I was out for a drive the other day when this deserted farm house on the side of a dusty road drew my attention. It made me wonder who had lived there, what their lives were like and where they (or their descendants) are now.
On the other side of the road stood a tobacco drying kiln, hand made of logs that were no doubt laboriously hewn from trees sourced on the property, a reminder of what was a major occupation in this area until quite recently.
Do you know someone who could produce a similar structure from hand made logs? I can’t think of anyone in my circle of acquaintances.
Hello World 
Wow nice photos! It’s always involves questioning when you want to know the history… This place does look great, the structure of the house tells how the person how build it had put some thoughts into it.
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Thank you for your comment. Australia is such a young country, it’s good to find little remnants of our past from time to time. The Port Arthur massacre you mentioned took place in an area where you can see many traces of our convict past.
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I have never visited Australia but I can imagine it being a very nice country. I think it’s interesting how that massacre created an impact on the laws of Australia.
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Since we didn’t have to deal with “the second amendment”, the change to gun laws happened quickly.
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I agree, this is what’s happening in the United States…
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These are beautiful photos. Seeing abandoned buildings like this always stirs my imagination. You can’t help but wonder what events they silently witnessed . . . There’s a crumbling ranch house not far from where I live in Arizona. During the daytime it looks like a forgotten ruin. On nights when there’s a fool moon, it looks incredibly atmospheric.
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Good morning! I’ve recently found that a mountain cow herder might have lived in the property, many years ago. If I wasn’t such a sloth, I’d go and see it at full moon. 🙂 Thank you for your comment, and for following my blog.
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Thanks, Yvonne! I haven’t wandered around the abandoned ranch near my house at night out of fear I might encounter a rattlesnake!
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Awesome! I love You log house photos very much. Finland is known for its log houses and they are very popular in our northernmost part called Lapland. I have few posts in which I presented them. Nowadays machines help making log houses, but about 50-60 years ago, they were handmade.
Thank You for this interesting post. Happy new week.
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Thank you for your lovely remarks. ❤
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You know, I live in Oregon which is a pretty outdoorsy state, so I’m guessing I might actually know some people who could build a log cabin…but not me 🙂 Beautiful pictures!
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nice, very nice
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Thank you, Ruth.
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Yvonne, in the early 1970s, Robert Redford made a movie called “Jeremiah Johnson” which was about a disenchanted Civil War soldier who wanted to be a mountain man. At some point in this movie he builds an incredibly cozy log home for himself, his wife and son. If you can find this old movie, you can watch the Hollywood version of construction of a log house, and at the same time, get a good look at that stud Robert Redford. 😉 ~James
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Heeeyyyy! I hope I can find that movie, James. How is the better half these days?
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She is progressing slowly Yvonne, but she’s much more mobile and getting closer to normalcy. Thanks for asking. ~James
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I love that you noticed this, Yvonne. Just think of the workmanship in the days before we pre-fabbed everything. So much personality in a home. My grandfather wasn’t tall; the house he built has low ceilings. I love that!
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You’ve just jogged my memory about the house we lived in on a farm in Canada. My dad and older brother pretty well did it all themselves. I remember the smell of the shavings they put in the wall cavities for (rather ineffective) insulation, and the shingles they put on the roof.
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Memories are best when jogged regularly, Yvonne. What a unique home. Even if it’s not the most efficient!
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Really lovely pictures!
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And not a fainting Guardsman in sight, Sam.
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Indeed Yvonne! 😉
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What amazes me is not just that someone was able to build that little house but that it is still standing after all this time.
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You’re right, such simple building methods, and so enduring, et.
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So intriguing. This post might interest you: https://derrickjknight.com/2015/02/15/inside-the-deserted-house/
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Oooh, thanks, Derrick. I’m off to read that with my breakfast coffee.
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Here in Maine, it’s not unusual to find homes built with hand-hewn logs, old and new. We have more trees than we know what to do with! They are wonderful buildings, especially the old ones that have acquired the seasoning and weathering of time….but we know all about that, don’t we, Yvonne….
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Yes, we are things of wonder, Cynthia. Weathered, seasoned and lots of other adjectives that denote our status.
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So many adjectives I can’t even remember them all….but i like how you think!
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I do that too when I see an abandoned house on a property. 🙂 I have a box of Lincoln Logs so I could probably build it in miniature but I think full size would be beyond me.
