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Date: | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:57:53 -0500 |
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Here in the middle of Portland we live in a neighborhood built up in the
1890s. There are about 12 to 14 houses in each block. Out my upstairs
front room office I typically see humans strolling by on the brick
sidewalks and a few teenagers skuttle down the middle of the street when
they should be in school. Possums, coons and the occasional skunk are
frequent visitors on summer nights. Woodchucks live under barns and
garages. Fox and coyotes trot down the middle of the street before
daylight on winter mornings. Occasionally we have a deer or two grazing
on the terrace in our front yard. Once, just visible down at the end of
the block and kitty-corner across the intersection, on the front lawn of
the school house, there was a moose. Birds in our yard have become
plentiful once the English Oak, Hornbeam and Cottonwood trees I planted
back in the mid-90s got as tall as the house.
Hey, a horse pulling a wagon just came down our street. Clippyty, clop,
clippty clop. Highly unusual, though when our house was built in 1899 it
must have been very common. Cribbing on the studs and a few wisps of hay
in the rafters of the barn show that horses were kept here early on.
There is a family of raccoons that has the peculiar habit of climbing up
the corners of wood shingle sided houses, damaging the shingles and,
when persistent, tearing holes in the soffit of the cornices and setting
up winter housekeeping in the attic. This started here in our
neighborhood about 10 years ago. During the 80s and 90s this same family
of coons was doing the same in the next neighborhood over. I'm glad I
don't have shingle siding.
John
www.HistoricHomeWorks.com
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