The Farm

Most people have that ONE place where they go to escape. Some go shopping at the mall, some go out in nature, others just stay in bed. The one thing the Royal family agrees on (probably the ONLY thing we all agree on) is our happy place—the farm.

When I first met Brian, I tried to explain that it really wasn’t a farm—just a bunch of land with some houses on it. But, soon enough, I found myself referring to it as the farm—like everyone else. Its 100 acres and Brian’s Granny, aunt and cousin all have houses on it. There’s even another “little house” ( as it’s called) behind Granny’s that was originally intended for her mom. It has 2 rooms and a bathroom, but Brian doesn’t let us stay in it anymore when we go there because he’s scared of the spiders that tend to live there (shhhh—don’t tell him I told you).

I feel like I’ve posted stuff before about the farm, but I can’t find them.—sorry if this is old news to any of you, but, even if I did post, the farm is worthy of several references. It’s the place we go to not only relax, but to rejuvenate our spirits. It’s a slower pace of life—one grocery store (called Country Boy), a Dollar General, Sonic and Braums—all within a couple of miles of Granny’s farm. In the last few years, they’ve built a Target, Kohls and Starbucks in the next town over—only 30 minutes away!

Granny’s house is a little 2 bedroom stone one. She has a back porch that was enclosed years ago that is still called the back porch—even though there’s another one right outside it. She still has the metal swingset she bought when Brian’s oldest cousins kids (the youngest of which is getting ready to graduate high school) were little. In fact, she still waxes the metal slide so that the kids can use it. I have pictures of the 6 youngest all on the basket-swing together. Now, they just use it to shimmy across.

We used to go to the pond and get a big load of sand to bring back for the kids to play in, but now, she has a sandbox with a lid. There’s nothing like loading up on the four-wheeler to ride around the farm—whether getting sand or hauling brush!

In the past, we’ve had bonfires with the cleared brush, but that won’t be happening any time soon. Yesterday, several houses and barns around Granny’s (at this time, the count is 40) burned. The police think they were started by an arsonist and not natural causes, which makes it even worse.

The good news is that Granny’s house, Nana Barbara’s and Dave & Diane’s are all still standing. We’ve been told the farm is black and if it weren’t for David’s sprinkler system, his house would have been gone, too. Barbara’s new vinyl windows melted and the fire took out her air conditioning unit—right beside her house—but left the house untouched. The yard around the little house is burned, but it and Granny’s are fine.
We were supposed to leave yesterday afternoon to head to our happy place and honestly, I think I was more excited this time than ever before—our whole family was. It’s hard to try to get your kids to not be disappointed in what we are missing and to focus on what so many there lost. It’s even harder when I am having the same selfish thoughts. I NEEDED to go there right now.

So, since this blog is really for my children, I think the next several posts will be about our farm memories—pretty boring to those who didn’t experience them or have a context for them, BUT, hopefully, years from now, they will remind my girls of our happy place and give them a context to compare as they look for that place for their families.