Quartermaster Iron {Day} Cot

I briefly talked about this bed in a previous post (here)

But I'll give you and extended version of our find and the finished product.

Get Ready!

For a couple of years I have been admiring this tiny iron foot board that laid against Farmer's Dad's Cellar.."Do you think you have the headboard? I wonder where it came from..."

Well to make a long story short, I figured it out. While visiting various historic forts around Texas and viewing the barracks, it hit me..what was at the farm was part of an old barracks cot!

Farmer's grandpa, Otto, used to have a Mexican crew that built fences on ranches all over Texas back in the 50s and kept digging post holes and stretching wire until the early 70s. They would make camp and live near one of the barns on the property. Well I suppose over the years they picked up different cots here and there so they would not have to sleep on the ground. So down at that same barn where they used to sit around the campfire and make their dinners, there is just loads of cots stacked like soldiers that have been sitting their silently for about 40 years. Waiting for a warm body to support.

The Quartermaster iron cot is dated to around 1890s to the early 1900s. What a find, exactly what I was wanting (and more!). This farm is very special...it seems to listen to what you need (or want) and it gives it to you...there have been many other times when I was looking for a random something, like a travel soap box, a lid to fit a certain wide mouth glass jar, an deviled egg dish, an ice scoop, a...(well you get the point!) and there it was, appearing out of nowhere!

when we rebuilt the side porch, we designed it to be a screen porch with the capability to close it up during the colder months. We built glass inserts to hang (think the old timey screen inserts but this is with glass) to keep all the cold air out. Every Spring we take the potted plants outside and then bring 'em back inside for the winter. The side porch is a major part of the home.

here is me trying out the cot for the first time!