The Big Deal

Where to begin? I've been looking forward to this post for at least a week, and now that it's here, I feel like I have expectations to meet. To settle my nerves, I am going to ask you to lower your expectations, not anticipate any tantalizing news and refrain from scrolling down through this post to see pictures of one of the first stone plantation homes built in Virginia, still lived in by 10th generation descendants of the original builder, who also happened to be Father-in-Law to Francis Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence who is buried on the plantation. Don't expect anything like that.

I got an email about a coop and a fence a couple weeks ago from Catherine, who lives in a 250-year-old plantation home built by John Tayloe II, her husband's Great, Great, (repeat for a minute or two) Grandfather. The whole estate is called the Mount Airy Plantation and is a registered National Historic Landmark. They host events, offer tours and guide whitetail, turkey and duck hunts on their 2,000 acre property. Catherine oversees the organic flower and vegetable gardens spreading out below the home's raised bowling green. I probably shouldn't share this publicly, but I got a little emotional (in the way manly men occassionally do) after reading her email. She told me she had been searching for a building that would look right on their property, but couldn't find anything appropriate until she saw some of my coops. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, I'm just trying to convey the sense of validation I felt for days afterward, like Kevin Costner after those old baseball ghosts showed up to play ball in his cornfield. The voice in my head kept saying, "If you build it, they will find you on the internet", and they did. Feels good.

A couple tid-bits about the Tayloe family (don't bail on me yet, you know I didn't major in history for nothing!): Colonel John Tayloe I was a big-time colonial planter on the King's Council (back when the Old Dominion was English soil), his son John Tayloe II built Mt. Airy (still housing Tayloes today) and his son John Tayloe III built the famous Octagon House (reportedly the most haunted house in DC) in DC's Foggy Bottom neighborhood. The estate is still a working farm (1,400 acres of it anyhow) and belongs to the uber-cool club of museum worthy properties that are still being used the way they always have been. We took a little detour on our way up to Grandma's last Friday to meet Catherine, check out the grounds, talk about coops and get a general feel for the place. I don't want to weigh you down with any more reading than is absolutely necessary (which everything has been thus far), so I will leave you a brief anecdote before we bust into the photos.

Both our phones died near the end of our 3+ hour trek to the Northern Neck, and our brain-dead VW refused to charge either of them; so, we followed signs to Warsaw, relying on my confidence that there would probably be just one McDonald's adjacent to a road that would eventually have a sign reading Mt Airy, as I recalled from an earlier email. My navigational prowess was confirmed when, after touring the entire length of the town a time or two, we hit the brakes and put it in reverse after passing an unassuming driveway with a tiny sign reading Mt Airy. We were in the midst of questioning my navigational prowess (a terrible mistake, I know) when a gator (4-wheel-drive off-road golf cart on steroids) whizzed around the VW hauling four mop-topped blonde hair boys hanging commando style off the sides, toy guns in the air, hooting and hollering down the driveway and out of sight. I already had a sense that these folks were some good people, but that little scene totally sealed the deal. We followed them up to the house and spent the next hour or so strolling about, talking history, gardening, chickens, kids and a little business. I left with an overwhelming sense of childlike excitement. I don't know who else gets to experience such excitement in their daily work, right now I'm still coming down from the joy of realizing people will pay me to do this stuff.

So, there you have it. I'm building a sweet, period-appropriate

coop for a super cool, historic property and it's a big deal for me. I'm commissioning some hand-forged iron hardware for this build too, if I'm lucky, maybe we can get some action shots of that when the time comes... we'll see.

Entrance from the road.

Georgie with the boys. He blended in so well, they might not have noticed if we had left him there.

Front of the house. Brinn felt a little awkward stepping out of the car and going straight into photo shoot mode, so this shot doesn't give justice to the house's awesomeness. The two deals on the side curve out to separate wings, which are basically houses themselves. It is incredibly impressive.

The back of the house.

Johnny the bird dog and the little pup in the garden. Nice clover cover crop.

This dog's got a good life.

This wall is what remains of the colonial-era orangery, basically a giant greenhouse where they grew citrus trees in the 18th and 19th centuries.

One of the outbuildings.

I don't want the rest of the pictures I have to feel like a tag along, but I had to dedicate this post to my big news. Also important, the follow-up to the Goaty Wonderland project; which is really a post in it's own right, but I don't want to do back-to-back posts. So, I'm just going to include the shots with captions.

I picked up this sweet new (old) drawknife at the antique place in town. I've never seen one this big, the handles are still in good shape and it still had a surprisingly decent edge on it when I bought it. This thing's a meat eatin' machine on these cedar poles.

Yes, Georgie is cranking a boat winch attached to the top of this makeshift tripod to "help" me stand it up. No, it is not as safe as it looks.

Stress testing the ramps. Strong like bull.

Giving it a go.

Conquering the tower.

I don't stand behind my work, I stand on it. If it ain't stout enough to support my robust presence, it ain't good enough. I don't know why my eyes are closed.

Brinn was laughing about what must be going through the minds of people who drive past our house.

This is easily half my day... "How's that gonna work?"

Georgie pretending to be a goat.

He wanted to move in.

The Tiered Platform Thing, also one of Georgie's favorites.

Gerogie's job was to hand me the screws.

This sight got more than a look or two going down the road.

I got the truck and trailer completely stuck on a hill behind their house. I had to unload everything, unhook and move the trailer before I got the truck loose. Luckily we were able to get everything back on the trailer and move it across the hill with this front end loader. Country life at its finest.

Goaty Wonderland.

Also Goaty Wonderland.

Georgie feeding Simon. He wants goats now, I think I do too.

Things are going to get pretty interesting around here over the next several weeks. So stay tuned.

-F.W.