Uncle Sam and Aunt Dovey.
In 1959, I was a lad of 11, we visited my Great Grandfather's house in
Mitchel county North Carolina. My great uncle Sam and aunt Dovey lived
there then. Uncle Sam took me with him to chop wood. He walked with two
canes one in each hand. He chopped the wood. I guess he didn't trust the
lad with an ax. My job was to carry the wood so he could walk using two
canes.

On the way to the wood pile we stopped at the ice house. In the enclosed
picture it is unfortunately covered by the big tree on the left. It was a
tall building resembling a dutch wind mill without the blades. There was
a large block and tackle hanging from the rafters above us and a pit full
of sawdust in the floor. Along on wall ran a series of stone troughs
threw which water ran continuously. In the stone troughs sat large milk
cans the kind people like to toll paint on today. My great uncle
explained that men used to take a wagon with a team of horses down to the
lake in the winter and cut large blocks of ice as large as to fill the
wagon. They would lock the wheels on the wagon and use the team to wench
the ice up into the wagon then they would bring the wagon load of a single
block of ice up to the ice house where using the block an tackle the team
of horses would lower the giant block of ice down into the pit. They
would cover it with sawdust and heavy planks and then go after another
load until the pit was full to the top. When summer came the process
worked in reverse. They would raise the giant blocks of ice up out of the
pit and sawdust set them on planks and cut them up with a cross cut saw
into a size that would fit the ice boxes in the big house. I imagine ice
cream machines too. In this way they had ice all summer long.

The water I told you flowed from a spring on the other side of the road
and way up the hill beyond where my father stood when he took the picture.
It ran down the hill and under the road in terracotta pipes and into the
ice house where it kept the milk cool in the stone troughs. After it ran
out of the stone troughs it was piped into the kitchen where it ran
through a large stone sink used to get drinking water and cooking water.
Keep in mind people used a dishpan and dry sink to wash dishes. They did
not wash them in the stone sink that the drinking water flowed through.
Then the water flowed through the wall to the pantry where cottage cheese
was curdling in large trays covered with cheese cloth. After that the
water flowed threw the wall to the front porch where the horses and dogs
could get a drink. But we're not done yet. Then it flowed again through
terracotta pipes under the house where it ended up in a pond that watered
the sheep.

This house was built in the early 1800's by John Collins Blalock and it
had all the modern conveniences of constantly running water and ice
refrigeration.

I imagine the ice house is gone now as it is no longer useful. The
plumbing has probably all been changed too. Yet I will always marvel at
the genus of my Great Grandfather.