Oro Rural-Ex

aka - The 'Crime-Scene' House

The Township of Oro-Medonte is located just a titch north and east of Barrie and has previously offered up a number of decent abandonments worthy of exploration. This lovely abandoned farmhouse provided decent photographic opportunities and a good number of personal effects left behind by the last denizens.

Those who have had the pleasure of exploring with us know we deeply respect each property we visit and the privacy of the owners. Shown here is our very own JuicyFruitKisses knocking of the (boarded-up) door to ask permission to photograph . . . no owner could be found.

We checked the washroom (read: outhouse), out back and still could not find anyone. Personally, I rather like outhouses . . . you might say I have a 'leaning' for these comfortable commodes.












Speaking of commodes, I am starting to feel that this post is developing a theme . . . perhaps even its own movement. According to a recent survey, this model 245 PortaPottie beat the competition checks down. A poke with a prudently long stick produced a sloshing sound . . . we're hoping its rain-water.



Moving along - we discovered the remnants of a vintage television in the field behind the house. I could not find the remote control so had to 'manually' switch channels using a "dial". I kept getting the same program where this crazy red-head is jeering at me.













As we continued our reconnoiter out back, we also discover that the previous occupant may have been a fancier of outdoor motorised winter sports. We suspect this hobby had a short life . . . from 1969 to 1971.
We found covers for a 1969 Moto-Ski as well as a 1971 Ski-Doo Nordic, shown below with the garish product brochures from the day.

We probed the remnants of the barn which also contained a limited number of items (including another toilet). Observing that the structural integrity was questionable, we left . . . we were sort of 'tired' of this anyway.

On the way back up to the house, I ate a bit more on my memory card with these two shots. I realised two things as I took these . . . (1) no farmhouse is complete without a rusty wheel-barrow parked in the middle of a field and . . (2) I was taking a lot of black and white images.










It is now the part of the post where I explain the alternative title - Oro 'Crime Scene House'. JFK spotted this in the middle of the overgrown track just behind the house.



That's right, several yards of OPP crime scene tape and a 12-gauge casing. If any readers or members of the local constabulary know what may have gone down here on the 7th Line, please let us know.

Near the back door was this relic from another time . . . a time when smiling uniformed milk delivery staff would provide dairy goodness in these metal cases. Don't get too reminiscent, this was also a time of manual channel changing.

Evidence found inside the house from periodicals and fashion faux-pas indicate that the domicile was last inhabited in 1995. We also learned that the previous owners enjoyed vodka and Dobel (a product of a Mexican mistake between tequila and kahlua).










This house was constructed in a day where electric base-board heaters was just a wet-dream of your local utility. We see here the stove flue piping its way up through the upstairs bedroom and then outside.

Attached to the bedroom upstairs was this room featuring a funky tile design and this lovely old-skool hi-fi stereo console. Unfortunately it appeared that a raccoon used the console to dump in . . . repeatedly.