Half-Moon Cottage: A Humble Pie Homestead: Simple Living Ideas

Humble Pie 1974
This could be my backyard?

I was recently told that my house had a very “Back to Nature” kinda feel to it. “You know kinda 70’s.” We don’t have any macrame plant holders hanging in our windows or marijuana growing in the backyard. So, I wasn’t exactly sure what was being referred to, and if it was a complement or not?

You, see I live in an interesting place... one hour outside of New York City, it‘s a rural town with many horse farms. A lot of people keep chickens, sometimes goats and pigs too... but a lot of people keep their foot in New York City... and don’t seem particularly interested in the natural beauty of the town. They seem more interested in it’s proximately to the city and their property value.

My house is a little different. For one thing it is small for the size of the property. It is an 1800 square foot house on almost 2 acres of land. Real estate agents are perplex as to why we haven’t added on to the house. But that just won’t be our style. We are a family of 4 plus 1 dog. Both my husband and I work at home. We use all of the space in our house everyday, so that tells me it is exactly the right size.

Back to the 70’s feel... well I think that the house had that vibe way before we moved in. About 10 years ago an attractive British woman in her mid-50’s pulled into my driveway and proclaimed,

“I had my daughter in this house... I’m in the States visiting some friends and I would love to take a walk through.” Well, how could I say no.

She went on, “My husband is a little famous his name is Jerry Shirley... from the band, “Humble Pie”... you know, the band that Peter Frampton came from... As she walked around the house smiling and nodding... (The house is 80 years old with original wood work that I suspect she remembered.)

"We had such great parties here. Frampton has been here and the band Foreigner too... a lot of musicians... great times."

Then she suddenly looked serious, “Does that old man still live in back?” I knew she was referring to my neighbor Dan, and I’m thinking he must be really old if he was an old man back in the 70’s. “Yes, he does, would you like to see him?”

“Oh, no that ‘s OK.”

She ended her visit by telling me that the house has a name,

“We called it “Half-moon Cottage" because of the half moon windows in the attic.”

Half-moon window in attic.

Well, I thought her stories and the name of the house was really neat, but of course the only thing I could really think about was that she didn’t want to see my neigbor Dan. So, as she was leaving my driveway I scurried across the back of my yard to Dan’s house.

” A British woman who lived in my house in the 70’s just left. She said, she had her daughter in the house.”

“Yeah, and she probably conceived her on the lawn...bunch of hippie freaks those people were.”

“Oh, so you remember them... I think they were more rockers than hippies." The distinction seemed lost on him. Dan didn’t have much else to say about them... just a lot of curse words and mubblings about how loud their music was. So, I left him and went over to my other neighor. I told him about the about the visit and his reaction was,

“Well, that explains the beer bottles.”

“The what bottles?”

“The 30 year old beer bottles that I find in my woods every Spring... they just keep coming up. They must have had some parties...”

And the parties... they continue at Half-Moon Cottage but with not quite so much beer... a little more wine these days and probably a lot more food. In the summer we feast on home grown vegetables and indulge in a little honey from our beehives... yeah, very "Back to Nature" indeed.