the old place

It's been quite a while since I blogged. I have my excuses reasons, though, namely, I've been writing my thesis like a maniac and during my down time writing a blog doesn't sound as relaxing as usual. However, as of last week I have submitted the final sections of my thesis to my advisor for editing, and my defense date is tentatively set for May 24th, so there is an end in sight!
Anyway, on to the real topic of this post.

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My great grandfather built this house. They even chopped down the trees to get the wood. We used to have family reunions here every year, so I have great memories of this place, known to the family as simply, the old place. It's not in great shape, so it's been opened up to the family to come out and gather some mementos. 

My mom and I went out with my cousin, Hugh, and spent a couple hours walking around and looking at what is left of the old place. Hugh is working on our families genealogy, so we searched through an old ledger marked 1917 for clues about our past. Don't you wish we still had handwriting like this??

We also found an old family bible. Unfortunately, it's in horrible shape.

The house was full of stuff left there over the years.

It was fun to walk through and hear stories about my grandma and her family. When the house was built, glass was expensive and they didn't have enough money for real windows, so they put slats up. When my grandma got her first job and moved to Houston, one of the first things she bought was glass windows for her families house. Most of the original glass is gone, but we took some of the windows home. If you remember, I also have a window from the church where my parents were married (scroll to the bottom).

Part of my family still lives there (in a new house) and they had a 2 week old donkey on their land. Is he the cutest thing??

I promise I won't be gone long this time. :)

Happy May!