USED.

            “Water” “fresh water”, “drinking water” and “WELLS”; these words alone should clearly be understood to direct the ‘know of’ a well... TO THE ‘hidden’ and ‘undisturbed’ directive of... “old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixtures”.  BUT...

These days... it is not fair play on ‘drinking water’ ‘wells’ in the NEW ‘congested’ New England....

            Right?  But this is not a chapter (blog post) about drinking water from wells in ‘old New England’.  It’s just about the ‘cap stone’ on TOP of the well... full of... drinking water.

            I’ll leave ‘water’ with “Drinking water:  You do that?”.  And stand on the... well cap stone.

            That is what this chapter (blog post) is about and WHY there is a ‘well cap stone’ too:  TO STAND ON IT when... one is... getting (drinking) water from the well.  This is very important to understand if one is seeking a real old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixture well cap stone.  This is what a well cap stone did and... for many, still does.  It (the cap stone) covers the well site area with a ROCK to stand on so one may not... ‘get wet’, ‘get muddy’, ‘muck up the area’, muddy the well, dirty the well water, make a mess of any sort ‘there’ and... generally... create a clean, dry, safe, pure, solid and NEVER CHANGING ‘well cap’ where one “GETS” the “WELL WATER” through the “HOLE IN THE CENTER”.  This last is... in its simplest “Jack and Jill” sense... accomplished by ...dipping a bucket through the hole at the center of the well cap and into the water.  Beyond... and it is a great beyond... the well cap... ANY and ALL SORTS of... ‘getting water from the well’ takes place... AROUND... and ...NOT ON... the well cap.  WHOLE LITTLE ‘well houses’ with ‘ANTIQUE’ hand water pumps and raised wooden floors and... bucket benches and chairs and tin cups and ladles and smiling giddy children splashing each other on hot summer days in the... cool wet world of the well... go on... without ever needing, noting, disturbing and ruining the ...big solid flat granite well cap... stone they are ‘built’ “AROUND”.

            It; the well cap stone... is the foundation of all Jack and Jill... well water adventure.  Therefore I now observe... in direct link to the above notice ‘This is very important to understand if one is seeking a real old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixture well cap stone’... that... at the well cap hole, at the top edge of the well cap hole and all around the well cap hole ... the surface of the colonial New England granite well cap stone will be... wonderfully... ‘worn smooth’ from ...a quarter millennium of ‘standing on’ ‘getting water’.  This is not a picture book ‘show you’.  It is not “THINK”.  IT IS... FEEL... it...:  FEEL IT... with your hand that a quarter of a millennium of feet have stood there... ‘drawing water’.  And, obviously, the further out to the outer edge of a ‘cap stone’ the less wear there is while right at the rim edge of the top of the hole...; ‘smooth as silk’.

            Accept no imitation.

            It, too, cannot be ‘faked’.

            THEY DO TRY to... yeah... ‘grind’ ‘in’ ‘fake wear’.

            “SEE”:  The little world that has a frog or two living in the runoff well water in the little water filled dip just off the well cap may be very suddenly and violently destroyed by a man and his rig (see Tim in Part Nine ) ‘planking’ the area ‘to the cap’ and then driving his ‘rig’ in as close as possible without having the well’s ‘wall’ ‘cave’ and ‘hooking through’ the ‘cap hole’ to the ‘short edge’ to (very carefully without scratching to preserve very consciously “DOLLAR VALUE”...) ‘tie off’ then ‘yank’ the ‘cap stone’ ‘free’, up, up higher and (backing out “beep, beep, beep... beep”) “AWAY”.

            Yeah they lean them up outside against the ...coastal route... “STORE” with the top forward and the hole in the center and ah...

            “YOU” drive by while driving by and... “YEAH I WANT ONE OF THOSE”.  So “YOU” buy it and “THEY” “deliver it” “TOO” and “NO PROBLEM”... dig a little hole with their little ‘rig’ and “plop it” in that hole with about two thirds of the “UP” to “SHOW THE HOLE”.

            “SHOW THE HOLE”.  OK?  Whose the hole?  Huh?

