Stonehouse Park

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-03T07:22:00.001-07:00

It's a beautiful weekend and we are open for camping! Come on out. Tent camping is $10 per person per night. Kids 12 and under are free. RV camping is $35 a night. We sell ice, firewood, drinks and snacks in our camp store. Hope to see you soon.

Stonehouse Front Patio

2010-06-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Gregg and Matt raking gravel and then compacting it for the base of the patio.
Gregg and Matt using sand and screed rods to level the area where the pavers will be laid.
Ellie laying pavers.
Ryno using the hammer drill to remove a little bit of concrete that was in the way.

Ryno laying pavers.

Pavers are laid and waiting for sand to be swept between the cracks.
Elvis admiring the finished patio.
The finished patio.

The finished patio, complete with bench and flowers.

Siding the 3Bay Barn

2010-06-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Shack

2010-06-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

We have been working very hard on improving the appearance of the Stonehouse Basement Shack.

First we put on a new cedar shake roof to replace the old asphalt shingles. In this picture you can see the bit of eaves and clapboard I painted green last week, and you can also see the lovely new cedar siding going up on the kitchen.

We then evened out the rough stone sides of the basement shack so we could screw in furring strips.

Note the poison ivy on Josh's arm - almost everyone had it last week.

Then we cedar sided the shack. A few more finishing details and it will be done. Pictures to come!

Ellie on the Roof

2010-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

I believe I have uttered the words "This is my least favorite job here EVER" on more than one occasion. Not that I don't like the work we do here, but every once in a while I find myself doing something so rediculous it qualifies as my least favorite job.

Today I tried to paint the house eaves. I dragged a tarp, a scraper, a bucket of paint and a brush up the ladder to the roof. Now, the Stonehouse roof is almost comfortable to walk on but a little too steep to sit on without sliding down. It certainly isn't flat enough for a bucket of paint to stay upright when left to its own devices. I spread out the tarp under the eave, hooked the bucket over one arm, grabbed onto the adjoining roof with the same arm, and tried to paint with the other arm. Immediately the tarp and I began slipping down the roof. I dug in with my elbows and heels and got an armful of splinters for my trouble. As we were inching down the roof I managed a few furious strokes of green paint, then everything (the tarp, the bucket, the brush and I) had to be hauled back up a few feet. Repeat numerous times, with me clinging to the roof by my fingernails while flailing about under the eave with the brush, my hat covered in paint, and the sun in my eyes. It was awful and I was not the epitome of grace. (I was not in any danger, however, as the kitchen roof was right below me and would have caught me safely if I had slipped all the way off.)

Meanwhile the men were having a lovely time siding the kitchen. In the shade. Excellent work as usual, men. It looks great. :)

On the Roof Again

2010-05-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

The house roof, that is. The cedar shake we put on last year have gone all nice and grey, and the new ones are all nice and fresh. It was HOT up there today!

Clearing Up a Misconception

2010-05-25T17:52:00.001-07:00

Dear readers,

A couple weeks ago we got a lot of rain and had a pretty significant amount of water land in the park. To be exact, we went from having a few puddles at 7 AM on Thursday, May 13 to having 4 feet of rushing water on the ground by 7:30 AM. At the time we believed the deluge to be the result of Shabbona Lake State Park opening their floodgates. Shabbona is upstream from us and their lake feeds into the Big Indian Creek. The Big Indian meanders down from the lake, widening gradually as it goes, and runs through our property before heading further south where it eventually feeds into the Fox River in Ottawa, Illinois.

We were concerned that Shabbona seemed to have the ability to flood us at a moment's notice. We worried about the fate of any Stonehouse campers who happened to be in the way when the gates were opened so we spoke with the Shabbona park ranger. He very nicely assured us that while they do have a spillway, they don't use it to create floods. In fact, Shabbona Lake State Park helps control flooding by taking in and storing large amounts of rainwater and run-off. The mechanism for their spillway is 40 feet underwater and while divers could go down and open it under dire circumstances, they certainly don't do so as a general practice.

The ranger we spoke with believes that the flooding we get almost every spring is a result of our being in a very low lying area which happens to be at the locus of several tributaries, ditches and creeks. Unfortunately there isn't anything at all we can do about that and he suggested that we should be prepared for flooding anytime we get very large quanties of rain like we did two weeks ago. So, the good news is that Shabbona Lake State Park isn't negligently dumping their overflow on us, but the bad news is that avoiding flooding (or even being aware that floods are coming) isn't as simple as flipping a switch.

That being said, we will make sure that anyone who is camping here early next May is camping on high ground, and that anything and everything that could float away is tied down. :)

Sincerely,
Ellie

Widow's Peak Music Festival, May 21-22

2010-05-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

(I didn't get many pictures at night which is when most of the action happened so these pictures are not exactly representative of the festival - these are the shots I caught as I wandered during the day.)

A Thing of Beauty To Behold

2010-05-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

It's the old concession stand on the bathhouse. Horrible, isn't it?

We tore the whole thing down. Then we built a nice retaining wall, sided the back of the building, put in windows, and filled the foundation of the concession stand with rubble and dirt, as you can see here.

And WA-LAH, here is the finished product, a thing of beauty to behold.

Widow's Peak

2010-05-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend we will be hosting the Widow's Peak Music Festival. They were here last year and will be back bigger and better this time around. They have a beautiful website at www.widowspeakmusicfestival.com where you can find information about the bands and buy tickets. We would love to have you attend the festival.

If you are interested in volunteering at the park before, during or after the festival (volunteers are our favorite people) we always welcome your help. Leave a comment here or contact me at ellie@stonehousepark.net for more information. Thanks!

Airsoft Milsim Event, May 15-16

2010-05-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

There are more pictures here.

(Yes, those are Airsoft wounds on his face - and his tongue.)

Flood 2010

2010-05-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Shabbona Lake State Park opened their floodgates this morning, which means we are now nearly underwater.

Here's the fighting field:

Campsites:

Castle pieces floating by:

Ryan and Ryno:

Water bubbling UP from underground (that's not good):

The Marner:

The castle:
Chuck's field:

Murdoch's Meadow:

The bunker:

The Big Indian Creek:

The McInerney's field:

The pond:

More rain is expected this afternoon. We HAVE shut off power to the campground. :)

Rising Lash Zombie LARP, May 7-9

2010-05-09T16:47:00.001-07:00

There are more pictures here.

Making Dinner

2010-05-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

The men made dinner a few days ago out on the pavilion. They did a bang-up job.

Look, matching aprons! Note that the aprons even match the truck and the barns. Wowee.

It wouldn't have been as good or as fun as it was without the help of Matt, Mel, Bo, Barley, and their attendant gifts. Thanks, guys. We appreciate you.

Ryno, whom I appreciate greatly for all his hard work last weekend, would like to say Howdy to all you readers. HOWDY!

More NERO Pictures

2010-05-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

There are more pictures here.

NERO National Event, April 30 - May 2

2010-05-02T13:53:00.001-07:00

Buckley Homestead, Lowell, IN

2010-05-01T19:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I visited the Buckley Homestead Living History Farm in Lowell, Indiana, a county-owned facility that hosts events like we do. This weekend they hosted a very large World War II Tribute with probably 200 reenactors, over 3000 spectators, and lots of vendors and support people.

