Saturday, July 12, 2008

July 12

Maintaining the Picnic Area.
Dad built this picnic area in its entirety by hand shortly after we moved into the little Kings Settlement house in the early 1950's -- and by "by hand," I mean that no power tools were involved. Excavation was by shovel, the rocks, no matter how big, were transported from quarries or abandoned farmlands by little (and also hand-made) trailer behind a sedan, and transported to this spot by wheelbarrow. The grilling fireplace was assembled stone by stone with no mortar except around the chimney and fire-brick firebox areas. When we, he and I, sneaked back onto the property for a peek in 1992, after it had been out of the family for a decade, the picnic area was unchanged and obviously well-used by its then-current owners. I suspect that it still is.
The pipe supports for the little tables that I'm painting in this picture fit into permanently-emplaced, larger pipes in the ground. This allowed them to be rotated while in use -- and to be taken away and stored for the winter.

Date: July, 1961
Location: Kings Settlement, New York
By: LH

1 comment:

ronnie said...

Such clever design and good workmanship!