Trimming Grass and Weeds Around Old New England Property (Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures - Part Thirteen - "Off... Over There" - (B)

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around

Old New England Property

(Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures

Part Thirteen

"OFF... Over There"

(B)

            AT the ‘this’ quarry site... a man ‘cutting stone’ at ‘the quarry’ (back pasture line ledge below the cranberry bog) could ‘look back’ across the newly cleared ‘pasture’ to ...not only the future home site with the rock lined ‘hand dug’ cellar hole awaiting the cap stones... but most probably also the... the front door of the log cabin ‘temporary’ ‘house’.  ‘Temporary’ means ten to fifteen years as ‘principle residence’ before “THE HOUSE” “IS FINISHED”  (Actually... ‘is made’; they [colonial New England homesteads] were rarely ever ‘finished’).  ANYWAY... a man looking back could... see his wife at the cabin door... with their children there too... and THEY could see him

            “OFF” “OVER THERE”

            “CUTTING STONE”

            One... ‘tunk, turn’ hole... at a time... for years.

            “YOU WANT TO MAKE A BET” that the FIRST cut stone was a FINISHED... door step... FOR HER at HER log cabin door.  Wonder why they ‘have wonderful wear’ and are called by I ‘an absolute jewel’? (Part Seven).  NOW YOU KNOW.

            The front door step... was not the ‘last thing he did’.  AND, idiots, WHEN the step was “PLACED” they (she and he) did NOT show the ‘half drill holes’ “OUT” like IDIOTS do today when they “PUT” ...what they call ‘steps’ but are actually ‘pieces of cut stone being used as steps’... “THEM” with the ‘drill holes’ (halves) “SHOWING”.

            Ok?

            Not only does it show ‘you know nothing’ but... it is... by granite craft standard... (stone cutting) ‘bad taste’.  DON’T WORRY; once one ‘starts’ ‘looking’...you’ll ‘see’ lots of “THAT” (‘holes out’) often... trust me.

            So... some guy is out below the cranberry bog sitting on his butt doing ‘tunk, turn’ for fifteen years in the 1740’s on a twelve foot high and two hundred foot long ... granite ledge.  All ...the old New England property’s... ‘cut’ ‘granite’ ‘comes’ ... from there; “OFF OVER THERE”.  WHY is this a pot of gold?

            Because it takes TIME to quarry the granite, move the granite, finish the granite and... by the time one gets around to ‘making’ ‘granite troughs’ (Part One) on one’s old New England property... as a decorative landscape fixture...:

            TIME.

            Time, at an old New England property granite quarry... IS the pot of gold for it

            Assures

            A pure strain of labor, a pure strain of material and a PURE STRAIN of FINISHED...

Truly ‘hand’ ‘made’... ‘product of’... OF and upon an

Old New England Property...with... management of ...creation... fabrication... placement... usage... historic usage... and

Preservation OF

Too.

            The ...preservation of

            The

            Old New England Property (antique) granite landscape fixtures...

            That were made

            By a man

            During the colonial era of New England

            Sitting on his butt

            For years

            “OFF... Over there”.

            He ‘came in’ for ‘dinner’.

            He would wake up and get up... inside the... dirt floor log cabin... ‘before light’ and... “do chores’ and... ‘eat (a very small, bland and repeating the same over and over for years) breakfast’ “at first light” and then “go to work”.

            IF... he ‘did this right’ by HIS self determined work cycle... he would (‘could’)... wind up the morning (6 to 7 hours later) butt down... in the shade... ‘on the rock’ (ledge) ‘off... over there’ at ‘tunk, turn’ ‘drilling’ a ‘couple more holes’ until “dinner” is... “time”. 

            Then he would join the family for ‘dinner’.  This repast ...on old New England pioneer settlement properties was... an ever (“hopefully”) improving ‘bountiful table’ of... ‘en stuff like... corn... grown between the stumps... in the ‘cleared pasture’ between... the cabin and the ‘ledge’ “off over there”.

            Yummy and with a full stomach THEY (the whole family in some capacity) went back to work... until a ...late, late, late... afternoon ‘supper’ and MORE ‘return to work’ ‘until dark’.  The net propellant of this expenditure of human energy?

