Mail and Pins!

 Hullo!!! I got some mail a few ***cough*** weeks ago!

First up... a postcard from Glacier National Park - that's in the USA, sister park to our own Canadian Waterton Lakes Park... I do believe.

It's from Cocoa and Navy!! They are visiting Little Fox and LF was decluttering old post cards. Cool!

It's nice to see that Cocoa and Navy are having a good time. They were going to Seattle!! I wonder if they went to the iconic Pike Place Starbucks?

Then there's a trademark envelope from Beanie Mouse!

With a cool card! Beanie is beary creative you know.

Ooooohhh... this is one the Mysteries of the Purloined Bullion (or something similar)...

And the price is a 50p coin commemorating public libraries in the UK... 1850 to 2000... not bad.

What's this?? Another card? That looks like the screaming painter guy... whassis name? Munch?

Yes, indeedy! It is an Edvard Munch! With another clue...

     Another heptagonal coin released for posterity

     To celebrate part of society's minority (that might be Stuffies!!!)

     An annual parade with rainbow flags flying (hmmmm)

     Promoting acceptance, there's no denying

What's the parade??

Well that's easy peasy... Pride Parade!!!!

And this is what the coin looks like! Coo!

Next up... some mail from...

Jerry & Ben!!!

It's a beary belated bearthday card!

Awwwww...

Thanks guys!!! Belated bearthday greetings are always welcome!

Oh... you're wondering about the green ribbon I'm wearing???

This little one?

Yes, well, it is coming up to June which is NPE awareness month... what is NPE? Not Parent Expected... it's when these silly humans get all excited and take an Ancestry DNA test and the results are weird and... well... usually... their father is not their bio father.

Anyhoo... I am wearing the green ribbon in support of a certain human of my acquaintance who had a "DNA Surprise"... sigh.

Oh yes... and I have a new pin!!!! This is a gold beeeee!! Nice, eh??

Oh... and another one...

A combined Canada and BC Flag pin. Beary nice.

All these pins make me feel a bit like a bear pin cushion but... I do like the bee pin!

...

Yes, yes... and the green ribbon!! (sheesh... humans are weird sometimes)...

Stonehill Farm: The Extensive Outbuildings and a Pool House

Hullo! I am continuing my exploration of the abandoned mansion property and it just keeps going!

Let's wander down this road...

Sun's coming up... it must have been a beary nice house back in the day.

Right, our next stop is... some animal stables I think.

Maybe a chicken coop area?

But then there is this...

Graffiti central!

Aliens maybe?

And there is an old tub out front, used as a water trough is my guess.

Errr... weird...

Uh-huh... aliens it is then.

For the record... you could pay me 1000 tubs of honey and I WOULD NEVER spend the night on this property. Ever. Not for all the honey in the world.

Righto... more buildings down thataway!

Did I mention that I am an exploring bear??

And our next stop is...

An old sawmill!

This is the green chain end. Grampa used to work in a sawmill so Mama has some vague sense of the bits and pieces of a mill. This is where the fresh cut, green lumber would have come off.

Wow, it's in pretty good shape.

With a nice view over the Back 40.

Not sure if that wheel used to be part of a band saw but it's powered by an old diesel motor.

Beary fascinating!

There are 3 smaller outbuildings here as well. Two were boring inside but the third...

Well... it had some cool stuff inside...

Old paint cans and a work bench of sorts! 

And then there was a stone table with some benches here... maybe a lunch spot?

This is sooooo coooollll! I am glad we came here in the spring before all of the greenery obscures everything...

Onwards!

Hmmmm... some contraption... no idea what.

If somebody knows... drop a comment!

And now... something different...

A massive stinging nettle patch!!!!

And us without any nettle collecting gear... sigh.

Another barn/shed...

Maybe for tractors and stuff?

And... another one!

Hmmm... maybe for sheep or cows?

Honestly... I am beginning to feel like this place could have been a commune! But apparently not... more on that later...

We are almost at our goal... the waterfalls!

That's the tractor shed and the cow barn...

Nice little path through this gully...

And... voila! A cute waterfall!!

Alright.... let's head back...

Another out building...

With a livestock loading chute...

More nettles...

And... wow... a big old maple tree...

With a tire swing...

And a board swing...

And... we're back... now that the sun is up, we are going to poke around the house a bit more...

We went round the other way on the balcony and...

Found this. A pond? 

Or a hot tub?

And an opening into the bowels of the house...

Cedar ceilings (seeeee... mid-century modern)...

This fireplace would have been killer...

Errrr... yes... no... never want to be here in the dark!

That would have been quite the sunny living room...

With gorgeous views over the property.

One final stop... this lower building by the old BBQ pit...

Hmmm... tile floors!

OMG... it's a pool house!!! Apparently there is a shower room at the far end... Wow... with more cedar tongue'n'groove on the ceiling. Nice.

Righto... that's my tour of the abandoned mansion!

And the family who lived here?

Well... the patriarch was Carlton Stone, a Brit born in Essex in 1877. By 1914, he was in Vancouver, where he married Ellen Mathias (originally from Pembrokeshire in Wales). They settled on Vancouver Island and had 6 kids in 7 years (prolific) - 5 boys and a girl. Carlton was a sawmill magnate (Cowichan Lake area) and became very wealthy. He started work on the house in the 1920s. His sons later worked with him at the sawmill business. Carlton died in 1950 and his wife in 1959. The second son, Norman, apparently took over the house. He passed in 2000. No commune. Just a rich (and slightly eccentric?) family who were of hardy pioneer stock and believed in supporting themselves and living off the land?