The group that runs the Late Winter WWII Tactical here at Stonehouse thought we could learn something from Buckley in terms of site set-up, event organization, and advertising, so they suggested we make the trip and see how Buckley does things.

I got to spend some time speaking with Buckley's site supervisor, whose job presents challenges much like ours. They have historic buildings and a lot of acreage, presenting the need for constant repair and maintenance. They host events both large and small on a regular basis and have to balance park maintenance with event hosting. The site supervisor has been there about 30 years and said that the most important things to have are good reliable staff, a good reliable check-list for daily, weekly, and event-specific times, and lots and lots of volunteers.

I spent a lot of time looking at their infrastructure. They have several paved roads and lots of trails. The trails are composed of bark chip over gravel. The bark chip is renewed on a yearly basis. The gravel has to be completely dug out and replaced about every 15-20 years to prevent too much build-up, but the trails were very attractive looking and the WWII guys said that they hold up even under very muddy conditions.

Of course I looked at bathroom facilities. They have several custom-built pit toilet outhouses like the one below - I was told they sit over 3000 gallon tanks which have been operational for 4 years and have never been pumped out (a great thing in my opinion - perhaps I'll explain why in a later post). Pit toilets can be kind of gross but on the other hand they can be used year-round without having to worry about pipes freezing.

This particular toilet has a papa seat, a mama seat, and a baby bear seat.

And they have a tractor just like ours!

Fighting was held in corn fields owned by the park but farmed by tenant farmers.

Camps were set up in pastures and fields around the site - pastures normally inhabited by the horses, sheep and other animals that help make Buckley a working farm and living history site.

There is one major difference between us and Buckley - they are a county operation, not privately owned. That means their focus is more on education and public service. They have a support network in the form of county construction and maintenance crews and established routes of communication and advertising, but they are constrained by bureaucracy and public regulations.

It was a fun trip and I have lots of new things to think about. We are in the baby stages of learning to do what they have become experts at doing.

Will Lost His First Tooth Today!

2010-04-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Dinner

2010-04-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Dinner is brought to you by Event Season.

Event season means lots of people, lots of running around, lots of moving stuff from here to there, and not much time for eating dinner.

Tonight's dinner is composed of a half-eaten piece of toast with delicious raspberry-cherry jam and a White Russian. Yikes. You can see Ryno there in the background working to get ready for the event.

Don't get me wrong. We love event season - it's the reason we're here. Hope to see you at an event here soon. : )

Country Mouse

2010-04-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

Further proof that you can take a girl out of the city but you can't make her leave her coffee behind - here is my rigged coffee-cup holder on the ATV. Now I can ride around really fast and drink coffee at the same time. Ha ha.

Bathhouse Patio

2010-04-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

We got the back of the bathhouse resided. Looks pretty good, I think. The spot where the old concession stand stood was very low. We have been busy filling it with broken concrete gathered from around the park. Yesterday we staked and dug out a path for a new retaining wall. Below you can see the first few blocks laid out for the retaining wall (along with my morning coffee.)

We covered the broken concrete with dirt and got the rest of the retaining wall put in today. Next step will be gravel, sand, and pavers to make a nice patio.

Country Bliss - A New Tractor

2010-04-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

Love is in the air... we have a new tractor. Now everything is sunshine and flowers and the tractor this and the tractor that, and how impressed the men are with the tractor (it runs so quiet, it works so well, blah blah blah). I am almost jealous but on the other hand it is a really nice tractor.

Belegarth Spring War 2010 - Saturday Fighting

2010-04-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Saturday fighting. There are more here.

SHPortraits

2010-04-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

Belegarth Spring Wars @ Stonehouse

2010-04-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Q. If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?

2010-04-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

My family and I moved to the park last June, so we missed most of the early spring which is incidentally my favorite time of the year. I did some work at the edge of the woods today and was pleased and surprised to recognize some native Illinois plants:

Wild raspberry:

Wild geranium:

White trout lily (I think):

And ostrich fern:

A. Pilgrims (ha ha)

Today in Pictures

2010-04-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Concession Stand

2010-03-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

You didn't know we sold hot dogs and lemonade, did you? We don't! Here's why.

This was the old concession stand which was built onto the back of the bathhouse. It was in some bad shape.

Here's how it looked on the inside:

Given how AWFUL it looked and how rotten and dangerous it was our only option was to tear it down.

The whole thing was full of raccoon poop - especially in the ceiling panels, so that when you pulled them down it was like taking a dusty raccoon poop shower. There are little trails of dirt on the floor of the bathtub this morning from where we all washed it out of our hair. Yech.

Soon I'll post some more pictures of the work and hopefully the completed project. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the boys.

Wild Animals

2010-03-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Spring Shed

2010-03-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

If looking outside doesn't make it obvious that spring is here you can always look for other signs. Shedding hair in spring is an annual rite, for example, and the forest creatures loss of their winter coats is a sure sign that winter has ended.

(Ryan did shave and get a haircut, honestly, but it grew back so fast I didn't have time to take a picture. Amazing.)

3Bay Barn

2010-03-22T06:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we did some work in the 3Bay Barn. Some of the big upper beams were showing signs of age so we provided some support for them in the form of some mighty large 24-foot 2x12 boards. We also added the framework for some flood lights which will hang from the new boards. The scaffolding was set up in the barn beneath the beams in question. Then we hoisted the boards up using ropes and bolted them in place.

There are three sets of beams which need support and lighting added, so wash, rinse, repeat two more times - the scaffolding will be dismantled, moved over, and rebuilt beneath each set of beams.

Being Cold

2010-03-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago this little bit of snow and wind we are having now would have seemed balmy compared to the winter months of below-freezing temperatures, but apparently I have acclimatized to being warm very quickly this year. Yesterday while we were tromping around the park I wore my normal winter clothes (long underwear, heavy socks, boots, jeans, flannel shirt, sweatshirt, Carhartt jacket, hat, and insulated waterproof gloves) but I got cold very quickly and stayed that way the whole day. We will all be glad when the sun comes out again. :)

Tent for Rent

2010-03-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

These are our new canvas wall tents. They are 10 feet by 12 feet in plan, 8 feet high at the center pole and 5 feet high at the wall poles. The tents sit on a raised platform. These tents may be rented for events (Spring War, Armageddon, Airsoft, etc.) at a cost of $25 per night. If you are interested please contact us at ellie@stonehousepark.net.

Our (New) (Clean) Front Yard

2010-03-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

Mating Season

2010-03-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

For frogs, that is. The frogs have been going scree-scree-scree in the ditch all day.

I spent the day finishing the front-yard-cleaning project.

Junky wood went into the burn pile:

And good wood was hauled off to be split for firewood:

This is an amazing piece of bark from the old oak stump. It's about 2 inches thick and covered in poison ivy vines. You can tell poison ivy even in the winter by the "legs" that hold the vines onto the bark or barn board or whatever the ivy happens to be clinging to:

This is the hole in my glove through which I sincerely hope I have not been infected with poison ivy. If I get poison ivy before spring even officially starts I will be peeved.

This is the view from the ditch in the front yard. Flat.

And this, apparently, is the secret sleeping spot of Bakshi the Cat. He crept up while I was near the ditch in the front yard trying to take pictures of frogs (I failed) and curled up in a hole in the grasses like he had slept there a hundred times.