            TIME.

            “THEY” “HAD THAT”.

            Today... I know:  “Your late”.  So now we know how that eight foot solid granite foundation cap stone ‘was made’... and WHY ...THEY... (the whole family) would be, well... let me call it ‘proud’ ‘of that’... ‘cut’... ‘stone’

            “IT’S TOO BIG TOO USE AS MY STEPS”.

A quarter of a millennium passes and ‘some idiot’ ‘buys it’?

            “I WANT ONES FOR STEPS”.

            So I’m back there in high school already grubbing “OLD BARNS” for “OLD TOOLS” “TO SELL” and ... most of them that I find ‘don’t’ ‘sell’ because... nobody cares AND no one ‘will pay’ ‘anything’ for ‘them’.  No problem; I sell what I can and...

            WELL: ‘Star drills’ for cutting stone “ALWAYS” are turning up before me in “OLD BARNS”... “FILLED WITH (old) TOOLS.

            I’m gonna go on a little tangent here... about old New England barns and their old tools.  I just chatted with a gent (cussed old Maine Yankee... on his... old New England property... of eleven generations... with his family still... “OWNER”)

            About... old barns and old tools and we were making fun of...

            WELL:  There are these ...MEN... who... “like”... to have ‘every tool they have’ in an IS IN ‘its proper place’ and...

            That, and certainly THAT... if... one is antiques hunting old tools in old New England barns... is... “no thank you” in addition to being a denoting THAT kind of MEN too... as the old gent related: 

            “That barn (his barn) has a little space cleared on one work bench.  I work there.  My father worked there.  My grandfather worked there (at that small cleared space).  There has never, ever been any other cleared space in that barn ever.  It (all work space, work area, any space, all space the... whole barn’s space) has always been bailed full of

            Tools.”

            If it is not that kind of barn... it is not the kind of barn... that I ‘go into’ AND

            I HAVE MYSELF.

            AND... understand that

            Any OTHER kind of old New England barn... is ignored TOO.

            So out in these barns are ‘piles’ of ‘tools’ that, believe it or not, are, to the barn user, ‘organized’.  That does not mean like YOUR ‘organized’.  YOU WISH you could have an old New England property with an old barn full of old tools that ...you could “GO THROUGH” (organize)

            GET AWAY FROM ME (us).

            “OFF... Over there” in these barns “SOMEWHERE I GOT” ‘star drills’.  Something like that is commonly ‘pitched’ in a “THAT” “GENERAL” “AREA” and one ‘digs down to it’ IF one is ‘seeking’, for example, a ‘star drill’.  Or two.

            Or eleven generations of them.

            So I started MY box of star drills in HIGH SCHOOL because they ‘don’t sell’ and FORTY-FIVE YEARS LATER and after moving “that box” around with a ‘have to use a dolly’... for TWO decades... at least... because I “HAVE SO MANY” I

            “Flipped” the box into the truck one morning and took it (this “I’m never gonna use these”... one hundred and fifty pound wooden box lot of ‘old star drills’ ‘for cutting stone’) to the

            FLEA MARKET and

            SOLD IT

            To a ‘rock guy’ who had to go get his ‘rock guy’ friend to “HELP HIM” figure out (determine the cash value) of the lot and eventually after ‘dickering’ (“NO.”) and trying to dicker (“NO.”) they ‘bought it (the box) and ‘lugged it away’ (one on each end).

So I’m ‘out of star drills’ right now although “probably” “out there” (in the barn) there “IS ONE” “lying” (‘to be buried in a particular place’) around”.

            Who cares... I’m not ‘drilling holes in ledge’ and most “TODAY” (facebook) people ‘don’t even know’.

            But... well...

            Well... but... actually... there is a little ‘old rock cutting tool’ wonder... thing... that... well I do have one... and it is a ‘good one’... as these ...old rock cutting tool wonder thing... found in old barns on old New England properties... go.

            This is... “like”... a ‘feather in the cap’ sort of ‘up yours’ to “TODAY” people kind of old New England property... (antique) granite landscape fixture.  Yeah... that’s right... I just said that it is an appropriate... ‘of good taste’ ...old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixture... that one could ...well... “HAVE”.

