“Sunday, the 4th of February, was very wet and rainy; with the greatest gusts of wind that ever we had, since we came forth…And it caused much daubing of our houses to fall down.”
For millions of people up and down the east coast of the US, nature has asserted itself in a very elemental way these past couple of weeks. Sandy wreaked havoc in NY/NJ and the mid-Atlantic states, and folks are still struggling with its aftermath. A few days ago, a nor’easter some are calling “Athena” blew through with sustained winds and lashing rains. While we are very fortunate to have received only minor damage locally, we think of those less fortunate than us as we place such elemental forces in an historic context.
This is what “daubing of our houses” falling down might have looked like almost 400 years ago:
Justin crawled underneath the panel for scale. "It's wicked cozy", he said.
The post on the right had rotted away to almost nothing, and the wall’s horizontal splints were loosened. While the compromised post was the biggest reason the wall fell, we think it no coincidence that this daubed panel of mortar gave way overnight during the teeth of the storm.
Athena’s northeast gales found many of our weak points:
Pale flocking to Phoenix for the winter.
Dozens of palisade pales and a few old posts met their match during the storm. We’ll stand up and re-use most of the pale but we’ll need to replace several posts in the frame.
Garden fences were not immune to Athena’s fury. Here, John Howland takes stock of an impending repair.
I'm going to need nails, posts, and spearmint gum.
Several pines lost branches in the storm, and a couple of less-healthy specimens came down altogether. Athena knew what she was doing.
Future rick of wood.
Our saw-pit became a leaf repository. Leaf-peeping tours begin at sunrise. Bring your saw.
Is this the beginning of an Andy Goldsworthy project?
Some thatch caps had “hat head” after the storm, but otherwise fared quite well. Phew.
Browbeaten.
So while Athena raged outside our doors all day Thursday…
Rage Against the...Hand tools?
Our plucky co-workers made the most of it and hunkered down…
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Tags: 17th century house, mortar, pilgrim house, Plimoth Plantation
Sorry folks, looks like you got smacked awful hard. Hang in there.
Thanks for saying Jay. We’re good, and grateful to be spared worse.
Was that the governor, his daub, that fell?
It was Allerton House, Elizabeth–the baffle wall. The Governor’s daub is hale and hearty!
Even in the face of disaster your posts are still great fun! Sorry about the damage and relieved it’s not too bad—
Thanks for saying Linda!
Think of the repair work as job security.
Exactly John.
Great gusts of wind indeed!
I don’t expect a lack of electricity would bother you folks too much?
In order to charge our personal devices, Eric, we’ve stumbled upon an early Aristotelian recipe for electricity involving oxen dung, wolfbane, and coconuts. But keep that under your hat…