 Our projects have slowed a bit with these seemingly endless rain but if you have passed by lately you may have noticed the beginning of our primitive Virginia Worm Fences. Early settlers constructed these fences from scrap wood and local rocks as we have done as well. These fences will make their way all across the historic farm as we restore the property back to its former glory.
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 This was the news story that many people probably remember and which the Yousey family must know better than any. To some the barn complex truly was lost that day. As we strive to save it even today we still hear people say that it is a lost cause but not everything is so easily lost in fire. For those who have not seen what that fire did to our barns, here is your sneak peak at the inside. We are making every effort to ensure that this complex of barns dating back to 1808 are safe and standing for many years to come and hope that these burned portions allow them to remain even longer still. In Japanese burning wood as a stylized preservation technique is known as shou-sugi-ban and the idea is that not only is harder to burn again but it also keeps the rot and pests away. It also has a sort of beauty when you stand inside the middle of the high vaulted 1898 barn and are surrounded by this immense structure that has survived so much and for so long. We hope that we can share it with you all one day soon but before then we have much fundraising and engineering to do to insure that when the Forsyth Tavern reopens it doors, it and everyone that visits it are safe.  A Repairer of Ruin*Motto of the Clan Forsyth*
We know that Fred M Ackerson was the District Attorney for Niagara Niagara County from 1908 - 1917 and was also a Scottish Mason. What we don't know is who glued his advertisements on the barn wall and why. Another thing that we know is that both Chas. F. and E. E. Warren used the same barn for their businesses and proudly tested their ink stamps on the same wall and luckily those have endured the years better than their choices in art and advertisement. Chas is presumably Charles F. Warren who lived from 1856 - 1930 and E. is probably Elmer Warren 1881 - 1947. If anyone has any information and can shed some on this little mystery we would love to hear what you have found.
 This is a repair that would frighten away the vast majority of potential buyers of this historic home. It is the result of the house's roof collapsing during one of the SEVEN years that the house was left abandoned! However, it IS repairable and what the average onlooker would not know is that the rotten section is the NEWEST part of the house! In fact, the remainder of the house is built of brick, vertically sided in wide plank pine and horizontally clapboarded over that. That has allowed this house to survive 209 years so far and I hope many more to come! With no buyer willing to look past this quite ugly and horrible decay, this historic gem could have joined rank as one of the millions of hearty and historic homes that have bulldozed across our state.
 Our neighbor stopped over the other day and gave us this copy of a photograph from her collection that shows the Tavern with a quite large addition to the East and North which we otherwise would have never known existed. If anyone has any more photos like this one please share them with us.
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