            “It’s a weed whacker?”

            When the ... old New England property settler ‘guy’ is ‘off over there’ sitting on the ledge ‘cutting stone’ by drilling holes... in the ledge... he... MAY

            MAY

            MAY

            Possibly had a ‘this tool’.

            It is called a ‘spoon’.  It is a ...oh how about twelve to sixteen inch... thin (3/8”) hand wrought iron ‘shaft’ with... at one end... a rounded, blacksmith (actually done by the settler himself out ‘by the cabin’) beaten, thin, curled and ‘dished’ “SPOON” that is for

            DIPPING

            Down into the ‘hole’ “HE” is drilling to scoop out the “DUST” from the drilling process; the ground up ledge created by the drill.  He scoops this out to ‘clear the hole’ so he can ‘keep drilling’.  “MAY possibly have this tool” is because most often “HE” did not and “HE” ‘cleared the hole’ by lying to his side and ‘blowing’ the hole ‘clear’ with his breath.  BUT... we all enjoy luxury and ...not having to lie on his side and huff and puff ‘stone dust’... is because he had a  TOOL for that called ‘a spoon’.  For ‘dipping’ stone ‘dust’.

            These tools... are found... in old New England barns... on old New England properties and...

            VERY almost no one ‘knows about them’.

            So there is no commercial market for them due to that (the no-know), their actual scarcity, the ‘who cares’ factor and the always helpful ‘no one is there’ factor.  This last means that EVEN IF SOME ______ gets all the way into one them old ‘full of old tools’ barns... they will, politely I say, ‘miss this’ ...old tool.

            The actual source, aside from an ‘in old barn’ find (with THAT being a ‘may take place WELL AFTER “WE CLEANED THE BARN OUT” but ‘missed this’ “Huh”) is tweedly little ‘antiques sales’ and flea market tool tables, box lots and / or ‘rusted junk’ piles.  Et al.  “YEP” rarely more than “TWO DOLLARS”.  Most... antique granite dust dip spoons... ‘look like that’ too; “TWO DOLLARS?”

            This... then... because... a ‘stupid’ homemade ‘spoon’ is NOT much to look at (“SHOW MY FRIENDS”) and so... therefore too ...no one is going to listen to one stammer on “ABOUT IT”.  I know THAT from the front line.

            Soooo.... “WE” may now quietly enjoy our “SPOON”.  The one I have has the slim and trim by purpose ‘spoon’ tip at the base of a thin square (!) iron shaft that has, in antiquarian trade terms, a ‘great look, nice surface and ‘feels good’ ‘in the hand’ “TOO” but ALSO

            At its ‘other end’ is a “THAT’S NICE” ‘rat tail’ iron “decorative” twist. 

            “Decorative” it is but it is NOT there as decoration.  This twist was intentionally established on the ‘other end’ to, also, be dipped down into the drill hole to, by twisting the rat tail... loosen the ever getting packed in... ‘stone dust’ that, for example, in ‘wet conditions’ DID PACK IN... “hard”.  Not only is the rat tail “REAL NICE TO LOOK AT but Mr. Sit On Butt ‘used it’.  Too.

            This particular specimen of old New England dust spoon tool... with this ‘extra’ rat tail tool... is ‘a rare occurrence’.  The spoons...; a ‘JUST the SPOON’... tool... one will find when ‘doggedly hunted’.  This... deluxe double tool ‘stone spoon’... is rare at the get-go so... but... keep the eye out.

            WHEN one ‘get theirs’... please... no showing off; no show and tell.  Just... a ‘put it there’ and ‘have it around’.  The people one wants to talk with about this... old New England... curiosity... will know what it is.  Others (the not-know-what-it-is) are in the ‘dubious merit’ group.  That’s a very large group of  “I LIKE” (old New England property [antique] granite landscape fixtures).  Are they, in the end, the weeds and grass that need to be trimmed... from around... the old New England property ...(antique) granite landscape fixtures?

            We now are prepared... with back ground and setting... to ...mention...

            Old Stone Walls

            On old New England Property

            “I LOVE THE OLD STONE WALLS” (of old New England).