Tonight, we enjoyed a four-wheeler ride down through the farm, crossing the creek, and we ended up in the lower 40 (acres). We recently purchased this part of the Century-old family farm from the estate of my beloved Uncle Buddy. It joins our property and we are honoring the lease that he had with a man who farms alfalfa hay, cane, pumpkins and corn. We "keep an eye on the place" about once every 2 weeks or so. Tonight was nice. We slowly made our way to the lower 40, walked up the wooded hills and then back down to the fields. It's beautiful down there.
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| The lower fields which are leased out. The sights are breath-taking. |
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| More than 100 years ago, this beautiful pond was an iron ore mine. Now, we can sit by it and dream of the life of Grandpa Marsh. I think he would really love this place. |
As we came back up, we stopped at the old barn, that was (about 120 years ago) fully utilized as a dairy barn, sheep barn, hay loft, etc by my grandfather. The old barn is nearly falling down, but we love to walk through it and pretend that we know exactly what it was used for, and I imagine grandpa milking "Butter" in there.
We will soon be taking the old barn down, as there isn't enough to save, and building a newer one for our small herd of beef cows. We plan to bulldoze the old brushy fields and make them workable again. I'd love to have the farm be a working farm once again, just like grandpa used to have it.
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| This is an old dry creek bed. It's so gorgeous this time of year. |
We will plant a nice orchard, raise some beef, cut hay, and fish in the old pond. When the old house just can't be lived in anymore by renters, we'll probably take it down too. I might just have to build a little farm house where the old house stands now. I think Grandpa Marsh would like that.
I don't want to wish my life away, but retirement sounds so good........
Peace