The first week on the Farm

Dear Reader,

As I introduced myself to you all in my about page, I’ll move on by saying that I hope you all had a good week and are enjoying your weekends!

This first week on the farm certainly has just flown by and has indeed been very memorable.

Finally, finally we closed on the house, Friday august 8^th. We went and rented a U-Haul truck and trailer immediately. We were so excited to finally get our little farm. Let me tell you all about it!

The house itself was built in the 1880s and is about 1700 sq. feet. Our previous house had about 500 sq. feet, not including the basement which flooded every spring before we redid it to sell. We are still getting used to the trip from the kitchen through the dining room into the living room! The previous owners modernized it and updated all the plumbing and electrical. I can’t tell you what a nice thing that is. We plan on restoring the house to a period-accurate décor but in the meantime it’s wonderful not to be living in a creepy, gutted-out mess.

There is a 2 car detached garage with a very nice workshop area attached… perfect for my husband’s sign business: Hit and Miss Limited. The drive meanders between the garage and barn. This property used to be a dairy farm and the cows wore a path to what is now the garage for milking time. So they just made the driveway follow that.

The property also comes with a big red barn. I like to call it “a cathedral to agriculture”… that’s what it reminds me of inside with the high roof beams and the sunlight coming in through all the knotholes in the wood siding. We’re not quite sure how old it is. It was taken apart and moved to this farm in 1930. I’m sure it’s at least 100 years old. Unfortunately I think the roof is about that old too.

The trees on the property are very old. The honey tree is probably reaching about 70 -90 years. I call it the honey tree because it has a lot of hollowed-out stumps in it and a honey bee hive was in residence in the smallest of these… until these rascals moved in. What fun they are to watch. Three raccoon youngsters. I think they are probably interested in the frogs in the ditch. I don’t know if raccoons eat honey…something else to learn about!

There are a couple very old, very overgrown fruit trees that need pruning badly. That will have to wait until later. What we need most right now is to find an affordable riding lawnmower…so that I do not have to mow the 2 acres of grass that we have with our push mower.

We have had our share of mishaps this week. Two stand out in my mind with stark clarity. The first was when we took the work truck to pick up some fence posts we had ordered. (fencing for our grayhound). The gas gauge is broken in it so it always reads “empty”. Just in passing I wondered aloud if we might not need some gas. We decided that we would have enough…. Not remembering we had been driving back and forth for days getting everything moved… So, of course, a mere 4 ½ miles or so from the house it dies. With finality. Reluctantly we decided there was nothing for it but to walk. I must say that I was not enthusiastic. This was not the wind-in-my-hair experience I had been anticipating when we had bought this old truck… like it was it’s fault anyway. We had trudged about ½ a mile and were feeling pretty dejected when an old beat up work truck pulled up beside us and the driver, asking if that was indeed our vehicle parked forlornly on the roadside, offered us a ride home. This old beater was so full to the brim with tools and parts and fuzzy shaggy purple seat covers that it barely had room for me in the back seat; but it was the nicest vehicle ever! I have been continuously amazed at the kindness of the people that live out this way. I never expected it. It so nice to know there are people that are still willing to help others.

The second incident happened Saturday morning and involved smashing into our neighbor’s car as we were triumphantly pulling away from the hated rental house for the last time. It was with a subdued spirit that I knocked on the door and confessed.

Other than that things went well this week. We did just a little yard maintenance just because it was so exciting to have a yard to maintain! A new week is coming up with lots to do and I look forward to writing you all about it.