Part Two - North Stockholm, New York

I was on my way to do some shopping in Massena, but had detoured on the way to see some small hamlets in the town of Stockholm. This place, it was obvious, was cutting and selling cedar fence posts:

A comfortable country place. I didn't see any sign of horses, though, so I'd bet they have a lot of mowing to do:

And this was just an old field becoming overgrown with White Pines and dusted ornately with white snow. I thought it was spectacularly beautiful. This would certainly be a photo worth clicking on to get an enlarged view:

A comfortable farm home with a wagon wheel:

A new (or newly sided) place set way back off the road. Often, new unpainted wood siding means an Amish family is living there and fixing up the place. But in this case, I saw no barn, horse or buggy:

The quintessential northern farmstead:

All surrounded by forest:

A friendly looking home:

And a giant old barn on the plains. Actually, it was a series of barns:

Farm house and barns and silo. This was real farm country. But I figured that I was passing out of North Stockholm at that point and checked my map to see how to get to Massena. I'll post more tomorrow:

Route 458, The High Northern Plain

We were almost to the farm and had reached Route 458, which runs between Route 30 (north of Paul Smiths) and the town of Hopkinton. Route 458 is on a high northern plain, still part of the Adirondacks and with mountains visible all around, but rather flat compared to most of the area. It is surrounded by boreal forests and wetlands. There was no snow on the ground that December day but the surrounding mountains all looked sugar coated:

Madeline and Clover figured that if I'd stopped the car and rolled down the window, there must be something interesting out there. Notice little Madeline's reflection in the car's side-view mirror:

Broad wetlands stretched alongside the road in many places, interspersed with northern forests, and some of the wetlands had nearly completed the sphagnum caused return to solid ground:

I've passed by this sign many times without so much as slowing down, but on that day I stopped for a look. Jennings Road. Did that refer to Route 458 or that little dirt lane into the forest? I can find no answer on Google. The next photo is enlarged and easier to read:

Here is a closeup of the sign. This area was important in the war of 1812. I found references to the "Jennings Clearing" or "Jenning's Place," both referring to an encampment of U.S. troops during the war. Perhaps I'll just have to walk that road. There's a gate there, but I can still walk it if there's no "No Trespassing" signs:

A look at what may or may not be the old Jennings Road. If that's it, there should be a clearing back there with grave sites. But on that day I was in a hurry to get the farm and we'd already done enough exploring along the way. So I continued on Route 458 and left this mystery for another day: