And here is the house (opposite side) in the snow more than a century later. Sadly, no oxen.

Here is a picture of our house in Norwalk, CT, probably around 1900.

Unbelievably, my parents randomly found this picture and about 20 additional shots of our house and its owners in an old photo album being auctioned in Pennsylvania last October. What are the odds of this falling into my hands in such a crazy way? I can't even imagine, but the old house gods work in mysterious ways.

I think that the oxen are particularly cool, and the picture clears up some questions about when our kitchen wing (a 19th century timber frame barn) was pushed up against the house. It is probably the structure directly behind the house in this picture.