Then and Now

Life hasnt changed much at the Wolverton House.  We still wake up each morning and decide whether to grab heat gun, crowbar or hammer.

Our projects take us outside in this great weather.  The pillars are coming soon and in the meanwhile, my job is to strip all...yes "all the paint off the front of the house.  But our story today is going to talk about the back yard of the Wolverton House.

When the house was originally built, the property had a severe slop but still flat enough for horses and other barn animals to graze.  This house was the second one that Asa built in a series of three and the first group of houses to establish the first "residential community" for Paris.  Asa's first house was built to the south (or left side) of Asa's home.  He and his wife, Juliet, lived in this home for three years while building the Manor.  It was modest in design with no fireplaces, unlike Asa's second home which has six.

When the John Baker and his wife Elisa purchased this home in 1867 from widow Juliet, he proceeded to terrace the back property so that he could use the land as a fruit orchard.  A section of the original retaining wall can still be seen.  The property has erroded somewhat over the past fifty years since a large portion of this wall has come done; and years to come we will have to restore the wall again.

Now we have maple and walnut trees.  There are chestnut trees too.  There are hundreds of different birds to watch.  Some of our feathered friends that visit regularly are the harry, downy and red breasted woodpeckers, nutchatch, grossbeaks, carolina wrens, cardinals, orieols, hummingbirds, bluejays and many more.  We have watched different hawks fly overhead and my favorite in the bald eagle.  Occasionally there is a blue heron perched on one foot in the river.

Animals are plentiful here too.  Although the squirrels and racoons are the most unwelcomed, they are cute to watch jumping from tree to tree.  Mama racoon had three babies in our barn this spring; but she has moved across the road to holy territory...the church.  The babies scream in the afternoon and on occasion escape the hole to crawl up the tree.  I loved watching moma chase after one of them and drag it back to the nest.  We have a beaver that is chewing down our small trees by the bank, a badger hiding in a huge hole, family of four groundhogs that visit occasionally at the base of the bird feeder.  My neighbours across the river have watched the deer that I hoped to see too.  I had an amazing experience just the other day when I was pulling a few taller weeds from the walkway to the stairs leading to the river.  As I bent down to yank, I stopped and stared at....an animal?  In less than 10 seconds, I had many critters running through my mind.  A cat...hair to short; the groundhog....too big; a dog would never come to this property; ...and then the little head rolled around and looked at me!  Big ears...very, very big ears...oh my gosh, it was a baby deer.  My first reaction was to be friendly and say, "hello".  It was off like a flash....flash of white tail and I saw spots, lots of them. This was a very young fawn and hopefully mom nearby.  I was so excited I went running for the camera.  I think I saw mom, or it could have been the baby again waking on the first plateau.  And when I have time, I take a moment to search for them again.

We also have toads, frogs, turtles and the occasions snake named Fred. 

Winter is silent at the Wolverton House.  It is very cold but we see the river without the distraction of the trees.  Still....lots of squirrels and racoons.

This is the best place of all to be when visiting our back yard...especially on a hot summer's afternoon!