I Like Moss

2010-03-17T15:28:00.001-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Our Front Yard

2010-03-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Up until last weekend this was the view from our front door:

This is a picture of the house taken from the road:

And here are a few more pictures of the front yard taken from Suydam Road:

It's a bit overgrown, obviously. So we decided to do something about it.

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of how it looks now that it is all cleaned up.

Recent Things

2010-03-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

Gregg, Mike and Murdoch cleaning up some trees we cut down last fall:

The cistern, corn crib, and 3Bay:

The corn crib, 3Bay, and Banked Barn seen from other side of the park:

This is Tommy, also known as Trunk. He is the father of Dean, Tigre, and Bakshi. He has been coming up to the house recently for snacks and company:

Here is Will ready for school on a rainy morning:

Ryno says, "This is good."

We got some new tools - a drill press and a band saw:

We have been using the new tools to build benches:

Here is the camp store from one side:

And the other:
And last but not least, our beloved Stonehouse:

The Most Beautiful Day Ever

2010-03-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks or so we have been feeling spring rising up beneath us - the ground got soft and muddy under the snow and the trees started to swell up with buds - but yesterday it got warm from the top down. The snow melted. I saw a robin. The sun was shining. It felt like the Most Beautiful Day Ever.

There is one small green growing thing already, struggling along in a small lake made by snow melt and the sump pump. It looks as if Noah's dove might snatch it up as a sign that the water will recede.

Happy Spring

Bed & Breakfast

2010-03-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

A question has been asked about our plans to turn the Stonehouse into a Bed and Breakfast and how the B&B will function.

The Stonehouse has been a private residence up to this point. We have plans to turn it into a place that people can rent; either the whole house rented by one group or individual suites rented by individual guests. The house can function as a meeting place, an inn where food is served, or as a traditional B&B.

We intend to remodel the interior of the house in order to create 4 bedroom suites, each with a full bath, while restoring some of the original features of the house and correcting the structural and aesthetic issues that the house has developed over the last 147 years. The house will have a kitchen, a dining room, a parlour, and a sitting room with a fireplace.

The exterior of the house will get some new clapboard and paint. The area around the house will be regraded and landscaped. We plan to put in some nice sitting areas for drinking coffee and reading the paper as well as pathways and roads connecting the house with other areas of the park.

How the house functions as a rentable space will depend on what sort of guests we have staying here. To be honest, we aren't quite sure what that will look like yet. We assume that many of the people who will be interested in staying in the house will be here with a larger group; for example, if a military re-recreation group rents the entire park for a weekend, perhaps certain members or units of the group will rent the house for use as both a base of operations and sleeping accomodations. A living history group might rent the house as part of their efforts to bring a lost time period back to life. A wedding party renting the park for their ceremony or reception might choose to stay in the house instead of traveling to a hotel...and so on and so forth. On the other hand, we may get many guests who stay here independently of a large group. These guests may be looking for a more traditional B & B experience, or just hoping for a relaxing stay in farm country, and we intend to cater to their interests.

Hope that helps. We will try to keep you updated on our progress in the house and will be certain to let you know when the house is available for rent.

Website

2010-03-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

We worked on our website over the weekend. We added links to our blog and photos on the front page of the website. We added a "Coming Events" section to the front page also, which lets you know what groups we will be hosting soon. Click on their names to be directed to each group's website for more information about them.

We added a lot of photos to our Photos page, reorganized the albums, and are in the process of adding captions. We hope you find it easier to navigate and that you enjoy the photos.

The website can be found at www.stonehousepark.net.

Northwest Territory Alliance

2010-03-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Gregg gave a presentation to the Northwest Territory Alliance at their annual meeting in Highland, Indiana. The NWTA is a Revolutionary War re-enactment organization. You can learn more about them at http://www.nwta.com/.

Gregg and the rest of the Stonehouse Park staff would like to thank the NWTA for having us at their annual meeting. Hope to see you at the park soon!

Questions From the Floor

2010-03-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

Lest I bore you all with my rambling, I would like to open the floor for questions. Is anyone curious about anything we do or have done here at the park? Got any questions about what's coming up next? Something specific you would like to know about?

Leave a comment here or shoot one of us an email and we'll create a blog post that will hopefully address your questions.

Thanks for reading,
Ellie

Chopping Wood

2010-02-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

We are still cleaning up the back corner. Lots of stuff got hauled off or trashed over the weekend and now we are chopping our way through a pile of crappy wood and stumps.

Here's Ryno getting ready for work. Ryno ran the chain saw and worked very hard to cut up all the stumps that were too big to split.

This pile of wood is split and waiting to be stacked on pallets. That's the log splitter in the background. The guys normally run the log splitter (for some reason they seem hesitant to let me run heavy machinery...hmmm) but this time I learned how to start and run it myself.

And here is the back corner, partly cleaned up, with our first pallet of stacked wood. We ended up with 5 small pallets and one large pallet of firewood.

And here I am, safety glasses, bandanna and all. :)

Scrapping a Trailer

2010-02-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

Along with the park we inherited numerous old trailers and RVs. When I say "old" I mean it - some trailers have been in their current positions for decades and are often in awful shape. Others, newer or better cared for, have been moved here and there around the park as we tried to decide whether to junk them or keep them temporarily for storage or living quarters. The trailers pictured below were moved near the parking lot last summer for just that reason.

In the interest of getting things cleaned up (and realizing that we are going to be too busy to blink over the summer) we decided to do some trailer demolition last week. We are continually amazed at how much work goes into dismantling even a simple construction trailer like the one pictured below.

Starting from the inside out (and with the help of one of our most hardworking volunteers) we first stripped away the drywall, ceiling tile, and floor, along with any hardware like lights, ceiling fans or vents, and electrical wire.

We then pull out all the insulation (a nasty job) and haul it to the dumpster.

All the exterior cladding and other metal items are put in the metal trailer to be recycled.

Wood is taken to the burn pile.

The men knocked out the load bearing columns on one end of the trailer and scored the rest of the 2x4s holding up the roof. They tried to pull the roof down:

But it wouldn't budge, so next week we are going to take the backhoe to it.

Next week: Scrapping a Trailer, Part 2: Crunching a Trailer with a Backhoe

Junkyard

2010-02-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

Over the years the park has been a family farm, a campground, an RV park, and a historical re-enactment site. The amount of junk that has accrued over the years is considerable.
The junk makes the park look pretty bad. I feel sorry for our neighbors and friends who have to drive by such an eyesore every day. In the interest of cleaning up our park and making it a safe and happy place to be, we spend time every week sorting, moving, cleaning, storing and getting rid of vast quantities of weird stuff. The following is an inventory of one small corner of the park.

These are two culverts that we replaced last summer. Today we loaded them up to go to metal recycling.

Here is an old tractor, which we will probably clean up and display somewhere in the park.

This is the frame for the old honey wagon (a honey wagon is a machine that sucks poop out of RVs or portajohns). It is also destined for metal recycling.

Here are two fuel tanks that used to sit next to the corn crib. We can't quite decide what to do with them, or even if they are still usable. I suspect they will end up being recycled too. Behind them you can see two broken fiberglass paddleboats which are headed for the trash.

These are some old merry-go-round frames which we intend to restore and use. Behind them is a little trailer which bears a label indicating that at some point it belonged to the Illinois Secretary of State.

