New Year's Day plus 3 drive. . . a couple new log buildings.

 After church duties and lunch, I was released for the day and headed out to the cabin.
When I arrived it was about 25 degrees outside, and dropping.

 I started a fire in the stove, hoping to warm the interior a little for the short time I was there.

 Outside, cold and snow flurries.

 Inside, cold, but no flurries.
Thermostat reads 30 degrees inside when I started the fire.

After I got a good fire going I headed out for a drive to find old buildings.

 Driving south of Warrenton, I spotted this one time beauty of an old farm house.
Very old, and although I didn't explore any closer without permission, the half of the house on the right is not log, but I do not know about the other half.
Probably the summer kitchen seen at the back.

Just out of view on the left of this picture, across the drive-way. . .

 . . . stood this old log building. The hanging flag was in much better shape than the rest of the building.

Looking as though it has been used as a barn or storage building for a while. . .

. . . it was probably a home in the beginning.

Barns would not have had such nice doors or such nicely hewn logs.

 At one time there was a window just to the right of the door.

The log work joining the two halves of the building is wonderful.
You don't often see logs joined so well.
The second room, to the left, was probably added later with the fine wood joins and notching.
Because of the size of the trees in our area it would not have been necessary to join short logs together to make two rooms. A log long enough to make up the length of this side would not have been hard to come by.
Another reason the two rooms could have been built with hewn logs splitting the interior was the lack of milled lumber to build interior walls at the time this one was built.

 At one time there was also a second story.
Whether it was a full second story or just a half story I can not tell without closer exploration, which this building does not tend to offer.
My guess is the current (now fallen in) roof pitch is not original, and that the original roof rafters would have been made of of unmilled logs.

The building could have been the original home on the site or a workers or slave cabin.

The door is very nice.
This is the west end.

 View of the main house from across the drive.
Note the old six-over-six windows.
(click any picture to enlarge.)

 After the cabin stop I drove on into Hopewell Mo.
Never a large town, only a few well kept buildings remain.
One time stores still sell antiques.
All wonderfully tin-sided.

 Across from the stores is this wonderful building.
I have watched this building for years, at one time looking at it when it was for sale.
Although not much has been done to it, the new owners are keeping it up and slowly re-doing it.
When I looked at it years ago the cellar was about chest deep with water.
At the back they are working on re-tucking the bricks.

 View of Hopewell driving west.

 Then on to Holstein, Mo.

My purpose for visiting Holstein was to once again photograph an old store in town. It was (was, because it is no longer there) a typical small town store front covered in tin siding. Built I believe around 1907.
Although that building no longer stands, Holstein still has many fine old building.

This one probably an old garage or work shop.

 Nice old farm house just out of town.

 And this beauty.

 In town the old mill is still in operation.

As is the old church.

 Another tin sided store.

 Rust and paint can make some interesting color combinations.

 Just outside of town is this restored/rebuilt cabin now used as a home.

 On a back country road, old tires made into a deer stand (or pill box?).

 This one time, now abandoned, hunters cabin, shows that at some point someone really loved this place.

 Although abandoned for now, the roof and logs are still in good shape.

 And to finish off, a couple old barns along the drive.

I stopped back by the cabin on the way home.
It had gotten up to about 34 degrees inside while I was gone.
But then again, it had dropped to 15 degrees outside.