Dreaming Big in the Adirondacks

We took our camper to Crown Point, New York to an old Victorian home owned by a friend.  She hasn't lived in the house full time over the last maybe 30 years.  It had hundreds of bats in the attic and they'd been there most of that time but are finally gone thanks to the legitimate company she hired to do so.  Well, I say all the bats are gone and maybe they are now, but as of our last day in Crown Point a week ago, and a check by the company of the attic, there was one bat left.  The company installed six bat nets (or maybe they are called socks) that allowed the bats to depart but not return.  

The same company that got rid of the bats is working on getting rid of the termites.  In fact, in the old barn behind the house, they said there was evidence of every known kind of wood eating critter.  The back end of the barn has to come down, but the rest of it appears to be salvageable.  

The house needs basically everything redone.  It needs painting which is happening now.  The porches were restored/rebuilt by my friend's ex-husband.  The roof tiles were removed (they were slate) and a new roof is going on it but I don't know when.  The house has knob and tube electric.  That needs to be addressed.   Plaster needs work in a few spots inside, and walls on part of a new upstairs bathroom addition need to be completed.  A new furnace/AC needs to be installed.  The current one backed up and there was soot covering everything in the house.  My friend hired professional cleaners that cleaned most every room of the house.  One of the rooms that my friend didn't have them clean was the pantry where lots of books and breakable dishes were stored.  I took that project on and thankfully never broke anything to include the glass fronted cupboards in there.  The soot is so greasy and it hangs in cobwebs of carbon.  The first step is to sweep the walls and ceilings with a broom.  Then the cleaning starts.  We used a degreasing agent, and I guess it was basically a dishwashing degreasing liquid.  But the washing has to be repeated again and again in some places.  The clothes just come away black and greasy.  I tossed the black and greasy ones in the washer (also in the pantry) and just kept grabbing more clean rags and having at it. Then I'd wash the dirty rags (with hot water and some Clorox) before I ran out of clean ones and just use the clean rags without bothering to dry them.  I had a system.  A method to my madness.  

In the meantime, while I cleaned the pantry and placed all the items in what I hoped to be safe storage places elsewhere in the house like the permanently blocked off servant's staircase, my husband and my friend worked to paint the barn behind the house to help get it through the winter.  

The foundation of the Victorian and the old barn both need to be addressed, as well.  The work that needs to be done is overwhelming, at least to me.  There is no way my husband and I would take that on.  It would take all the time and resources (money) that we have, I fear.  But our friend is an artist and also a retired Army officer.  She is not stupid.  She is not crazy.  She knows what she has to do (or who to ask to help get it done) and is willing and patient.  She will do it over time.  

I hope she can finish it, if there's such as thing as finishing a project like that.  I love how she dreams big and is bravely addressing her dream in stages.  

We worked hard on the house and grounds during the day but we started with a nice walk each day, in a different area.  One day we walked in Ticonderoga on the walking path.  Another day we walked Fort St. Frederic and Fort Crown Point along Lake Champlain. We hope to put our boat, the River Dancer, in on Lake Champlain at some point in the future.  On yet another morning, we walked a road, doing a big loop, up the hill behind our friend's home.  

We saw a small fox during broad daylight in the yard of neighbors.  I wondered if it was rabid since it was out in broad daylight, but it returned back into the woods after passing through yards.  I didn't get a picture.  

When we went to the library in town, just a short walk from our friend's home, we saw this yellow garden spider in the garden in front of the library.  

Back side of the yellow garden spider.

Under side of the yellow garden spider. 

We'd gone to the library to see if our friend's mural was still displayed on the walls.  She hadn't been in the library in years nor had she talked to anyone about it to know if it was still there.  It was maybe fifteen years ago since she painted that mural.  It was nice to see that the original librarian that she dealt with to paint the mural was still there and working that day.  She would like my friend to paint another mural on the outside of the library.  They agreed to talk about it again next spring. 

The library mural painted by my friend years ago. 
It completely covers the back wall here but 
wraps around on to the adjoining walls. 

The scene is of the monument/lighthouse on Lake Champlain
at the base of the bridge from New York to Vermont .  

While I cleaned the pantry and my husband and friend painted, our friend's sister worked in the gardens all day.  She found this critter. I feel I've seen it before somewhere.  

The flowers were blooming and beautiful while we were there.  

I like eccentric people.  Our friend, the owner of the old Victorian in Crown Point, is eccentric.  She's an artist and many artists are eccentric.  It's cool that she is also a retired Army officer.  I love how some eccentrics can walk many different paths.  I love when eccentrics dream big as with her vision of how the old Victorian and the old barn will look.  But let me talk about the sister.  When we met the sister, she was coming out of her bedroom on the top floor of the Victorian. She was dressed in a gorgeous, vintage black silk, beaded ankle length dress.  She had full makeup on and her hair was on top of her head a la Katharine Hepburn.  She had gorgeous and bodacious costume jewelry. She had nice shoes on took but I can't recall what they looked like.  She was totally decked out as if going to a costume ball circa the 1920's, 30's or 40's maybe.  Then she went outside, dressed like that, and proceeded to weed the flower beds and to chat with neighbors.  I will never forget the sight of her sashaying out of her room to greet us in the hallway of the upstairs bedrooms.  She has what appears to be osteoporosis and is bent almost double and to the side. That posture adds to the feeling of eccentricity with her dress.  This woman is also the author of three beautifully illustrated children's books about nature, primarily about the sea and sea life. She, like her sister, have quite the respectable work ethic.  Everyday this beautiful lady would go work on the grounds of the old Victorian, sometimes in shorts and a blouse, but always decked out with makeup and accenting jewelry.  Her hair is waste length when worn down.  Beautiful lady.  

We had beautiful weather while at Crown Point, if unseasonably hot for a couple of days and with rain only one morning, allowing us to get the barn painted.  Below are a couple of pictures of one of the barn windows showing vegetation on the inside, not at all where it should be. Did I say that one of the projects is that the barn needs to be re-roofed? 

It was difficult painting the barn because it soaked up the paint since much of it was unpainted yet still needed to be scraped/sanded down a bit. 

Pictures from our walks.

At Fort Crown Point

Old home on the Vermont side. 

Front side of the old home.  

It's just such a beautiful area.  

Boat ramp in front of the Samual Champlain lighthouse.

Looking up at the statue of Samual Champlain

I love me some Adirondacks

We went to Ticonderoga one evening for a free bluegrass concert by the Too Tall Bluegrass band. They were delightful.  I found myself smiling most of the evening as they played.  I really enjoyed it. We bought both of their CD's.

Too Tall Bluegrass Band

And when we left the concert to walk back to our car we encountered two skunks who were eating from a bowl of food set out on a porch behind the pub where we'd had a fun bar-food dinner before the concert. One of the skunks ran into a nearby bush. Neither sprayed us, fortunately, even though we had just come around the corner and surprised them probably less than we were surprised by their presence.  They were about four feet away.  I'm guessing they probably don't spray people they encounter or there would not be food left out on what may well be a routine basis. These skunks, or at least one of them, seem to have lost their fear of people.  We got the feeling the skunks knew how their bread was buttered, so to speak, and appreciated the free food. 

An unusual sight. 

Views, below, from other walks.

I like this little yellow building by the tracks. 

This used to be a B&B but there was no signage saying it still is.  
It's a beauty.

And so we got as finished with painting the barn and cleaning the pantry as we could before heading back to Delaware. We hope to return and give our friend a hand with more projects in the future.  She and her sister were wonderful hosts to us.