Ubiquitous propane tanks. I think we had a billion of them at one point. The gas company can't use the older tanks, and metal recycling won't take them unless they can be adequately assured that there is no danger of explosion - in other words, they have to be taken apart or punctured before we can recycle them.

Here you can see a little red truck that doesn't run and a wagon that has moss growing on it. The truck will be towed to the recycling and the wagon, which has a decent frame, will be repaired and rebuilt for our use.

We spent a lot of time today digging things out of the snow, hauling the stuff away or throwing it in the garbage, and chopping a pile of wood that has been lurking in this corner. Soon I will post some pictures of our newly improved back corner.

Winter Continues

2010-02-26T07:32:00.000-08:00

We have had snow on the ground since Thanksgiving and the winter is beginning to seem abysmally long. The kids haven't complained a bit and in fact they don't seem to have noticed that winter lasts longer here than in Champaign. Fortunately they cope well with both monotony and hectic change which stands them in good stead for life here at the park. They are happy campers as usual. We have seen two sure signs that spring is approaching. First, an infernal mud pit has developed at the intersection of our two most-used roads. I read a book about pioneers recently which said that in the mid-nineteenth century the deep ruts made by wagon wheels on the Oregon Trail (ruts made in the mid-eighteenth century) were still visible along the roads in that area. I believe it, given how quickly this mess has developed while the ground is still mostly snow-covered. Hopefully we will be able to put down some gravel here soon but the gravel pile is currently frozen solid.Here is the other sign of spring - growing buds on the American Lindens in the parking lot! It is gratifying to see that our baby trees made it through the winter.

New Computer

2010-02-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

I got a new laptop (the husband got tired of sharing) and a pen tablet. I love pen tablets! So fun! So much like real doodling! Here is my first effort.

This doodle of boats has nothing to do with the park, but I am extra excited about being able to do sketches of ideas for the park and post them here.

New Camera

2010-02-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Gregg has very kindly lent me his camera to use as mine is still broken. The new camera is much nicer than mine and has a lot more buttons, so we have been taking some experimental photos with it in order to learn how to use it.

The new camera has a much better zoom function than the old one:

It is also better at not making Ryno's eyes red. He has very pale blue eyes but so far so good with the new camera. Here are the many faces of Ryno.

Angry:

Melancholy:

And Popeye:

Here is our kitchen, nicely in focus from the foreground to the background. Way to go, camera:

Here is Aaron very happy at his work. For some reason most of the pictures we took of Aaron today turned out fuzzy. Perhaps the new camera cannot cope with his sheer Awesomeness?

(Ha ha.)

Here is a window frame that Aaron recently built. He is hand-building replacements for all the window frames in the dowstairs of the house. The picture is a bit dark. I will have to work on that.And here, alas, is how the men (my husband specifically) have repaid all my efforts to take nice pictures of them:

Good grief.

2nd Annual Late Winter World War II Tactical Event

2010-02-23T07:39:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we hosted the 2nd Annual Late Winter World War II Tactical Event. This was a Western theatre of operations WWII tactical battle using authentic gear with blank ammunition.

We had 142 re-enactors and 20+ umpires, volunteers, and staff and everyone had a great time crawling around in the snowy woods while the two sides fought it out. These re-enactors put a great deal of time and effort into their gear and garb and it really shows.

Here are a few pictures from the event.

Against My Better Judgement

2010-02-05T16:49:00.000-08:00

Here I am at the beach on a cold and rainy Atlantic day.
Unfortunately my camera broke while I was on vacation.
The situation will need to be remedied before more pictures will be available for the blog.

Back at the ranch, I can report that the house is a bit of a mess.
All inhabitants are present and accounted for including the dog.

Vacation

2010-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader,

As of today I will be on vacation until next Thursday.

If you speak to the Men please remind them that I would not like to find a giant pile of dishes in the sink when I come home.

Please also remind both the Men and the Boys that I expect everyone (including the dog) to be in one piece upon my return. This is Important.

They should not forget that William has a homework assignment due next Tuesday.

Please also tell them that I miss them.

Sincerely,

Me

The Store Is Clean

2010-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ta-daa! So clean! So spacious! It is very sparsely decorated as there is still work to be done, but it needed to be cleaned up and made functional for the weekend.The men did an amazing job on the windows, siding, and trim. The store is now bright and fresh.I refurbished some old furniture and collected odds and ends from around the park to make it homey and comfortable. The wood stove is a wonderful addition. It doesn't exactly get warm in the store (especially not when it is 1 degree outside like it is now) but it does take the chill off the air. Plus, it just looks so rustic.Our old store desk where we will put the cash register once everything is finished:We have lots of wonderful lights courtesy of Gregg and Scott: We have floral arrangements and Botanical Aroma potpourri, almost like real civilized people:

And last but not least, the essentials - toilet paper, kleenex with lotion, and a doofy little frog all of which will move into the bathroom as soon as the polyurethane is done drying:

(Isn't he cute?)

Kitties

2010-01-28T20:25:00.000-08:00

Often when we open our basement door this is what we find in the doorway:

Three kitties all twirled up together:Tigre at the bottom, Bakshi on the right, and Dean in the middle.So peaceful...until I accidentally step on their poor tails as I try to take my laundry into the basement. The laundry, the kitties, and I all go bumbling down the steps together and their nice nap is ruined.

Pine Box

2010-01-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

The men have finished paneling the store bathroom. It is approximately 6 feet by 6 feet and now has pine walls, a pine ceiling, and a pine door. It has a plug-in electric heater.

Between the pine box effect and the heater the bathroom is like a cross between a coffin and a sauna. The men think this is very funny.

Since we put the heater in they have been spending more time hanging out in there than is strictly necessary. At least I know where to look for them when they go missing.

The Store Is A Mess

2010-01-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

I know it is a construction zone, but PLEASE. This is rediculous. I am just itching to clean it but the men hate it when I move their stuff. Yesterday they decided that my first best skill is sweeping and my second best skill is moving their stuff so they can't find it - in other words, cleaning up. :)

Leveling

2010-01-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

The Stonehouse is essentially two buildings in one - an exterior house built of stone and an interior wooden frame house. There is a 2 inch air gap between the two which was formerly used to help heat the house. Over the years the wooden frame house has sagged in spots. The floors are no longer level and there is quite a bit of bounce to them. There are cracks in the plaster and gaps under some of the walls as a result. When you walk through the hallway the pots and pans in the kitchen jump and rattle.

We have begun the process of bringing it back to level, with great results so far. The plan is to bring it up gradually over the course of 4-6 weeks so that too much stress is not put on the house all at once.

Diener the Wiener

2010-01-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Ryan and Aaron came into the house looking for me. Aaron had something hidden in his coat. The last thing that came in the house tucked into someone's coat was a chicken that the men found in the woods, so I was momentarily horrified thinking of all the injured or juvenile creatures that might be in there. A squirrel? A coyote pup? A racoon?

Imagine my relief when it turned out to be just a kitten - albeit a skittish, skin-and-bones kitten. We didn't need another kitten as we already have two barns cats living in our basement, but this one was in pretty bad shape and I didn't have it in me to tell them to put it back outside. Apparently he had gotten trapped in a trailer and had been living on hot chocolate powder and baby wipes.