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It would be fun to try, with a craftsperson to guide you. Imagine the muscles you’d have at the end. And, the blisters, bruised finger nails, new vocabulary …
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If the buildings could speak imagine the stories they would tell. I don’t personally know anyone who can build from logs but log houses are popular in the mountains towns so we definitely see them frequently.
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They look just right in those settings, Sue. I think you can buy log cabin kits, maybe that’ll be my Palatial Granny Flat?
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Well I’m hoping for something a bit better for you!
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My kids were always pretty good with Lego bricks, but even so, I think that hut might be beyond them. 🙂
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You never know, Bun. Buy them a whopping big set of the logs and see what they can do.
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With any luck, perhaps they could make a guest bedroom on my balcony or something. 🙂
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I’ll bet they could do it. After all, look who their father is! 🙂
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😀 (Beams with pride)
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Beautiful old buildings. I thought of Lincoln logs, too! Loved those. And the notches in the logs in the drying house were just like those. I bet all the kids moved to the city and there was no one to farm…
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There were signs that someone lives on the property. I should have knocked on the door and asked some questions, eh?
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Funny. It would depend on whether people in the area were generally friendly or highly suspicious…
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They seem pretty friendly. I’d probably run into the one and only psycho in the neighbourhood …
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I usually end up writing a novel in my head when faced with such interesting derelict places – they are so fascinating aren’t they! There’s still a part of me that would love to disappear from the world and take up residence in such an environment, though I couldn’t build it myself and I probably wouldn’t last long without some electricity……. 🙂 I did once help build a mud brick house ……
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That was quite an experience, helping build a house of mud bricks. I guess the owners made the bricks themselves. Did you help with that part?
I’m with you, there’s something appealing about those simple relics of the past.
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Yes, we did the whole thing – making the bricks [straw, clay, water] shaping, laying them out to dry and turning them regularly – checking for faults [months!] And finally laying the bricks with a slurry …. I’ve forgotten the finer details now, but it was so interesting – and a lot of physical work and time.
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I’m so impressed!
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If younger, I would build a house with logs. It would be “a learning experience”. What a waste to run a steam engine on alcohol! It looks like a most enjoyable drive.
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It would solve your home hunting problems beautifully, BA.
Don’t begrudge a wee drop of alcohol to run that little steam engine, Bruce. It was a little beauty, with a whistle and drive belt. Pat had such neat toys, no wonder I wanted to be his friend.
This part of Australia is just beautiful.
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The story of how the Wine industry helped when the tobacco industry was being wound down is an example of how things can be done. (PS I have had to go private so please click the WP link so I can give you access.)
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Yes, the tobacco farmers here seemed to do better than the ones up in the Atherton Tablelands, when they were shut down up there.
Thanks for the tip about needing access to your site. I’ll be there in a second!
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Your photos of the area remind me that I need to get up that way soon. The King Valley calls, old Tobacco road is now Prosecco road. Poor Italian tobacco farmers were aided enormously in their switch to growing wine grapes by Brown Brothers in the late 70s. Hooray.
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It’s such a beautiful area of Victoria, and I don’t think we mind the switch from tobacco to wine one little bit, Francesca. Let me know if you do come up this way.
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Reminds me of building with Lincoln Logs when a kid. I could spend hours creating all kinds of structures just as, obviously, the individual who made the kiln. Greats shots to accompany your narrative and curiosity, Yvonne.
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Oh, Lincoln Logs. My best friend Patrick, all those years ago, had a set of them. We did have fun with them. He also had a model steam engine that ran on some type of alcohol. I can still remember the smell of that.
Thank you for your comments, Eric.
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I wonder these same things when we’re in Montana and there are so many old farmhouses and abandoned homesteads.
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It’s a bit of a cliché, but if those walls could talk, they’d have many tales to tell, Anneli
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I’d love to know those stories. What novels I could write!
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Great photos. The hut, a labour of love, and a life well lived, me thinks.
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Good morning, Gerard. They lived in a very lovely valley, which is another positive thing!
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Once upon a time we would have had people who could do that in our own families.
Amazing the things people did on their own. And they helped each other so maybe no so sad and lonely after all.
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And now, we may not know the person next door to us, so maybe life is more isolated for many people.
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So very true.
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A sad and lonely life, I think.
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