What people ask me

Here I am on my first overnighter at the farm fixing breakfast very early in the morning; note pressure lamp, wood stove with camp stove on top, old lady getting her bread ready to toast looking stylish in her black go anywhere sweats.

Here are the questions I have been asked concerning the farm so far.
How are you going to live without electricity?
How are you going to keep your food cold?
You don't have indoor plumbing?
How will you keep in touch with people?
What do you use for light?
What kind of animals will you have; would you eat them?
What will you grow in your garden?
How will you keep the food you grow if you don't have refrigeration?
Won't you get lonely?
Can you cook on a wood stove?
How far is it to a grocery store, big town, doctor, hospital, ect.
That is a lot of acres how will you be able to do the all the work?
How will you be able to use a computer there?

I think that this era is far removed from basic living. They depend far to much on technology and convienences so solve their routine life problems. Most of the world would envy the above picture. Having a fine stove(s) to cook with, ample light, abundant food and clean water to drink in obviously large suroundings. Everything is relative I guess. The questions have made me think how different my life experiences have been than the generations that follow me.

I look forward to lighting my oil lamps in the evening and hearing the crack and pop of a wood fire in the stove with the smell of wood burning in the air, the tea kettle whistling and steaming the air that is heavily scented with dinner cooking on the black stove. I would make a pot of tea and take it to my favorite rocking chair to have a sit and sip while waiting for supper to be done. Maybe if I am curious I will listen to the radio for the news or better yet not listen to it and enjoy the moment and give a small silent prayer of thanks to be here and able to enjoy the moment.

My first overnight stay at the MY farm

The time came to visit the farm. I didn't want to go earlier because the folks that sold the farm to me would be busy getting their stuff packed and ready to ship to their new place. I felt if I did visit I would put more stress on them and accomplish nothing for myself, so I put off visiting.

My sister came home from her job in Louisiana and we planned a visit to Kentucky. But, I didn't know if the other folks had moved yet. They were supposed to move and send a letter the day they moved out. I hadn't received a letter, calls to the neighbors didn't get answered and I was in the dark as to go or not go on the visit. The Amish didn't have a telephone.

I deceided to go. The day we left it had been raining in Virginia for several days and the rain was intense as we departed on our trip. It is a long ways to Kentucky from coastal Virginia and longer still when driving what seemed endlessly through the mountians of Virginia and West Virginia in the rain. Then the weather changed; it got colder and still wet. Slight problem with that weather change; we were not prepared for colder weather. So after several stops at Wally-World we had enough warm clothes to continue with our trip. But for one thing; we would arrive in the middle of the night. What if the other folks were still there? Where would we stay? We were tired and needed sleep anyway and deceided on staying at a roadside motel and have something to eat, get some sleep and arrive in daylight.

The next day we drove on to the farm and guess what? Our Amish folks had departed a few days earlier. When I got to our farm lane there was a van driving out, thinking that it was the Amish folks I waved it down. When the van stopped a young man was driving it and looked kind of nervous. I went into my Cop mode and demanded an explanation he said that the departing folks had given him some wood; I made him open the van and show me. It was wood and not much of it; the wood was cedar. He looked a little upset as he drove off. Later I felt bad for being so .... untrusting?

I checked the house out and then visited my neighbor; I told him my story above and he said he had seen the van and had an idea who it was. I told him that if he were to talk to the youngman or his folks to tell them that I was sorry that I was so rough with him over the wood. I also found out from him that the water line to the house and barn had been broken by the moving truck and that the previous folks were upset about it but had to leave, so they shut the water off at the meter, which is located up the road from my turn off. I borrowed some firewood from the neighbor and went back to the house.

Later that evening while sitting on the porch after dark a car drove up to the house. It turned out to be the young man's mother from the van earlier that day. She was very nice and we talked for a while and I got a chance to extend my apologies in person. We exchanged life stories and seemed to get on well.

That night Sis and I slept on the floor in our sleeping bags with the barest of padding.
Believe me that floor is hard wood alright. In the early morning hours there was a huge flash of lightening that lit up the house and a big bang of thunder that shook the place a bit then rolled and echoed off the hills for a long time. Sis said something like "Good Morning to you too" and went back to sleep.

The trip was over way before we had enough of the farm neither of us wanted to leave. The peace and quiet even the mooing sounds of a neighbor's cows made us feel at home. The rough quirkyness of the place grew on me and I felt at home there. In the morning sipping my tea, and eating toast after a breakfast of hot oatmeal I felt at peace, I felt at home.