Aaron adopted the kitten and named him Dean. We tried to keep him in the basement with the other cats but he kept getting out and hiding in a hole in the wall (subsequently we have started calling him a wat, or wall cat). Once we got him out of the wall we gave him a collar and a leash and tied him to the kitchen table near his food and water and litter box, where he has been living while he gets used to being around people and dogs. Perhaps he will have to stay there until he gets too big to be a wat.

(Basement cats = bats?)

Music

2010-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

We all have IPods here at SHP.

Here is Ryan's in silver, gray, and black (his favorite colors and also his swordfighting colors):

Aaron's in red, white and black (his swordfighting unit's colors):Mine in green (my favorite color) hanging out with my grocery list:Ryno's, which is old but jam-packed full of music and which gets the most use:The boys both have teeny tiny Shuffles:
We plug our Ipods into the ingenious contraption seen below, which was built by Ryan C.

We carry it from place to place in the park depending on where we are working. It plugs into an electrical outlet and has speakers, screens to keep construction debris out, and a handy handle for carrying. It has kept us entertained for many hours - a perfect example of technology at work in the wilderness out here at SHP. :)

Hoarfrost and Gorka the Tractor

2010-01-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

Brrr

2010-01-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

We used up all the wood that we chopped last summer, so we recently spent some time splitting and palletizing more to use in the wood stove in the store: The store now has new doors on the closet and the bathroom: And a new-to-us antique front door (which we got from an add on Craigslist):

Here is Aaron framing in the final window up in the West peak of the store:And here are Joe and Aaron installing the window: And here are the workers/lumberjacks/carpenters/Eskimos:

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Store Progress

2009-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

Our store has windows! Hooray! Look how beautiful they are! We also have lights! Both exterior:

And interior:

The lights are SUCH an improvement over the old fluorescents, which only worked spottily, buzzed annoyingly, and didn't fit with the historic aesthetic we are trying to achieve.

House Progress

2009-12-23T15:02:00.000-08:00

I have been working down in the basement. Here is the exterior door to the basement.

This is the inside of the little basement door structure. You can see that it used to be much shorter than it is now. We think the roof was probably raised in the 1950's around the same time the porch was built.These are the steps from the kitchen down to the basement - very steep and a bit rickety. I have heard more than one person say they thought they were going to die every time they have to go up or down these steps.Here is a picture of basement rafters and the underside of the original floor. My job has been to dust all the cobwebs and dead bugs out from between the rafters and to start pulling down the junk that has accumulated up there - old curtain rods, wire, nails, and broken light fixtures . Here are our washer and dryer, all hooked up in the basement. You can see the inside of the stone walls, covered in a coat of paint or whitewash. In the lower part of the picture you can see the cement wall that was built to help support the stone wall.
And last but not least, we have a new back door. It's a very pretty birch door which we plan to seal with Danish Oil. I think the new kitchen will shape up to be a very cozy room with great views of the park.

Stone Wall Progress

2009-12-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the south wall of the summer kitchen in progress. Ryno got the last bits of old mortar chipped away from between the rocks. Then we swept and vacuumed out all the dusty sandy stuff left behind in order to make a good surface for the new mortar to stick to. Ryno did a great job patching some areas where the rocks had either fallen out or been removed, and then he and Aaron started replacing the mortar - the dark grey lines in the picture below. To apply the mortar they used a bag similar to the one a cake decorator would use for frosting, followed by a combination of trowels and brushes to pack in and smooth down the mortar.The mortar has now dried to a handsome light grey and it looks GREAT.

Christmas Presents

2009-12-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

Our good friend Jaime sent us a box of presents from Puerto Rico. William got a Gold Mining kit. Here are Papa and Owen and William mining gold. They found EIGHT pieces of gold (aka pyrite) and had a great time. Owen got a detective kit which he is very excited about. Thank you, Jaime! Ryan got a fly fishing fly tying kit and a very useful book. He says thank you too. :)I got an extra fancy corkscrew and wine bottle topper. I used the corkscrew for the first time the other day, or more accurately, I tried to use the foil cutter it came with. I struggled with it for a bit, wondering why it wasn't working as well as it looked like it should. I finally got the "foil" off, only to discover that it wasn't a corked wine bottle at all but was instead a capped one. Oops. I have to say, the foil cutter did a remarkly good job of cutting the top off the cap.

Merry Christmas!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

2009-12-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

Ryan and Aaron have been busy putting new windows in our summer kitchen while Ryno and I have been chipping away at the old mortar between the now-exposed stones of the South wall of said kitchen. Living and working here, our work always seems close, but this takes it to a new level. Now we don't even get out the back door and we are already at work. :)

Removing the mortar is dusty work. Very dusty work. Here is a picture of my gloves and tools. The color of my gloves, according to the manufacturer, is "Dusty Rose". I believe I will just call them Dusty and forget the overly romantic bit about the Rose.
Here is a tableau I call "House Interior Adjacent to Construction Zone, with Elvis". As you can see, the construction zone is trying very hard to encroach upon my house interior. Out, damn stone! There is dust on the floor, on the furniture, in my hair, up my nose, and just about everywhere else you can think of.

Here is the wall in question. Once a sufficient amount of old crumbly dirty mortar has been removed, Ryno will replace it with clean new mortar, making the wall stronger and more attractive.Here are Ryan and Aaron framing in windows.

Those boys sure build nice windows, don't they?

And here is Elvis. If we leave him in the house he mopes to be let out with us. When we let him out he mopes because it is cold and the ground is covered in frozen snow. Poor, pathetic Elvis.In sad news, our chicken Dude has passed away. The Dude no longer abides. We are not sure what the cause of death was. We hope she had a good life. Despite being requested to do so (I hope it was a joke?) I am not going to post any post-mortem pictures of her on this blog. Instead, here are a couple pictures of the park in winter.

Snowballs and Stonewalls

2009-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Snow Days

2009-12-11T08:20:00.000-08:00

Sun, Moon and Stores

2009-12-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

Updates

2009-11-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple shots of the finished house roof. It looks great with the cedar shakes.

The inside of the store with paneling going up.

The door to the wood stove that will be installed in the store. The stove was pretty rusty so Ryno has been cleaning it with a wire brush.

Ryno wire brushing the steel top of a unique little table we found.

Our new pet, whom we have named Dude, in the little coop we built for her. The men think that a chick named Dude is pretty funny. At first we fed her bird seed out of NERO spell balls, but then we talked to a neighbor who raises chickens and she gave us some real chicken food for Dude.

Painted windows for the store drying in the banked barn.

Trim boards (and more trim boards) drying (and drying some more) in the banked barn. Technically it is a bit too cold to be be doing outdoor painting, and there is usually as much rain inside the barn as there is outside, so the painting has been a bit frustrating, but we'll get it done.

Crazy Hair Day at School

2009-11-27T09:07:00.000-08:00

Here are Owen and William last week, ready to head out to the bus all done up for Crazy Hair Day. Don't tell Owen I said he looked like Little Orphan Annie.

Elvis the Pelvis

2009-11-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is our dog Elvis. He loves it here. He runs around with us, sleeps in the sun, explores the woods, rolls in raccoon poop and dead things whenever he can find them, and stinks something fierce. He is part Basset Hound and part Welsh Corgi.

