I grew up in eastern Ohio on a small farm. My parents bought the farm when they married. It was 40 acres for $15000. What a deal! This is the house when I was a young girl.
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This is a photo after my dad added a room - my high school days.
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My brother and his wife purchased the farm about 30 years ago when my parents built a new house on my great grandparents land. It made me so glad that my brother bought our farm and kept it in the family. I knew I wasn't going to be living here. But I can show my children and we can still visit when we come back.
This is the house now. My brother has really fixed it up and made it look nice.
But what I really have liked about our farm was our barn. I played in it as a child. We played in the loft, making houses with the bales of hay. We had old church pews up there underneath the hay and also the mother cat would keep her babies up there. We would hunt for them and when we found the kittens, she would find a new hiding spot for them. That barn was full of memories. When I was in high school, I drew a house plan of the barn with my 20 children living in it. They all had their own bedrooms, sharing a sitting room and bath with another sibling. There also was a swimming pool in it, plus everything else a house must have.
4 years ago (just before we came to visit in 2006) part of the barn fell in.
A couple of weeks ago more of the barn collapsed (just before we came to visit this time). My brother says that Mariellen married him because she loved that barn.
We talked about making a miniature barn from the wood in this one. I don't think we'll have time to do that. We may take a fragment home as a memory.???
Check out my
girls' blog for more pictures of our trip.
What a great place to grow up! Barns hold amazing memories! I don't know what it is about them, but they are magical! My daughter has a hoodie that says Barn Bum, and she is one! I'm sorry your barn fell down. That makes me really sad, but I'm glad you still have such wonderful memories! I would have sat there and cried.
ReplyDeleteElaine! That is so hilarious you would draw a house with bedrooms and pools, and with twenty children!
ReplyDelete(Suddenly I'm thinking your family with only eight children is rather small.)
Jessica and I used to imagine and draw our future houses - great Victorian mansions with big round parlors and all the "frosting" type trim all over the outside.
Now Johnny draws his future house with eight floors - housing a soccer field, Slurpee machines, deep fryers, and of course, a swimming pool.
It is special that your family has had the same land for generations.
And now it's starting all over with Nate and Louise!
nice memories...something from the barn wood would be a nice keepsake. What about a picture of the barn in a frame made from the barn wood?
ReplyDeleteI didn't remember the 20 children part but I remember the house plan with the swimming pool. Do you still have it?
ReplyDelete