09/18/2024
263 years ago, In 1761, the first part of our 800 acres of our land was purchased, (or 1200 acres as rumor has it). We bought the “1860’s House” first, which wasn’t named than then, and then the little house across from our current farm. And the four brothers who came out from Flatbush, built two additional, grand, Victorian homes. One of thr homes burned down in the 60’s, and the other is where the Weingart’s own today. Our house was built from 1857-1860, as a “summering home”, home just used for entertaining the family who would come out from NY. As the story goes the porches were added later on, with no footings, about 15-20 years after the house was built. So every so often our family would pay to jack up the porch, and fix things.
When I moved in to be a companion for my grandparents in 1992, Grandpop would call the older, thin man named Shulkie every 6-9 years and give the porches a little face lift. I was too busy with caring for grandparents, kids, animals, milking, repairs, college, gardening, etc to notice what this skilled carpenter came to do. And I didn’t know the secret in 2003 when my Grandpop passed away. Now, the porches have gotten away from us, and we all look forward to getting them looking great one day. But in the mean time we all enjoy the inside of the home which remains very sturdy and beautiful, and very traditional.
At the moment I have been hit with a perfect storm of issues from unemployment, major medial surgery and little issues like threat of foreclosure. Please check out the Go Fund Me page set up by my kids to keep the farm in our family so we can continue to share this magical, Pre-revolutionary farm with our community.
