Bird Forest is a long road that winds through lush farm fields and then up the southwestern face of Little House Mountain towards the Saddle.
Bird Forest has been home to many of the same familiar House Mountain names over the past two hundred years, including the Irvine, Bane, Moore, Ford, Potter, Vess, Drain and Carter families.
Wendle Delano Bane
July 26, 1937 - July 20, 2017
Wendle Bane was, as he put it, "a pure bred." His mother's maiden name was Bane and she married a Bane from the same Bird Forest hollow. Wendle's family tree includes a Philander McCorkle Bane (1857-1934), who was Wendle's paternal great-grandfather and his maternal great-uncle at the same time. Wendle refered to him as "Grandpa-Uncle Flan." Wendle was by no means unique, many of the same House Mountain families have intermarried for the past two centuries, weaving a complicated web of family relationships.
Ellis Irvine
Ellis Irvine lives on the land that has been in their family for generations. Ellis and his wife live in a new house, which replaced the old home place that burned, They are surrounded by extended family on all sides.
Their mother died when Ellis was only two, so his four older sisters helped his father raise him.
Mary Irvine "Granny" Bane
March 26, 1926 - November 14, 2018
Near the edge of Ellis Irvine's farm fields you can find a lone grave, surrounded by a wrought iron fence. 
This is the final resting place of Nickolas Cobb Carter, who once owned this property and is Ellis and Mary's great-grandfather. His daughter, Mary Carter, married Theodore McCorkle Irvine who is their paternal grandfather.
Many families around House Mountain can in some way connect their lineage to Nickolas Cobb Carter or his brothers, Frederick King Carter and Edward Adolphus Carter.