Older than Canada eh?!

According to John Smith, the fellow we bought from, this house is supposed to be 170 years old with a hundred year old addition.

If that's so, part of it is older then Canada!

Canada became a country in 1867. So for almost thirty years before legal papers were drawn up making Canada a true country, people built, lived in this house and farmed the land. Sweat, laboured, bled, laughed, cried, hoped and dreamed. They probably worried about things like crops, having enough wood and food to get them through the winter and prayed for sick loved ones and ailing animals.
Babies were born.
Children grew.
Folks died.

And all the while, it was in the works for the country of Canada to be born.
Wonder how long it took for the news to reach this farm way out East?
Wonder if the people working this piece of land thought it would be a good idea or bad?

Turns out we can't believe everything John Smith told us. He did say after all that this place was "Tight" and that we "Wouldn't see many mice" in this house.  Well, not only have we trapped close to twenty we just saw one running across the living room floor the other night! Twenty minutes later the Man-Son saw one up-stairs! So either that was the same mouse with teleportation abilities, or we have more than one.

So, although we want to believe John Smith was correct about the age of our house so we can brag about how OLD it is.....his facts don't add up to the story we heard from our neighbour regarding this place.

The great-grandparents of East and West Neighbours lived here. They are a little unsure whether Great-Grampa built or bought the house, so maybe it was twenty or thirty years old when they moved in?  But this is what they do know.....

William & Mary McMillian married, lived here and started a family.  Then sadly William died at a young age leaving Mary alone to raise four children.

(Now this next bit of history is where the claims of John Smith don't add up.)

Shortly after the death of her husband a Ship's Captain approached Mary and made a proposition he, being a widower with children himself, needed a "helping hand". He would double the size of her house if she would care for his four youngsters. Being he was "away at sea" for long periods, the children needed a mother.  Mary agreed to the arrangement and the addition was built.

See how the seventy year gap between the main house and addition don't jive. If Mary and her husband built the place, she would have been an elderly lady before the addition was built, I don't think she would have taken on anyone's orphan children, no matter how well behaved they may have been way-back-when!!

So either William and Mary bought this house when it was a few decades old or John Smith was embellishing. Being John is on a "drink-daily" plan, he isn't getting my vote!

It's been suggested that we could possibly find out the age of our house at the local governmental offices....but I haven't the time for that.....I'm OK with just saying and knowing that our house is OLD.....over a hundred years old.

I do sometimes wonder about the eight children that were blended together to make one family. How many were girls? Boys? Their names? Who got what rooms?  What did they do with their days?

When the Youngest mentioned one day that she was having a hard time organizing all her stuff I suggested she look back to the original children of this house for inspiration. They wouldn't of had much, maybe she could narrow down her belongings?  She didn't jump at my suggestion, but it is kinda cool living in a place with history.

Even if you are unsure of all the details it's still inspiring to know that years ago people did with this land the very things you hope to do, live off it.
If they could keep this place up-and-running for well over a hundred years, in the days before running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, refrigeration, gasoline, motor vehicles, grocery stores and fast-food: then there is a good chance, with a little determination and lots of hard work and learning we can figure out how to be less dependent on those things as well.

We have become Stewards of a bit of earth where there will be a mutual caring for one another. What we put into the land will be given back to us. It's part of God's plan and provision.

Round and round goes the circle of life.

It truly is a marvel, Earth, this creation of God's.
It's been recycling long before blue and green boxes and government up-pick programs.

After all this was God's promise to man-kind after the Flood.

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 
Genesis 8:22

We believe God's promises to be so reliable that we have big plans for gardens and orchards! And we have all winter to map it out.......