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In a remote valley in Canada
an old collapsing house captured my heart. I began walking toward it, crossing over a
dry streambed and ascending the rocky slope to the top. After awhile
of exploring, I sat for a time and listened to the sound of silence.
It was wonderful. Surreal.
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was no air traffic, no industry, and very few
automobiles. So sheltered were we, from the outside
world, that the silence was almost eerie. Quiet enough to hear a grasshopper
climbing a blade of grass. |
The two room house sits atop a little knoll. If you enlarge the photo to
the right, you
can see the dried streambed in the foreground.
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This
corner of the house was caved in but I could see a hole in the upper
wall where there had once been a woodstove.
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the side of the hill, the walls were of field stone, chinked with a mixture of
mud, pebbles and
animal hair.
The rafters were of heavy beams, planked with old
wooden shingles.
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This photo was taken from the
entrance, looking
into the main room. The collapsed wall is to
the right.
As I had entered the front door, though many of the boards now lay in
splinters, it had been apparent that there had once been a wooden floor.
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In the photograph
to the right I am looking through the side door. The window to the second
room is in the background. The collapsed wall is to my left. If you enlarge the photo you can
better see the the old wooden door frame and the mud chinking.
In the photograph
below I am standing outside, looking through the window of the second
room. The main room is barely visible through the doorway.
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The back wall of the
house is built into the hill. Note the large stone of
the supporting wall in comparison
to the stone used on the rest of the building.
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The only piece of furniture in the house was a wooden shelf and this old
brass bed, now tarnished to various shades of green.
The floor of this
room was dirt and there was no evidence that it had ever had any type of
flooring.
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In the photograph to the right I am standing
outside. The doorway is to the left of the wall. If you look closely you
can see where someone had tried to repair the stone with new chinking.
In front of me and
to my right is the section that has collapsed. If you were to look out the
small window in the back of the house, you would be at ground level.
Note the trunk of
the tree that makes up the large beam above the wall.
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