In the Hills

What I found in the hills of Kentucky

It was a beautiful weekend.  We headed out, on a day long adventure, into the Appalachia.  It was so beautiful and there was so much to see.  One of our first stops was on an old country lane.  There was an old house, sitting across from the creek.  I had to see it.  I had to peek inside.  The creek was serving as a barrier for me.  But I was overcome with the need to see this place.  I was not to be stopped.  I had to get across.  The creek was not deep, but I could not make it across, in hiking boots.  My feet would be soaked and it was to cold to wade across.  Fortunately I had a pair of muck boots in the back of the jeep.  I pulled them on, and proceeded to cross the babbling brook.  I got to the other side, safely and hurriedly headed toward what I thought, was a house.  When I reached the house, I noticed the steps to the door were long, gone. There was about a three-foot distance from the ground to the doorway. I climbed upon the large log that served as a floor support, and pulled myself forward to see inside the dank, musty building.  After peeking inside I concluded it must have been a store, back in the day.  There was one large room full of what appeared to be counters.  They were made of wood and ran down each side of the building and also in the back.  There were no shelves to be seen.  There were four windows.  Two in the back and two in the front, each were covered with chicken wire.  The floors were wooden, as were the ceilings.  And as I said before.  The building was built on large logs. I wish I had seen this in its grandeur.  She was a beauty, even now.
Well, I had more to see.  I could see another structure in the woods, to my left.  It look as if it had been a large home.  I inched my way through the briars, receiving more than one scratch along the way.  It was overgrown and I knew that this farm had to have been vacant, for a long time.  The trees and briars, made it hard to get to the looming, formation, ahead of me.  As a propelled closer, I saw that a large oak tree had fallen,  and taken out the center part of the house, including the stairway.  I could see the blue, interior walls, that once served as a foyer.  To the left and the right of the fallen tree,  the house still stood.  It was two floors but impossible for me to get upstairs, because of the stairs being absent.  The windows of the house also had chicken wire over the them.  Maybe it was put there, originally, to keep people out.  I continued to fight my way through the brush, heading to the back of the house.  The back of the building was one floor.  There were two fairly large rooms.  Both rooms  had been wall papered.  The paper was faded and peeling, revealing the lattice and plaster beneath it.  There was a large fireplace in the back room, the mantle was gone.  The brick was still there.  The floors were rotted out due to years of being tattered by the rain and time.  Elements and mother nature were reclaiming their own.  I continued around to the back of the house.  There was a porch that ran the full length of the house.  The porch was only 3 or 4 inches off the ground.  Very low.  In front of the veranda was a retaining wall.  It was built of hand cut stone, and carpeted in deep green moss.  A sign of harder times.  A time when everything was built by hand with blood, sweat and tears.  How I would love to have that on my property.  Someone really loved this place.  The family that had once resided here, loved and protected her.  Many an evening, was most likely spent here, on this very porch, listening to the creatures of the night.  I felt like I was there.  Oh how beautiful you are.
Well, There was more.  Oh yes, so much more.  On the hillside, above the house, was an old cellar.  It was built of hand cut stone, same as the retaining wall.  It had two layers of stone instead of one.  It had taken a lot of time to build it.  It was still standing, proud, amongst the twisted vines and shadowing trees.  There were massive boulders surrounding the cellar, covered in blankets green, moss.  This just made it all the more beautiful.  I imagine the cellar was built here amongst these rocks, with some of the rocks that were here.  I am so glad I checked out this place.  It was too beautiful not to be documented in pics.   May the beauty that was live on.