Good Morning fellow LumberJocks:
I had a few moments and thought I’d share a little of my blessings and delimmas with you. I’ll start with the blessing part.
Previously, I’ve mentioned the reclaimed lumber from my great grandfather’s store. I’ve got a somewhat large pile of it in my barn that’s been sitting there since the early 70’s. Back then when I was in high school, my parents took it upon themselves to tear it down and bring much of it home and store it in the barn. At the time, being a teenager, I obviously had other things I’d rather be doing. The work was time consuming, dirty and filthy. My complaining was loud and often. Now, I’ve learned to regret those words as that “filthy pile of lumber is worth a considerable sum of money not to mention the “heirloom” value. I was being truly blessed in those days and didn’t know it. I’ve thanked the Lord many times since then, every time I send one of those boards through my planer. Thank you again lord.
In 2005, a cousin of mine died of a stroke. (Bless his heart!) He was a well known doctor in the Swansea, SC community and one of my dearest relatives. I was fortunate enough to be a co-executor of his estate and consequently was able to acquire a few things of family value as well as knowlege of some of my ancestors that I would not have had that not been the case. At any rate, in his will, he gave me the option of taking my portion of the estate value or I could purchase my great grandfather’s home place for a great price. It’s about 93 acres and is mostly farmland while about 35% is wooded. I’m a land surveyor by trade and surveyed this property myself, so I was all over the property by the time I got the job done. At the time, the only building I thought was on the property was an old equipment shed where the farmer that farmed it kept some of his equipment.
During the course of settling the estate, we had some timber stolen on the property. The town cops caught the guy red handed. Well, one day while I was looking at the tax assessor’s maps online to see if they had recent enough pictures to reflect what was stolen, something caught my eye. It was plainly a building of some sort. You could see the outline of a wooden structure. Ultimately, it turned out to be two buildings. One was my great grandfather’s home place and the other was an old barn. I had no previous knowlege of these as me and my cousin had never discussed this property or really much “family” stuff except for the fact that he wanted to leave this place to me when he died.
In the process of surveying the land, I had stood within 10 feet of his old house, but due to the fact that it was so grown up with thick vegetation, you couldn’t tell it was there. When I found out, I was ecstatic. It took me a week, but I finally got out there and took some pictures which I’d like to share.
Here’s a 6×6 laying inside the barn. 
Here’s a 2×4 from the old store. It’s 28’-3” long!
Here’s a 1×12 that’s almost 16’ long. I’ve also got some sills I need to dig out, some of which are around 20’
Of course that brings me to the “Dilemma” part….............No TIME! You know, the job, the family, raising a 2 yar old…..........Ya’ll don’t have have these obstacles do you? LOL. I’ll just have to make time…....with the good Lord willing. And…...He’s done his part so far, so I have no doubt. I’ll just have to make time. Thanks for looking.
-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC
12 comments so far
dennis mitchell
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2945 posts in 800 days
posted 405 days ago
Cool! The fireplace alone is becoming an endangered species.
-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com
MsDebbieP
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11929 posts in 647 days
posted 405 days ago
what a treasure – such history sitting here… the stories, the hard work, the relaxing after a hard day’s work, the tears after disaster and the laughter after family joys….
oh right.. the wood!! Awesome!
(That’s one LONG board you got there. Holy moly).
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Don
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2586 posts in 663 days
posted 405 days ago
Good story, nice pictures, fantastic timber!
-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/
CedarFreakCarl
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361 posts in 540 days
posted 405 days ago
Dennis: although I haven’t figured out what, the bricks will be in some kind of project here somewhere. Of course I still have to dismantle the dang thing and get it home.
Debbie and Don: Thanks! Maybe I can make some small wooden boxes or something. lol!
-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC
RobS
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1107 posts in 792 days
posted 405 days ago
Nice discovery. Lots of potential and lots of history, very cool. Thanks for the pictures.
-- Rob (A) Waxahachie,TX
frank
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1389 posts in 692 days
posted 405 days ago
Hi Carl;
—-what a great story and great pictures to go along!
I’m wondering as to what is the name of the vines you have growing there….?
....lot’s of ‘flat land’ and weathered boards….nice hew of grey. Seems like that pine is wearing well down your way….
Thank you.
GODSPEED,
Frank
-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/
CedarFreakCarl
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361 posts in 540 days
posted 405 days ago
Good Morning Frank;
I think that vine is a type of sumac, maybe even the poison variety. I’m not sure, I couldn’t find my tree book this morning. And that hew of grey adorns all of the old pine barns and houses down this way that haven’t been painted. I know of a few that are very picturesque and I’ll see if I can remember to take some pictures and post them. Actually, some of the really older structures that were built before the turn of the century are almost black in color.
Thanks for looking Frank,
GODSPEED backatcha…......
-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC
Karson
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12910 posts in 887 days
posted 404 days ago
Great Story. and nice find.
-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com
Bill
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2512 posts in 647 days
posted 404 days ago
A great story, and a nice find Carl. I hope you are able to keep the land and turn it into something wonderful. Maybe a tree farm, with some working buildings and such. To have that much land is great. As they say, they are not making any more land these days, so it is great to hold on to it when you have it.
Such great looking lumber. I hope you will show us the pictures of what you build with it.
-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com
CedarFreakCarl
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361 posts in 540 days
posted 404 days ago
Thanks, Karson & Bill. You can bet I’ll keep the land. It’s not eating anything and the crop rent pays the taxes. I’m probably going to plant it in trees in a few years. You’re right, they’re not making any more of it. The sad thing is I was the only one in the will that took land as my share. We had over 500 ac. in it. It’s a shame money is more important to some people. At one point in my life I had an older fellow tell me that as far as a retirement plan goes, you can’t beat a big piece of land with some timber on it. Anyhow, I’ve got a coffee table and a couple of matching light tables in mid project stage. It’ll probably a few weeks but I’ll be sure to post some pictures. Thanks again for looking.
-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC
MsDebbieP
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11929 posts in 647 days
posted 404 days ago
Oprah’s favourite thing to buy is property – because, as she says, there’s only so much of it
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
clieb91
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350 posts in 421 days
posted 294 days ago
Carl,
I know it has been a while since you posted this, but I just found it. What a treasure to find, I am working with agroup that oowns 894 acres and trying to map it out I am using GIS to help them, I love woalking the property and finding the old buildings and ruins and wondering just what may have taken place there.
Glad you were able to hang on to the property.
CtL
-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."