            It’s, like, a Zen expression that an idiot lives here?  “BOTH GONE” is the empty beside the front door, garden gate, driveway head of special

            Enlightened

            Empty circular emptiness “I”...

            So...

            There are not enough ‘old New England property (antique) granite well cap stones to ...fill the demand... so...

            ANYTHING WITH A HOLE... in it that is “ROCK” (“STONE”)... is out there leaning against the building TOO “FOR SALE”.

            AND “WE CAN HAVE ONE MADE (a large flat rock with a hole in the middle) IF YOU WANT”.

            AND... “I DON’T KNOW EXACTLY (where it came from) LIKE... INDIA... maybe MEXICO”... ‘imports’ TOO... so...

            So...

            Just go ahead and partially bury ‘upright’ a big flat rock with a hole in it on ‘the property’ to show what an

            Idiot

            “Lives here”.

            Obviously old New England property management offers only the option of ‘hidden’ to protect ‘undisturbed’.  I just never say the words ‘well’, ‘well water’ together with ‘ours’ ‘we have’ and

            “Would you like to see it?”

            Most passing through “don’t even know that could”  GOOD.  Well cap stone?

            Zero.

            I do not ever mention ANY fresh water ‘on property’ to ANYONE.  The principal users seem to ‘find it themselves’ (see frogs above).  The ‘capped’ well; the oldest colonial well on the property... with only ‘the spring’ being a ‘finished’ water source before it... is purposely ‘fenced’ with an ...apparently untended and heavily overgrown “OLD” wooden “FENCE” with an... old overgrown crab apple tree ‘below’ it with THAT tree helpfully having grown a large branch down ‘into’ the fenced area surrounding the obscured BY WEEDS (“THEY’RE NOT WEEDS”) cap stone that has a very, very, very old OAK (cut from the forest of the surrounding land) square rotting ‘cover’ over “THE HOLE” so that.... even if one bushwhacked one’s way ‘into’ “IT” (the well) one would be under attack by the crab apple branch above “THE HOLE” while one tried to ...

            Do what?

            “That’s right:  Go away.”

            I am not sorry to be this way for ...I don’t need it and the WELL DOESN’T NEED IT (a visitor) either.  And everything is JUST FINE DOWN HERE.  I get (hand dip) two buckets of ...old New England property... well water... up through the old New England property well cap hole and... walk over to the edge of the old New England property’s FOREST... past the old New England property’s STONE WALL and sit on a moss covered old New England sit-on-rock (Part Eight) and

            DUMP each bucket of the well water over my self as I sit there and...

            “Clean up’s a snap”.

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around Old New England Property (Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures - Part Ten - "Terrible Too's"

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around

Old New England Property

(Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures

Part Ten

"Terrible Too's"

            When I go down there (to the old cellar hole)... and am down inside there (the old cellar hole)... what am I doing?

            I “sort-ah nothing”.  One CAN do that.  Then I ‘sort-ah’... fuss around.  With the green growth.  The stone ‘walls’.  The cap stones.  The... “Yeah... that’s pretty NEAT.”  But ah.. the last group is... ‘sort-ah’ me... stuff (en-stuff).   I just get to seeing if THIS cellar hole pit has the... little hand made rock ‘exit’ hole for the ‘water to drain’ (out of the cellar hole) way down at the center bottom of the ‘low wall’ (low point of the cellar hole floor) that... feeds this water into a beneath (‘below frost’) freezing ground (four feet down) rock... canal... made of flat granite ‘field’ rocks (not cut stone)... playfully fitted (for in scale this construction be but ‘little rocks’ within the whole of ‘the rocks’ of a ‘the cellar hole)... to form an underground sluice way off and away (underground) to an... underground... ‘dry well’ that is too, underground; a field stone capped rock lined hole (round or square) of empty buried underground space to be.. available to be... filled with (run off) water... ‘sluiced away’ from the... cellar hole... after, for example ‘a real toad strangler’ flash flood type ‘downpour’.

