Still cloudy, still cold and even a little bit of rain today. Really hope it starts to warm up tomorrow and that the sun will come out for a little while. Even with the mediocre weather it was still a day to go out and do some exploring. First on the list of course was a trip to the ancestral family homestead, Fort Klock. It's only a 15 minute drive over there from where I'm camped out, so even Emma didn't manage to get me lost in that short time. Pulled into the driveway there only to find that it wasn't open today, even though the sign, placed on the back side of the sign today, said they were open Tuesday-Sunday. Oh well! Got out and wandered around the place for nearly two hours looking at all the buildings and all of the grounds. Will go back of course and hopefully they will be open when I do. Until then I'll post a few pictures and comments today with the hope that more will come at a later time.

    Decided to drive a little further west after wandering around Fort Klock and ended up in the small town, or as they say here, the village of Little Falls. What pulled me off of the main road was a view of a stone steeple somewhere in the middle of town. Found it and the beautiful church that went with it and had to get out and walk around it and take a few pictures of it as well as the 120 year old school across the street. While walking back to the truck, another building down the block came into view and it looked even more interesting. Turns out that it started out as a single family residence built back around 1805 by a local Judge Smith. It is a beautiful 3 story brick home with mansard roof, stain glass windows, slate shingles, etc.... What was really amazing though..... it's now the Little Falls Public Library! How cool is that.

   After taking a few exterior photo's I walked inside hoping that maybe they hadn't covered up all of the original architectural details that had to have been there. Walked up to the guy at the front desk and asked if there was anything left of the original structure and he just lit up like a light bulb. After calling a fellow worker to watch the desk for him he then took me on a personnel tour of the whole house showing me all the rooms, all the details and all the history of the place. It was wonderful!!!! I learned more about Judge Smith and his family than any one person should have to know, but it was so fun to hear this guy talk about a subject that was obviously dear to his heart. Took quite a few pictures and will post a bunch of them in  a day or two... once they all get sorted out. It was just so neat to see this old home that had been donated to the city 101 years ago, to be their library, still being used as it had been intended, and still in much the same shape as it started out to be.

   Made a post on Facebook yesterday reminding people there that I was now writing a Blog also. One of my friends there, James, then came back later and posted a link to it along with a nice comment. The end result was that a lot more people ended up viewing it yesterday than at anytime since it was started. Made me wish that there would of been a more interesting day to talk about, but alas, despite what many people imagine my 'life of travel' is like, most of the time it can and is quite routine. Don't get me wrong, it's a ton of fun, and there are no plans to give it up yet. I hope that those of you who are reading this enjoy it to some degree. Still not sure what my feelings are about writing it, but plan to keep up with it until it isn't fun anymore.

    So here are some photo's from today's trip to Fort Klock. More will be added as I find time.




The main sign out on the highway.

A view showing most of the buildings around the old homestead, the stone building in the center of the picture.

A sign showing the relationship of all of the buildings on the site.

  

This is a view of the main house. Built of hand laid limestone, it is the reason that this is considered a 'Fort', as in, fortified homestead. While building it they also incorporated a couple of other features that helped protect it and the people inside. The main thing was that there was a running spring in the cellar that would provide water if they were under siege. Other defenses will be noted on other pictures.

Another view of the main building, this one shows the steep, 12:12, pitch of the gable roofs. On the right is a wood framed structure used to make cheese in.



The front door of the Fort. Check out the lintel block over the door. Wonder how much that one stone block weighs?

   

The 'Historical Landmark' sign on the wall beside the front door of the Fort.

An outside wood fired oven. I believe the wood structure over it is of new origin and there only to protect the oven from the elements.

Another view showing some more of the stonework that makes up the building. Note the small, rectangular spots on the walls at about shoulder height. These are 'loopholes' built in as the walls were laid up. Loopholes were openings in the wall where rifles could be thrust out to shoot at anyone who was trying to do harm to you or your family. In that age it could of been either the British, French, Native American or disgruntled neighbor. Besides the loopholes there would of been heavy wooden shutters on all the windows that could be closed and locked. I think setting fire to the roof would of been a possibility, but I guess it never happened.

A close up of one of the windows and one of the loopholes. I love the arched stonework above the window. The loophole was filled with some kind of insulation wrapped in plastic today, wonder what they would of used way back when.

Really liked the view of the house from this side. Again you can see the steep gable ends of the building.

A view from the riverside. I would imagine that all the trees and bushes surrounding the house would of been cut down and used at the time the house was built and they would of also wanted to have a clear field of fire around the house, just as a safety precaution. It is sometimes hard to imagine what it would of looked like when you have trees around that could be more than 100 years old.

There were these marvelous stone steps between the main house and the cheese house to the west. Overgrown a bit now, they still invite a person to see what is at the top.

Another window close up, this one showing a large straight stone lintel and sill.

A small wood framed garden shed type structure.

A view from the garden. This shows the cheese building better. There is a small creek between the buildings and where I am standing. I thought at one point that maybe they had used it to run a mill, but no real sign of that. Will ask someone next time I am there.

A view of the 'Dutch Barn' seen through some of the trees lining the creek. Not sure at this time what makes it a 'Dutch Barn'.

A view of the creek with the barn in the distance.

A closer view of the Barn. It appeared to me that the stone wall seen in the photo might in fact be the base foundation of a much larger structure that was once there. However; no one was around to talk to so that question will have to wait until I visit again.

This small cannon was located out by the barn. Not sure why it was there, while the surrounding area saw a lot of action during the French and Indian war as well as the American Revolutionary war, I don't believe they had any major forces staged right there at Fort Klock. Yet another question to ask when I go back.

    That's all for tonight.... I'm tired and my Internet connection is really, really slo-o-o-w. Will post more photos later on.