Who dropped the SPITTOON?

It is hard to imagine finding so much evidence of the lives that inhabited the Benjamin House in the 1800's. A wonderful friend, Jack Klotz, offered to explore our back yard for artifacts and he was successful!  If only these items could tell us how they served the family that owned them.  Jack is holding my favorite, a whiskey bottle with a crooked spout!  Judge Crist assured me that the bottle was not his!  There was also a fancy spittoon that caught my eye.  

We will always be indebted to Jack for all the hard, dirty work that he did in the heat of 2014.  His tools and experience helped him locate the cache.  From there, it was work, work, work.  He has a great collection of bottles in his Queen Ann house and donated his find to the mansion.   A side note is that the three Moellering boys started an excavation in their back yard after seeing Jack's success.  The Benjamin House may have spawned an archaeologist!  Nope, there was no Gold found.

Mimosa problems

Our trip to Starks Nursery went well and we were excited about our pair of Mimosa trees for the front yard.  We looked forward to them gracing the south side of the yard, but they did not survive.  Our good friend, Roy Ratliff, had two more young mimosa trees in his yard and donated them to the Benjamin House.  He even planted them, but they too expired.  Guess it was not meant to be.

From the Bees and all who came before 2014

  Sometimes we think that they will always return, but maybe like "Snowflakes" they are all just a little different.  So, we enjoy each July with the colors that our bees help create.   Knowing all the while, they will melt.

Cherish the flowers and the bees that help them become unique each year.

COME VISIT THE FLOWERS THAT HAVE GRACED THE MANSION FOR SO MANY YEARS.........

Bees, thousands of bees love the Mansion

I was surprised to see this swarm of Honey Bees that had collected above the 2nd story window on the northeast side of the Mansion.   I immediately called a wonderful friend, Clayton Armstrong, that is a bee keeper among many other skills.  He immediately drove over from Paris and advised that the colony was building combs, but would not survive the winter in that exposed location.  We both care about the future of wild honey bees and Clayton volunteered to collect the bees with the help of his daughter Julie Wood.   He  went home to collect his custom built bee vacuum and enlist the help of his daughter.  Julie, being the more nimble, put on the protective clothing and climbed out onto the window sill.  It was amazing to see her carefully vacuum the thousands of bee into the special cage.  The bees remained somewhat docile, but some would explore the keeper's mask that Julie wore.  It had to make her nervous!  No one likes to be stung.  With father coaching, they managed to collect most of the bees and transport them to a hive on the Armstrong farm.  With this plan, Clayton could monitor the bees and later divide the colony and move half the bees back to the grounds of the Benjamin House in a hive that would allow them to survive the winter.

Front Yard Transformation

The LICHTE  tree splits and city arrives!

Last Sycamore falls - Jan 2013

Brian of BK  Concrete and Tree Removal

Trees live a long time.  Some live longer than others due to genetics or luck.  The 2011 Tornado damaged nearly every tree in the yard and the soft maples were the most easily damaged.  Before the Tornado, high winds split a huge tree that was from the Lichte Ash/Cottonwood hybrid stock that was brought to the area by the doctor many years ago.  As the many giant elms of long ago, this tree was  also lost.  The city dropped half the tree to avoid damage to their power lines and BK finished the job in fine fashion.  He and his crew also dropped many of the tornado damaged trees.

Dorothy Carothers Dulaney!

Marilyn Shepherd & Dorothy Carothers Dulaney

While eating dinner, my wife struck up a conversation with a lady and the subject of the Benjamin House came up.  She became animated an told us of her youth when she was friends with Eddy Jo Johns.  She recounted how she always admired Eddy Jo's graceful, ladylike ways.  "I was a bit of a Tom Boy, myself", the petite Dorothy giggled.  Together they played and the Benjamin House became a backdrop that they have never forgotten.  Stories like this are exciting for us and we hope to discover more.

Christmas - Anniversary - New Year!

 Jo Kampschmidt, Roger & Debbie Bowe, + Ivy JoAnne

The Holidays are great with family.  A key to remember is that it doesn't have to be YOUR family.  Like so many people, our days are busy but the kids are in Texas and Japan.  So, we borrowed family from our friends.  High School friends, their children, Jo Kampschmidt's family, Kathleen Wilham, and  several others helped Marilyn and I celebrate Christmas, New Years, and best of all - our Anniversary!  The weather was cold with a threat of snow, but we had the house warm and lighted from basement to belvedere.  One friend visiting for the first time had wondered about finding the house on such a dark night.  They said that as they traveled west on collage street they had no doubt when they sited the Benjamin House.  In fact, they said,"Oh my gosh"!  Another friend from high school said that he saw the house when he was passing Hunnewell (laughing).  The new visitors had a lot of questions and Kathleen bailed me out on the tough questions.
The biggest family was Jo's with son Don and wife, Leigh;  daughter Debbie with her husband Roger and their daughter and grand daughter.  They arrived from as far away as San Jon, New Mexico.  Having lived in New Mexico, I really enjoyed talking with them about the food, customs, and weather.