The hill behind the house is planted in corn, which has been cut and placed in shocks. When we moved here, the house had no electric service, no indoor plumbing, no running water, no kitchen cabinets, and was not painted. The second floor was totally unfinished, and had no flooring. We carried water from a spring located near the old LOG HOUSE at lower right.
After moving here, my dad and mother started improving the property, including: building kitchen cabinets, building a complete water system, ( including a 1000 gallon reservoir, 350 yards away, and piping it into the house,) painting and underpining the house and building several rock walls and walkways to the house. The rocks used in the building of these walls and walkways came from this property and another property, 1 mile away. In the early 1940s, a bathroom was installed and the second floor was converted into 3 bedrooms.I recently spoke with an elderly lady who related that her parents lived in this house, at lower right, many years ago and SHE was born in this log house in 1920!! In 1941 my father, Ben W. Farthing, took down this old structure and installed livestock weighing scales at this location. His father (William Farthing) helped construct the new scale shed.
The house at right was constructed in the mid 1920s by the previous owner. The huge barn at left and the building between the barn and house were constructed by my father, in 1935, when we still lived at VALLE CRUCIS, 6 miles "up" the Watauga River from this location.
PREVIOUS PAGE......NEXT PAGE