Been missing us? We've been missing you.
So, we found this amazing farmhouse! We moved in from the sock and the shoe, into this amazing farmhouse...and stepped back in time! Was it a time-warp?
Nope. It's called "Amish Country" by the locals. Apparently, that's because we are surrounded by a Mennonite Community.
So, step back in time, it's a very interesting ride:
1.indoor plumbing(limited)
2.electricity(gee, no one knew the power had gone off in the storm...because everyone uses limited electricity!)
3.country hospitality--people around here are teaching us about this!
4.internet...nope.
5.neighbors...300+ acres away
When I talk to the Amazing Farm Wife(Grandma) she says that there are people that didn't like the look of the electric lines in the (nineteen) forties. They thought that it destroyed the view of the countryside. Now there's wind-turbines that dot the countryside.
Here in "Amish Country" the locals take the changes of the modern-day in stride. The farmers aren't using horses to plow, and the acreage well exceeds the hundred year old standard(one man to every one hundred acres). But the life is hundred year old simple.
For the past month we've eliminated the modern day from our thinking. Outhouses, cooking over an open flame, and sleeping in the sweltering heat and storms. It was good! Going back to the simple reminds us how far we've come...and how much we've lost.
So here's how we're making this work now. This farmhouse, this awesome hundred year old farmhouse, it's going to glow with the life we're giving it. When it saw us coming, it might have cringed, but we're breathing the life back in it's old bones.
Dear Farmer is jacking and bracing the old foundation. Reinforcing and skim-coating.
Replacing the old roof shingles with metal roofing.
Connecting the limited electricity so we can plug in fans on sweltering nights, and use lights on gloomy days.
And Dear Farmer has the opportunity to learn about "French Drains"...which is so exciting to the Wife because she speaks French, though Dear Farmer doesn't believe that one has anything to do with the other...
Those modern-maids that the Wife loved so dearly...Mme.Dishwasher, Mr.World Wide Web, and that glorious babysitter "Netflix". Those we've said good-bye to. It's sad to see them go...but we'll survive without.
So, your blog posts will be less frequent, but the stories more full.
And Dear Farmer and family will still do what we do...
we hope you laugh and we hope that you sigh, when you think of those days far gone by.
How would you survive sleeping on bedrolls and walking creaky stairs?
How would you survive living a hundred years ago?
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