            “AH WHO CARES” and one can’t even SEE the damn thing unless one ‘knows to look’ “THERE” and get down on one’s all fours in the cellar pit dark and PEEK “THERE” and...

            Anyway... the whole ‘gosh-darn’ apparatus is ‘YOU CAN’T SEE IT’...

            But it’s there.

            We use ours at the house... all the time.  Water comes in (to the cellar) up by the ‘sits on ledge’ (Part Six ) and ‘goes out’ into the sluice and dry well by the ‘bottom’ (low spot) of the ...cellar hole.

It was made to do that.  Someone... ‘made that’ to ‘do that’... in the 1740’s.  ‘Works perfect’.  Too.

            Everything... of this household system... except the little ‘hole’ at the very, very bottom of the low wall...

            Is buried.

            So if ... I may actually... see one (the rock lined sluice and dry well) that means it be, as is called... “exposed”.  I ...study it.

            USUALLY the reason it has been ‘exposed’ is ‘by a bulldozer’ either ‘filling it (the cellar hole) in’ or ... ‘preparing’ the ‘site’ for a ‘NEW FOUNDATION’ (poured cement... basement...)  Usually the ‘they’ just ‘crunch that up” (the sluice) and “push it” into the dry well).

            And that’s the end of that... authentic colonial New England property... (antique) granite landscape fixture; the cellar hole’s drainage sluice and dry well.

            I did. one day, come upon a woman who had gone to ‘digging’ around an “IS THIS AN OLD CELLAR HOLE?” in her back yard ‘off’ of the ‘driveway’.  She, somehow, picked a ‘start here spot’ of the low spot of the cellar hole’s field stone walls.

            (The cap stones were already gone) (Part Nine).

            She was on the OUTSIDE of the low wall digging down it.  She ‘hit” the first cover stone of the sluice way at the base of the wall and

            Exposed it and

            Pulled it off and

            Revealed the sluice way and

            I told her what had happened and all about ‘it’ and...:

            “I’d put that cap rock back if I were you”.

            “Why?”

            “Well it’ll keep dirt out of the sluice and it will still work”.

            “Work?”

            “Yeah it’s probably clear all the way to the dry well so I’d keep it clear”.

            “Oh.”

            She ended up digging up the whole sluice all the way to the dry well.  She exposed that (the sluice AND the dry well) and

            Decided that (the empty dry well... about : “twelve feet” [her reckon] ‘deep’) was “danger-rouse” so

            She filled that (the dry well) in... using a tractor (this household system is ... was originally... all hand dug)... and has left the ‘exposed’ sluice to... just sit there exposed... so... “NOW” it’s been exposed long enough that it is ‘full of”.

            “Yep” to that.

            Back at the current “Yeah... that’s pretty NEAT.” visit to my “this cellar hole” I finish with my ‘the drain’ fuss in

            Thirty seconds so capture the next seconds of moment to fuss over

            The ‘set’ of ‘cut granite’ being used to... as originally intended, designed, accommodated (“built for”), cut, hauled, set and “PLACED”... old colonial granite quarried stone slabs... to be used as steps to ...step down into the cellar hole from outside the house.  It (this step down) is today’s house basement ‘bulkhead door’ entrance

            HERE FOUND

            As colonial era old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures.

            “DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THOSE (partially buried granite slabs) ROTTING

            DO WE”.

            “Nice”, old, been there ‘forever’.

            “Leave ‘em alone”... except for walking in and out... on.  I’m always walking in and out, up and down... on the ones at the house.  I am very well aware of them and I... as I and them... step our cross paths... all the time... do ‘nod to them’ in honor.

            Most people would like to say “TAKEN FOR GRANITE” (ha, ha) but

            Most people ‘don’t know of them or have ever seen’

            “THAT”.

            Every now and then I show ‘em off; a ‘see-what-we-got’ of an (antique) granite landscape fixture.  I, having a colonial New England ‘bulkhead’ do...

            Have something to show off.

            Most ‘bulkhead’ ‘steps’ I tread on... and... I do in the course of the antiques business tread-on-by-me many so... I do have the ‘note that’ and the ‘eyeball that’ and the...