Elvis is eight years old but acts much older. With new people here who are unacquainted with him he will hobble around decrepitly as if he is minutes from death. He actually limps and sort of drops his head so people will feel sorry for him. The unsuspecting victims will stop and pet him, rub his belly, and give him love - whereupon Elvis will leap up off the ground and tear away running as fast as he can go, which is much faster than you ever would suspect.

Two weeks ago Elvis was hit by a car. My husband and I were away from the park for a night and Joe was watching our kids and the dog for us. The kids went out to the bus stop in the morning, and unbeknowst to Joe, Elvis snuck out the back door and went out to the bus stop too. A couple minutes later our older son ran back into the house screaming, "Elvis is dead! Elvis is dead!" Too bad the irony of that completely escaped him.

Joe was sitting upstairs with one boot on. They ran back downstairs only to find Elvis standing in the front yard looking perfectly fine. Joe got the boys on the bus and then noticed that Elvis had a bloody nose and blood on his paw. As the minutes went by Elvis's left eye became bloodshot and began to twitch and roll up in his head. Joe called us and we came home and took Elvis to the vet. The vet pronounced him a very lucky dog and prescribed some anti-inflammatory painkillers. Within a few hours of taking the medication the swelling and blood in his eye subsided. A few days later it was like nothing had ever happened to him.

We found out from the boys that Elvis had been hit by a black SUV with tinted windows. The driver did not stop. When the car hit him, Elvis rolled over 3 or 4 times and just laid there like he was dead. While our older son was running to get Joe, our younger son went up to poor stunned Elvis and whispered, "Elvie! Get up!" And Elvis did.

So even though Elvis often smells worse than anything, we are glad to have him. His run-in with a speeding SUV resulted in little injury and added some credibility to his pathetic but very convincing please-pet-me act.

Extreme Makeover - Camp Store Edition

2009-11-25T04:01:00.000-08:00

Our latest endeavor has been to remodel the camp store. The camp store is on the National Historic Registry like many of the other buildings and is one of the oldest metal-roofed buildings in the area. It will continue to be used as a store and camp check-in but was badly in need of some work.

Here is how the store looked during the summer of 2008:

It had a certain charm, and some lovely flowers planted out front, but it also had some serious flaws. Part of the building was covered in aging yellow vinyl siding while the rest of it was old brown-painted barn board. The roof was discolored, had holes in it, and leaked like a sieve every time it rained. The interior was dark and dingy with age. The exterior deck and interior floor were also suffering from age and water damage.

We started by repairing the roof with silicone. Missing nails were replaced and popped nails were pounded in (by yours truly). I admit it was pretty fun to crawl around up there. Then we used the airless paint sprayer to put on two coats of silver aluminium paint. Incidentally, the overspray from the paint turned all the foliage around the store a lovely silvery color so it looks like we had a visit from the Christmas fairy, and I now own a nice pair of moon boots (aka hiking shoes with a coat of silver paint on them.) Unfortunately there are still some leaks so we will have to keep working on it, but at least the roof looks better than it did.

Next we stripped off the vinyl siding and removed three sets of unsightly sliding glass doors. We sided over the outside of the building with new barn board, which led to a discussion about what color to paint the new building. I voted for white. We have painted every other building in the park barn red and it seemed like it might be nice to have a bit of variety. I even painted a picture of what I thought it would look like in order to try and convince everyone:

I was outvoted. The men concurred that if we painted the store white with the silvery white roof it would look as if the moon had landed in the park. So we painted it red:

I think they were right. It does look nice and will look even better once we get the windows in and all the trim painted white.

Next we tackled the inside of the store. We took down all the old laminate paneling and replaced it with really nice V-groove car siding - the boards are so light and crisp that they remind me of sugar wafer cookies.

Once the interior paneling is finished we will put in the new windows and doors and give the concrete floor a fresh coat of paint. Updates coming soon!

Gorillas in the Mist (otherwise known as Another Wet and Wild Day at Stonehouse Park)

2009-11-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

Great White Chicken

2009-11-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

Today the men caught a chicken in the woods. Go figure.

We've Been Working on the Railroad

2009-11-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

You probably all realize that we don't have a railroad here (maybe someday...?) but we do have a parking lot full of railroad ties.

We placed a railroad tie at the head of each parking space and then drilled holes at both ends of the tie. We used sledge hammers to pound pieces of rebar through the holes and down through the gravel and into the dirt below. The kids helped out by using a punch and hammer to knock the rebar down as far as possible into the ground.

I now have much greater empathy for railroad workers after swinging an 8 lb. sledge for a few hours. William surprised us all by very trustingly holding the punch even after Owen accidentally hit Will's hand with the hammer.

And the best news of all - the parking lot is now DONE and APPROVED by the county!

A Few More Pictures

2009-10-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

House Roof

2009-10-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Last week we took advantage of several days of dry weather to replace half of the house roof.

Here are the backhoe and the construction dumpster ready to catch the old shingles:

The old roof:

Scraping off the old shingles with shingle rakes:

There were 4 layers of dirty, dusty, sticky asphalt shingles to remove, as you can see here:

Bits of asphalt shingle with nailer boards underneath. Some of the nailer boards were immensely wide and must have come from enormous trees. They were in relatively good shape for the age of the house:

Clapboard siding where the two roofs meet. There isn't much siding as most of the house is limestone, so we are planning to keep what little there is and paint it white as it originally was:

After the roof was cleared and swept we started putting down new cedar shake shingles:

All in all the project went very smoothly. The cedar roof looks fantastic with the house's limestone facade. More importantly, it is raining as I write and we have no leaks! We will start on the other half of the roof as soon as the weather allows and I hope to have pictures of the finished product very soon.

Weekend Photos

2009-10-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

Last Days of Summer

2009-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

The guys are outside right now in the damp, chilly fall air dressed in sweatshirts and stocking caps. A few days ago we were all in short sleeves enjoying the last few days of warm weather. Here are a few pictures showing what we have been up to.

Ric measuring barnboard for the East side of the Corn Crib:

Joe and Ryan M. on the scaffolding putting the barnboard siding up:

Ryan A., Aaron and Mel getting the upper inside floors started in the Corn Crib:

And here is the floor fully installed:

This is part of the old grain elevator and chute in the Corn Crib, nearly the last piece remaining. This is also probably one of the last shots I'll be able to get of the sunlight coming through the nailer boards before the roof is finished:

Jaime is here visiting us from Puerto Rico and we love having him. He is very skilled at making and remaking all kinds of things and is full of wise ideas besides. Here he is repairing some of our many broken tools:

Corn Crib

2009-09-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

The Corn Crib has become one of my favorite buildings at the park, perhaps because we have invested so much time there, but also simply because she is a lovely old building with good bones. We have been giving her a facelift. The roof is now more than half done, the siding is going up, and the upper inside floors are going in beautifully.

To prevent the new floors from getting wet while the roof is being finished we stapled down plastic sheeting, but the wind was so fierce today that the sheeting didn't all stay put. The Corn Crib looked like a bride caught in the process of getting dressed on a windy wedding day - something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. She is beautiful, isn't she?

Picnic Pavilion

2009-09-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

We have been working hard on the Picnic Pavilion. Here it is Before:
and After:

The pavilion offers working electricity, one sheltered corner as shown above, lots of room to seat people, and a great view of the pond. It is located directly adjacent to the bathhouse, just across the road from the camp store. Down the hill from the pavilion is the swimming beach where a large fire ring is available.

