Stanley-Nolen Family Cemetery

In Garrison Park in South Austin there is a small family cemetery, the Stanley-Nolen Cemetery. I literally stumbled over this cemetery some time back and found out that I was related to the family interred there. When I told another relative about it, he was surprised. The family had been told that the old cemetery had been covered by one of the streets. When I returned recently, I couldn't find the marker I knew was there, it took a couple of trips to see it again. It is located near the pavilion at the rear of the park not far from the softball fields.
Descendants of the Stanley family mentioned here moved to the community of Andice in Williamson County, Texas. I am descended from William James Stanley who died in Andice in 1877.


The following info is copied from the Austin Genealogical Society website. I do believe there are more than two burials in the cemetery. The info itself mentions at least three. I think it likely there are several, but only two are now evident.


This marker information was transcribed by Billie Blackstock. There are only 2 burials in this cemetery. 

The Stanley Nolen Cemetery is the final resting place of two pioneer families and their descendants. Thomas Edward Stanley born in Darlington Co., South Carolina on January 6, 1805 met and married Holland West Galtin in Tennessee and in 1849 the family settled here 5 miles south of Austin.
Holland West Galtin Stanley who is buried here is the daughter of the sister of Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln’s mother.
Jane Stanley only daughter of Holland Stanley married Thomas Warren Nolen who served as Travis counties first Assessor-Collector. The one remaining marker in the cemetery is that of his brother Mace S. Nolen. The Nolen’s played a prominent part in the development of Austin and Travis County. Sidney F. Nolen served as county commissioner 1894 to 1903 and Henry C. Nolen served as city Alderman from the first ward April 1899 to May 1903 both are grandsons of Holland Stanley and nephews of Mace Nolen.

Historical marker

Harry W. Nolen, son of Henry, was city commissioner from April 1923 until the city manager form of government was installed by the city of Austin in 1926. He also served as superintendent of police and public safety and worked to establish the city manager system.


The Stanley Nolen cemetery was acquired by the city of Austin in 1961 as part of a tract purchased from the Stanley heirs for the development of Garrison Park.

Name	Birth	Death
William Thomas Nolen	September 7, 1849	July 28, 1889
M. S. Nolen	March 6, 1822	January 12, 1872

M.S.Nolen

William Thomas Nolen

It's Not Deja Vu! It's Not Deja Vu!

One of my favorite Monty Python sketches concerns deja vu. Maddeningly funny! If you happen to read both my blogs you may be getting the same feeling.
Like the classic Escher drawing on the right there is overlap at work. A bunch of you fine and obviously intelligent folks follow this blog of mine that chronicles my wide range of efforts in Permaculture, Avatar, writing, theater, and so on ad infinitum. 
A lucky few of you also follow my writing blog, Criminal Mischief. As that one covers just one facet of what I'm doing, and this one covers pretty much everything, there does tend to be overlap now and then. 
Such is the case with my remodeling efforts on the office trailer I call my RainCrow Writing Cave. While I'm working on that, it (and the blogs) are pretty much the only writing related efforts I've got going. Since it concerns building my "space of my own" it falls under writing efforts, sort of. It also has a more general appeal. Therefore, it gets covered in both places. I hope you don't mind. Thanks for reading!

Further Adventures in Remodeling

We've got sporadic rain showers here today. I'm not complaining, we definitely need it! However, it has somewhat curtailed my work on the trailer remodel. Therefore, I'm investing my time in getting my record here up to date.
In the previous chapter of this, I mentioned a problem with the rounded back corner of the roof and wall.

Remember this?

All of the wood supporting this corner rotted away. Below is how I solved it.

 The piece of wall paneling I originally removed from here still had the arch intact. I used it as a template to cut two pieces of the scrap flooring plywood which I then notched to accept the ribs and the window header. You can see my splice for the ribs to the left. It was only one end of each rib that was rotted, re-using them meant I didn't have to take the roofing loose on the other corner as much. I think it worked out well. 

Here is the lower outside of that corner. Again, I re-used much of the existing framing with some splicing to remove the rotted parts. There are new vertical studs at each corner as well as the window sides or mullions. 

The upper view of the same area. This opening was re-done as the original size, since I am relocating the good side window here. One synchronicity, I ripped scavenged 2x8's down to 2x6 for the new floor joists. The cutoff strip was just right to make new 2x2 studs where needed.

Here's an inside view of the opposite floor corner. I didn't have any more of the salvaged floor decking so I'm using salvaged pine 1x12's to replace the sections of rotted floor wood.

Here is the opposite end of the same board in the previous picture. (Below that pesky round corner.) 

And then continuing those boards along the sidewall toward the front. The boards are only butted and screwed to the floor joists. I'll seal the cracks later with silicone caulk. To the left is the new bottom runner to attach the new wall framing on the side wall. Below that is the new portion of the edge joist.


Okay, that's where it stands for now. At least until the intermittent showers stop.


Hooray for rain!