            MOST ‘bulkhead steps’... are crummy, rotting, two by twelve ‘wood’ OR a ‘package’ “STEEL” bulkhead door “UNIT” from... a big box store that some contractor... or builder ‘shoved in there’.

            “QUALITY” in bulkhead steps... IS defined in old New England homes by... HAND quarried granite slabs being used as steps ‘there’ (the exterior entryway into ‘the cellar’ (hole).

“Yeah... that’s pretty NEAT.” but that is all I give; a ‘terrible two too’s’ of cellar hole pit ...thirty second discovery ruminations for

            I have to not bore the reader with (antique) granite iota of MY personal intrigue and do need to return to the now-should-be-pretty-obvious that my original ‘dug cellar’ admonition of policy... of...

            “Hidden” and “Undisturbed” (Part Seven) is traveling rapidly toward the “GUY’S MAKING SENSE”... code enforcement...?

            NOW one easily notes that an ‘on property’ colonial era ‘dug cellar’ ‘hole’ WITH... the... ‘old New England property’... (antique) GRANITE ... ‘still there’... IS

            “Quite the landscape fixture AIN’T IT!”

            To have.

            That it is ‘the big one’; the ‘hard to get – hard to manage’ (property management) classic of ‘old New England’ property including its ‘saga’ and, well....  “HELL”:  Its... genealogy.  TOO.

“YEAH” the right then when I STAND UP in the cellar pit... my HEAD would bump the ‘once there’ floor boards above; the FLOOR of the HOME where... folks (the family) were... conceived, born, grew-up, lived, aged, seniled, deteriorated, died and “laid out” to “stay up” with the body... TOO.  Then ‘cemetaried’ out back. (I’m not treating those in this vignette.  They are often ‘on the [old New England] property’ but usually not truly OF the property.  That is... they are “already protected” (?).  IN addition too... most people are a ‘already being there on that’ [old cemeteries]).  One may though... research a cellar hole... and find a lot... of a lots of... “THAT FAMILY THAT LIVED THERE”.  A privilege to do that with one’s OWN ‘on property’ but may be a do... too... on anyone’s... anyone... ‘happen’ to... a “THAT” “old” cellar hole... too.

            “FAMILY (head) WAS A CAPTAIN IN THE REVOLUTION”, etc.

            So...

            A... cellar hole... personal encounter fact:

            I ‘pick a number’... of... saying ‘of fifteen’ for sure but most probably ‘of twenty’ cellar ... holes... I... “LOOK AT” (and I do stop and take notice)... only

            ONE of them is

            UNDISTURBED.

            And that ‘pick a number’ is ‘going fast’.

            “Precious” is a current word to title a cellar hole that is ‘hidden’ and ‘undisturbed’

            Precious.

            And ‘going fast’

            The rest are, well... ‘filled in’ on off to a how about “JESUS:  LOOK AT THAT”... to be... ‘my sunken garden we MADE IT from a CELLAR HOLE’.  Don’t worry if you got ‘stuck’ with ‘hole’ on your property:  The fine young man who drives the landscape service truck “had a really good idea of what to DO ABOUT THAT.  HE MADE A GARDEN OUT OF IT” including... lowering a... cast cement Italianate... bench... down into the bottom of it for... do you really think your gonna SIT on that

            Piece of cast cement

            Junk?

            “BIRD FEEDER you say?”

            “Oh... bird BATH... ok.”

            “A sundial”.

            “Oh.”

            “PICTURES JUST LIKE IN A MAGIZINE; he took them, the LAWN CARE GUY so he could SHOW PEOPLE WHAT

            We

            DID.”

            “IT’S SO NICE when we”.  (Do you EVER go down “THOSE STEPS WERE THERE”  and... what do YOU do down there... ever?  Not only is the [are the cap stones still there?] “foundation” weed whacked weekly but “THEY” [the landscape guys] use a [spray bottle] of WEED KILLER... too).

            “It’s just BEAUTIFUL; What you’ve DONE

            “With it”

            (The old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixtures

            “you own”).