Park Model

2009-09-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of interest lately in renting the little cabin that we call the Park Model so I thought I might present some information about it here. The Park Model is situated in the circle overlooking the pond just a few steps from the camp store, the picnic pavilion, and the bathhouse. It has a cute front porch, working electricity and lights, a microwave, sink and toilet. It has two bunks on the bottom and a loft bed up top.

There is a fire ring nearby and plenty of room available to set up tents for additional sleeping space if you would like.

Note: The stove shown in the picture below does not work. The water heater in the Park Model also does not work but unlimited hot water is available in the bathhouse.

The cost to rent the Park Model is $50 per night. Reservations may be made by emailing me at maudee77@hotmail.com or calling 217-369-6519.

Garden Update

2009-09-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

This is a potted mum masquerading as a sea anemone. It has become so covered in flowers that we are convinced it is going to die from lack of sunlight reaching the leaves.

Here are 3 Vernal Witchhazels (Hamamelis Vernalis) planted North of the 3Bay Barn. They are Illinois native plants that often grow on gravelly river banks. Our Stonehouse soil is very sandy and full of rocks and much of the site is in or near a floodplain, so I hope the Witchhazels will do well here. And this is my favorite. Here is a picture taken in 2008 of the Corn Crib.
And here is a picture taken yesterday from the roof of the Corn Crib looking down on the area in the first picture where the fence and brush was. When we cleared that brush and pulled the fence out we discovered the road you see here - very nice concrete buried under about 6 inches of dirt. Last week we found this really great concrete octagon that covers a space warping device that transports you to other planets...er....actually it's just the base for a grain bin that is no longer there, but it really looks like there might be a Stargate under there, doesn't it? I am going to finish clearing it out and turn it into a garden.

Corn Crib Roof

2009-09-11T17:17:00.001-07:00

I am now the one and only female residing at the Stonehouse Park. It turns out that even our kitten, whom we thought was a girl, is in fact a boy. Let me tell you, it is rough out here.

Here's the East-facing side of the corn crib with the old (1930's) shake shingles still on.The rest of these photos were taken in and around the corn crib today as it was being reroofed.

School

2009-08-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the bus on William's first day of kindergarten. Note the Timberwolf mascot T-shirt. He is displaying great school spirit already.

I have spoken to several people who camped or lived at the Stonehouse Park years ago as children and said they waited for the school bus at this same spot. They all said that our boys will never forget the experience, that it creates a vivid and lasting memory.

Boy's Point of View

2009-08-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Photography by William, age 5.

Odds & Ends

2009-08-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

School started last Friday!

One of the most frustrating things about being here is that we are trying to balance maintaining an existing campground (albeit with minimal camping) along with running some pretty major construction and renovation projects. At some point the two will converge and we will hopefully find ourselves maintaining and hosting events in a beautiful new space, but in the meantime it remains a daily struggle.

Last weekend we had some wonderful volunteers come help us clean out an area by the bathhouse where we plan to put the first cabin.

We lost a tree in the storm and the guys took a couple hours to cut it up and haul it off.

The highway department arrived with MANY very large vehicles to replace the culvert at our new main entrance. They also did a lot of work out along the road to clean up the drainage ditch. It is starting to look good!

Biblical Rain

2009-08-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

All of the many lawns at the park are mowed with great tenacity by our friend Bud. Bud loves to talk and tell stories but his favorite thing to do is prophesy Biblical Rain. On the prettiest day imaginable you can count on Bud to announce that floods are on the way. Bud went home for the weekend and just returned this afternoon. As soon as he arrived at the park the heavens opened and it started to rain. Biblically.

During the worst of the storm we were holed up in the store and I didn't have my camera to get pictures of the wind making waves in the pond or the trees blowing like crazy or the 3 inches of water cascading over the picnic pavilion floor. These pictures were taken shortly after the storm blew over after about 20 minutes of heavy rain.

In order, here are Lake Fighting Field, Lake Pond, Lake Corn Crib, Lake Three Bay, and finally, one area that actually benefited from the downpour - our newly laid sod.

Progress

2009-08-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Progress... In the last few weeks that is what has been done.. Progress..

First the pavilion roof. The roofing crew finished the roof of the pavilion... and boy does it look good.

The cedar shake takes a bit longer than normal roofing but, its look makes up for it. Now that the pavilion roof is done we have moved onto the corn crib. The corn cribs roof needed its rafters and baseboards that the cedar shake goes on replaced.

Now we do not have everyone working on the roof. There is another crew finishing up the parking lot and working on paving stones. As you can see we have started the base for paving stone for the patio behind the three bay barn. Our next step will be to put sand on top of the gravel and smooth out the surface of the sand to lay paving stones.

The parking lot has made a lot of progress. We have completed the retaining wall on the islands in the parking lot.

We have started the planting of the plants as well. We have planted four 12 foot tall lindens. The progress of the park is going really well and we hope the progress will increase every week as well.

Parking lot

2009-07-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks we have been clearing an area out for a parking lot. Over the weekend we marked out the area for the parking lot and our good friend Bo ran the backhoe for a good 20 hours over two days clearing and making the area flat and moving more brush.....

Today we got started on the parking lot.. Receiving dump truck loads of gravel for the parking lot throughout the day.

A Beautiful Day at SHP

2009-07-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

I awoke this morning to what seemed to be another cloudy dreary day at the park. Boy, was I wrong! The weather turned out to be beautiful. It was a nice 80 degrees today with a decent breeze flowing through the park. It ended up being a great day to get some work done, and boy did we get some work done.

First, Nick and Manny pretty much finished off the three bay barn. Here are few pictures of how the three bay barn progressed over the past month.

As you can see the barn has undergone a massive transformation. It is invigorating and refreshing to finally see something accomplished. Thank you Gregg for getting on us about the barn.

Next, Matt and Travis, one of our new guys, ran the stump grinder all day long. We only have the stump grinder for the week and we want to really get some of the stumps out the park... I mean once you chop down 1 million trees there are bound to be some stumps right? Well today it was Matt and Travis's turn.

Next the pavilion. Scott, Mike, and Chris our other new guy, worked on it all day. First, they removed half the roof and then started on the cedar shaking. I'm really excited about this project myself. I think it will improve the look of the pavilion ten times over.

Next, the parking lot. The parking lot has been a pain in the rear. Today that is where Brittany, Ric, Ryan, Ellie, and myself worked. Today we cleared away some scrap metal, properly disposed of 27 used tires, cleared out another 10 or 15 honey suckle bushes(which met there end in a nice little bonfire), and cleared a large area of weeds with the weed eater ( which fought with Brittany most of the day).

Then there is our favorite little Stonehouse worker Lexi. She is always making sure she looks cute and that her mom Carissa gets no rest.

The dogs had there work cut out for them today as well it seems.

Lastly is Ryan. Ryan is leaving our Stonehouse park family to move to Denver. He spent most of the day packing and will spend most of tomorrow packing as well. We are planning on having a going away party for him tomorrow night in the newly finished three bay barn.

Pavers Day

2009-07-08T17:53:00.001-07:00

I have not been posting because my children and I took a week-long vacation in Chicago and someplace between here and there I lost my camera. Hopefully it will turn up, but in the meantime I will write posts and perhaps we can add pictures later.