  

Latest News on the RainCrow Writing Cave! Or, Why I'm Not Writing!

When we last saw the cave I had just finished re-attaching the skin on the outside of the entrance side of the trailer. Now I'm working to re-build the opposite and rear walls. Removing the old paneling and insulation reveals the true story. It actually was not as bad as I expected. Some of the wall studs at the corner must be replaced, as well as the ones on each side of two windows. Pretty obvious in this picture. Again, the edge floor joists need partial replacement as well. The window visible in the upper left corner of the picture is too broken to save.

 This is the upper part of the same corner. The horizontals running across the picture are actually dangling down. The ends have rotted. One end has fallen loose and is hanging from the trailer lighting wire.

This is a close up of the same area. You can just see the dangling horizontals at the right edge of the picture. I'm a bit puzzled about how to repair this portion. It has to be curved and support the ribs that will be repaired as well as support both metal edges at the corner. In this shot, as well, the back wall and skin have been totally removed. 

 Here's the outside view of the missing end wall. The floor joist at the bottom edge must be replaced, as well as some of the window framing, so it was just easier to open it all up.

A close up of the back corner. You can see how the end of the edge joist is rotted away. A portion of the rotted flooring has been removed, much like I did on the first section I repaired earlier. 

 Here is another angle of that corner. Again, rotted flooring is removed exposing the outside floor joist that will be replaced. There is another of those metal pans over the wheels I have to deal with like before.

The front end of that wheel pan and the front limit of the flooring I removed. The wall is fairly solid in front of this, and the floor is much better beyond this point. 

Back to the rear again. The other end of the rotted floor joist. The flooring is not so bad, but that board has got to go.

 This is the side wall opposite the entrance. Again, the side supports are rotted away, as well as some of the runners that support the wall metal. This window will be relocated to the back wall and it will be re-framed for a larger window.

More of that window. Parts of the horizontal runners and the short verticals can be re-used. 

Here are some of the surplus windows I have on hand. I'll use one of the better and larger ones in the new location mentioned above.


Believe it or not, the end is in sight!

New Permaculture Design

My partner Cat Dancing and I recently attended a Meetup in Austin for a new intentional community. The group, Vajra Azaya, is seeking to obtain land in Williamson County to build a community that will serve as a teaching center for Permaculture, alternative building, alternative lifestyle, health, and so on. It seems to be a really exciting group.  I signed up for several of their committees, Permaculture, Sustainable Agriculture, and Alternative Building (I think.)

We also made a new friend at the meetup who has recently acquired six acres of land near Bastrop and would like to achieve a permaculture design for it. It's very promising. We're meeting with her this weekend to talk over what she wants to accomplish. 

In preparation for that, I visited the place last Monday and looked it over. It's an interesting L shaped piece of property near Lake Bastrop. It has a medium sized house and outbuildings, along with quite a few well established trees of many types. The long portion of the property is running north and south and borders on a wet-weather creek. Some research on the Bastrop Tax Office website netted me the "official" outline of the property as well as the legal description. With Google Earth and an add-on that shows contours, I got the topography of the property and the satellite picture of it. 

Inserting these different resources into my drafting program and accurately scaling them to useful overlays took part of an afternoon, but it gave me a really good overview of the property involved. 

This has generated several maps I can use when I talk to the owner this weekend.

I suppose we can call this Stage One of the design process. Next will be the interview with the owner, and more detailed inspection of the property to accurately lay out all the existing features. I'll take you along for the ride.

Also, if you haven't checked out Meetups, you should. It's a great way to find like minds in your area. There are groups for literally every possible interest. Check it out!

 

Spiraling Inward, or is that Outward?

Flower Spiral at Sherwood Forest Faire: Cat Dancing Creations #309

The spiral garden shown here represents several principles of Permaculture. It is an efficient use of space and resources. It maximizes "edge" which is where the most diversity of life is located in any system. The spiral is one of the natural forms that life takes. It even approaches "vertical" gardening, albeit in a small way.

Think about edge. Most yards are examples of of monoculture. Usually it's grass, grass, shrubs, grass, and so on. Even open fields, while more diverse overall, have that diversity spread over a larger area. What happens at the edge? Along a fence row, a creek bed, the edge of a wooded area, or even a road? Usually you see much more diverse life compressed in a small area.


There are lots of reasons for this. Birds roost on fences and trees and spread seeds of all kinds. Mowing and cultivation are undertaken more randomly along the edges. There are also varying amounts of water, animals, and shade along those edges. We can find many, many explanations but the overall observation is valid, life is more diverse along the edges.


In many people's view, the most dynamic and growing segment of human life exists among those who are living "on the edge", whichever edge they are speaking of. Face it, that is where growth happens. Let's grow some today!

Do Not Adjust Your Set!

Experiencing some technical difficulties here at RainCrow Rancho. It will be another few days before I can post a significantly new blog  here. Check out some of the older ones! See you soon!