Thursday, April 16, 2009

Somewhere over the Hudson


If you've only been to New York and gone to the City, then you are missing alot. From the Finger lakes to the Mohawk Valley to the Catskills, the state is a beautiful place. When Dave says he's from New York, most people assume he's a city boy. Not really. Dave grew up in the Hudson River Valley on well water--definitely not in an apartment in the City. These pictures are literally across the street from his house. Jake took us on a nature walk through some of the woods where he plays with one of the neighborhood boys. They've got a nice dirt bike track back there.




I am in love with one of the neighborhood homes. It was built before the Revolutionary War, and it overlooks the Hudson. The last time we were here we got an inside tour. It has a built-in brick oven from the 1830s and coffin doors that allowed coffins to come in and out of the house back when people had public viewings in their homes. The house has a bell outside, hitching posts, and an old barn with post and beam construction. You can tell the logs were cut with a broad axe. Can you imagine how the view from the cuppola has changed in the last 200-something years? From wooden barges hauling hides and crops down river to steamboats carrying passengers to big hunks of metal transporting industrial supplies, river traffic has changed as much as the scenery that has become dotted with new, modern and not-so-pretty homes.The same family has lived in this house since the 1700s, and now it's for sale. It's a sad thing, and it hurts my heart to imagine a family losing that much history. If I won the lottery, I'd buy this place, put it on the historic registry, and operate a bed and breakfast out of it. Wonder if visitors would like biscuits and sausage gravy?


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