The last few weeks have been pretty aggravating. It seemed like no matter how hard we tried nothing was getting done. Everyone was frustrated and tempers were beginning to flare. Since then we have worked out some personnel issues and tried a few new ways of doing things. So far this week has gone much better.

Approximately 1 million Stonehouse Park trees have now been cut down and dragged to the burn pile and the space around the house and the barns is really starting to open up. The mulberries are in full fruit and I am not the only person walking around with purple fingers. I have been practicing tree identification and can now recognize boxelder, slippery elm, walnut, oak, maple, hickory and shag hickory (apparently you can make good syrup from the shag hickory tree.)

Our biggest project recently has been paving the 3-bay barn. Gregg had to kick us in the butt to get us going - it was a daunting project to start and everyone had a different idea as to how to do it - but it is now 90% finished! The floor of the barn had to be raised several inches with gravel and then leveled out with sand. Once the sand was completely level we laid down a pattern of 3 sizes of antique style cedar colored paving stones. The pavers had to be carried into the barn in stacks and then laid individually by hand. It looks great! Our backs are aching a bit, unfortunately. Tomorrow we will be covering the floor with sand to fill in the gaps between the stones, and then brushing the excess sand off and finishing the floor with masonry sand.

So...I guess that's something. Tomorrow we finish the 3-bay floor and start roofing the picnic pavilion. We are supposed to be done with several roofs already but we are behind schedule and only just now getting started. Sigh.

40 Things

2009-06-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Gregg is an owner of Stonehouse Park and the mastermind behind the project. He doesn't live in the area but spends quite a bit of time here. When he went home last Sunday evening he left us a list of 40 things that should be done by Independence Day.

Here is what we have been doing to fulfill Gregg's requests:

Cutting down trees and shagging brush:

Putting screen up in the corn crib to reduce the amount of bat guano on the floor:
Moving pallets and other heavy stuff with the forklift:

Palletizing firewood (and yes, palletizing is most certainly a word):
Carting around small boys:

Repairing picnic tables (I'm supposed to be painting them, but I haven't got out there yet):

Clearing the area behind the pavilion:

Going on archaeological expeditions:

Walking on balance beams:
And of course, doing all the cooking, dishes, and laundry necessary to feed, care for, and clean up after those responsible for doing the 40 Things:

Hot and Tired Day

2009-06-23T19:13:00.001-07:00

Outside: We have been tired every day since we came here, but today it got up to 100 degrees and we had lots of work to do, so it was Hot and Tired Day.

This site was originally a farm homestead which became a park and campground and eventually an RV park with seasonal campers. It got pretty run down over the years so it is now our job to resurrect it and make it nice again. Some days it feels like we might be washed away in a sea of garbage and poison ivy and raccoons and feral kittens. We are fighting the good fight, though, and soon we should start to see some real signs of progress. The goal is to do away with seasonal camping and turn the place into a large-group event site geared especially towards historical re-enactment (think WWII, Civil War, foam fighting, and live action role-playing). We have had one music festival here already and more are planned. There will be a commercial kitchen, nice cabins, a bed-and-breakfast, stables, and lots of other exciting things. That being said, we are still on serious clean-up duty.

The archaeological dig continues. Rob and Ken believed they had found the old cabin foundation but it turned out to be a solitary flat piece of limestone. Here are Rob, Beth, and Ken working hard. Most of the items they have found are nails and an old piece of pottery as pictured above.

On Sunday the furthest east entrance to the park was removed due to some safety concerns. Here is Ryan C. running the back hoe, pulling out the culvert that ran under the entrance, grading the culvert, and getting the excess soil moved out of the area, with my husband Ryan A. looking on and giving direction.

Last but not least, here is a picture of our humble abode. It is hard to take a picture of the Stonehouse itself from the outside because there are too many big trees in the way, but we will keep working on it and have a good picture to post soon.

Archaeology Day

2009-06-19T11:56:00.001-07:00

Inside: Carissa and I have been trying to declutter the house and mop the floors all day, but doing that is like doing anything else around here - difficult to start, nearly impossible to finish. I say that in the kindest of spirits, of course - I do actually like it here.

Outside: My brother-in-law Rob arrived with his friend Ken to start digging up the foundation of the cabin that the Nisbet family lived in while they built the Stonehouse, meaning it would have been occupied from about 1848 until about 1863. The cabin was then used as a corn crib until the 1940's. Rob and Ken are going to excavate the foundation, which means they have to find it first. We know the general location but not the specific site.

Rob used the new workshop to build sifters out of 2x4s and wire mesh with 1/4 inch holes. He and his apprentices (my children Owen and William and two camper kids named Bobby and Ian) began the excavation by finding out how many paces each had to take to go 10 yards. Then they paced off 10 yard sections of the area and placed flags to mark specific areas to dig.

Finally the digging began. Here are Rob and William putting the first shovels in the ground.

They dug a hole about 2.5 feet deep and used the sifters to sort through the material they pulled out of the hole. Owen dug like a mole while William helped pull out any items that got stuck in the sifter.

So far they have found nails, charcoal, and this - an arrowhead! The digging will continue as soon as nap time is over.

Barn Day

2009-06-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

I am going to post this quickly because the internet has been up and down because of the weather.

Inside: We went to Sam's Club in Batavia and came home with 75 lb. of ground beef, 37 lb. of chicken, 25 lb. of cheese, 7 dozen eggs, 40 lb. of fresh fruits and vegetables, and a mountain of other items needed to feed a small army. We are currently feeding about 12 people.

Outside: The barn cleaning continued and a nice workshop has begun to take shape in the big barn. We found a croquet set, a 1936 fifth edition Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, an old milk pail, and a lot of crap.
Here are Scott and Joe installing lights in the new workshop.

Look - it's clean! And nearly organized...

Baking Day

2009-06-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Outside: Today it was either raining or threatening to rain for most of the day. The guys cleared brush while the weather was clear and cleaned out the barn while it rained. Our Construction Manager Scott arrived yesterday and much time was spent in discussion with him as to how construction should proceed.

Inside: We put together an ad-hoc office space in the upstairs dormer room of the Stonehouse. The Stonehouse has a porch, kitchen, dining room, living room, downstairs bedroom, three bathrooms, and three upstairs bedrooms that I call the small bedroom, the big bedroom, and the dormer room (because it has a dormer-style ceiling).

My family and I moved here 8 days ago from Champaign, Illinois. We now live in the Stonehouse itself. The house has been very hectic since we arrived, with various staff members coming and going as they arrive to work for the summer, two kids and a baby, half-unpacked boxes, cleaning supplies, construction equipment, two dogs, and lots of mud making for a lovely mess.

Up until yesterday the house had a working stove but no working oven. I am happy to report that the kitchen is now fully functional. Carissa and Baby Lexi and I made a successful trip to the store yesterday. Today we made dinner for 13 people (mostly successfully). On the menu were brats, roast chicken which refused to get properly roasted and nearly ruined my evening, delicious cornbread casserole, green beans, and Gooseberry Pie made with some very tart berries from my garden in Champaign.

This move has been a big change for us but there is so much going on that there hasn't been much time to take it all in. Today felt like a good settling-in day. We are expecting more staff to arrive at the end of this week and the beginning of next week and will need to adjust once again to fit them in - feeding upwards of 17 people will take some practice!

WWII Tactical

2009-06-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

German re-enactors at the March 15 tactical at the park.