This drawing was a GREAT FIND !! A few years ago, my aunt and uncle retired from farming. When they moved my aunt gave me a framed drawing that had hung in my Grandma's farmhouse for years. It was drawn by my great uncle Monsignor Maurice Walsh. The art was framed in a beautiful antique frame. I was honored to be the recipient from among 30+ cousins.
The drawing was very hard to see. I wasn't certain if it was faded from so many years or if the glass was dirty so I took it apart to find out. What a surprise! Underneath the drawing was THIS drawing that no one knew existed and as you can see was still in pretty decent shape considering this would have been drawn around the turn of the century...that is, the last century 1900. This drawing is likely 100+ years old. In fact, I need to check into having it preserved for my grandchildren ~ much like I believe I need to preserve our earth for my grandchildren.
The setting would have been the old farmstead in Tyre, Michigan which is in the "thumb" for those of you who recognize the mitten trick Michiganders use to give directions! I can only speculate that this is a drawing of Maurice and his sister Mary returning from the approximate mile and a half walk home from the the school they attended.
The detail in the drawing gives me a lot of insight into life back then...
There is a handpump in front of the home where water was drawn for drinking, cooking and bathing. The house was warmed and food cooked with wood that was cut and split by hand. It is likely it was hard to find wood as a path of destruction was cut through the area by the fire of 1871 and then the Great Fire of 1881 which happened on Sept 5, 1881. Maurice would have been a mere two months old at the time.
There is an outhouse tucked behind the tree on the left side of the drawing...no indoor plumbing! (Something I could not live without!!)
Dinner is hanging in the big tree in front - likely squirrel or rabbit. Do you see it? My mom talks of how excited they would get when Grandpa would bring rabbit home for dinner! The boy in the drawing is carrying his tin lunch bucket and likely had biscuits for lunch at school.
These were hardworking people of faith. My ancestors were lumbermen and farmers and lived off the resources of the land. They did not have public utilities. Lighting was likely lamp oil and transportation was either by horse and buggy or by foot. They were healthy and happy and lived long lives for the most part. Yes there were unfortunate accidents, fires, deaths from "consumption," fevers and childbirth.
My Grandma died in 1998, almost 100 years old (bless her soul.) I attribute her long life to clean living and eating healthy foods grown in organic gardens.
Chris Hall wrote a blog the other day Living Off the Land in Austin. We are much more technologically advanced in this century. We have the ingenuity to build efficient homes that require less energy. We are learning to use materials, much like they did in the early parts of the last century, that don't use chemicals and toxins. Windows have been developed to work with the system of the home to keep them comfortable and free from drafts. We have developed and are continually improving building science to build smarter, healthier homes.
We have further advanced renewable technologies like solar hot water, solar electric and wind to power our homes. This is not NEW technology ~ it has been advanced to be much more effective than it was in the "old" days.
The home in the drawing was likely pretty inefficient and drafty. Yet I find the IDEA appealing. I would much prefer to put my hard earned dollars to work to insure a healthy home and one that reduces my footprint. A home that can create it's own energy and insulate me from the rising costs of energy. I enjoy growing my own veggies, canning my foods and yes! there are a couple of avid hunters in my family!
Like the drawing above I want to preserve the earth for my grandchildren!
Thank you for allowing me to share my GREAT FIND with you!!!
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What a great drawing... that is sooo cool. You are absolutely right, sometimes we need to go back to the way it used to be and use the technology that we have today to improve some of the old methods. Love your posts... they are so imformative!