Of course the horseshoe over the door is
pretty common, but under the floor? I’ve also heard of placing the eye of
an ox in a mortice by the door of the barn when it is raised.
In the Black Forest area in Germany it was
tradition to roast the ox that was used to haul the timbers for a new barn
house, then hang it’s head from the rafter peaks inside the barn for good
luck and leave it there. They had no chimneys so the smoke from the fires would
preserve it.
Rudy
-----Original Message-----
From: "Let us not speak foul
in folly!" - ]<en Phollit
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cuyler Page
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003
6:15 AM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Good Luck Horseshoes?
Dear historic woody people,
I am currently rebuilding a floor in
a pioneer building of 1877, originally a store along a pack-horse trail leading
to gold fields. Some of the joists have started to collapse due to
carpenter ant intrusion and the induced rot. The floor was built
totally detached from the log walls of the building, apparently installed after
the building was up. The floor joists were laid right on the
levelled ground with only shimming rocks and no crawl space. The only way
to replace the joists has been to take the floor apart from the top down,
carefully removing several layers of flooring added over the years with the
intent of replacing them if appropriate at the end of the project.
When the original whipsawn floor boards were finally removed, well packed earth
revealed where the original entry door had been. Between the packed
earth and the wood floor above, in the 6" space created by
the squared joists, there was a pile of wood chips from the joist
hewing. Laying in the chips, centred right in front of the entry
door spot, was a horse shoe, neatly lined up with the entry
alignment. It looked as though it had been placed there before the
new floorboards were fastened down.
Question: Does anyone know of
a tradition of placing a Good Luck Horseshoe below the threshold of a new
building?
cp in very rustic bc