Fresh air and a country drive....

I am a big fan..... 

*of drives in the country

 I take notice of the crops that never got harvested last fall

*of gravel roads

that run parallel with the power lines

* of old barns

red

white

 *of old houses

the kind I just want to go into and explore

*of cows

grazing in the near 60 degree weather

*of winding creeks

 Like the creek we played in as children at a friends a farm near Chatfield

 I grew up in the country near farm land but not on a farm. 

I joined 4-H, rode bareback on horses, and hiked in the nearby pasture 

watching my step so not to step in the "cow-pies"

I grew up playing at my grandma's farm near West Concord, 

and we had good friends near Chatfield who lived on a farm. 

Both of my parents were raised on a farm so I have heard many stories of farm life.

Short of actually living on a farm, I'm a true country girl and love everything about it.

As a parent and now grandparent I often think of those days and how our parents seems oblivious as to what us kids were up to. We ran free, hiding in the haymow, chasing the chickens and climbing my grandmas giant trees. No one seemed to be checking on us, after all the adults were having coffee in the old farmhouse with the tilted kitchen floor.

 What's left of my grandmas barn

Photo taken last summer 2018

 The silo and milk house are still standing

 I remember playing hide & seek in the dark at our friends farm, we were aware of the the electric fences, but one night I ran full steam ahead into a barbed-wire fence. I had to pull hard on my leg to get it off the barbs. I didn't want to go in to tell my mom because I was having too much fun, but I thought I better since I had blood running down my leg into my shoe. Mom washed my leg put a gauze over it and off I ran to play. I still have a significant scar on my left thigh from that night.

 I often smile to myself as I drive alone in the country,

 I just love what I see, there is a peace and a visual reminder of my childhood memories in the country and on the farm.

Looking back

86 yrs ago... in a one room school house

Sometimes I kind of wish I  had the experience of a one room school house (minus wearing a dress).

I see a lot of similarities in the faces of these children,

 no smiles but maybe a smirk if you look closely.

 The boys in overall, the girls in dresses.

 Short hair must have been the style in 1927. 

Notice the girls are clasping their hand, but not the boys.  

Then there's the teacher,

My Grandma,  Gertrude Madsen (Thomas) 

yep, she was the teacher.

I have the tuner she used to help the children sing in the right pitch for music time.

 Her name sketched in the care-worn wood

The back side, notes stamped in the metal.

I believe this was before she was married to my Grandpa Lee who I never got to know. He died before I was born, I know I would have loved him. He probably would have given me my first tractor ride. 

This is "the Grandma" who lived on a farm, the farm we loved to go to as children, there was always things to do on the farm, exploring, climbing trees, chasing chickens and hanging out with cousins that we never saw otherwise.

What's left of Grandma's farm in Rural West Concord

The old farm house has been torn down and rebuilt. I remember the kitchen floor that had a slight slant to it, grandma's very cool pantry, the big wooden doors outside that led under the the house where grandma had the jars of canned goods. Oh, then there was the phone on the wall that you had to crank...remember those, only my grandma had that :)  The porch with the freezer that housed Grandma's home made donuts, and cookies. 

Oh how I wish I could go back...with my camera!

Once upon a farm...

Today.... mom and I set out for "Old Concord", It's a small town about 40 minute west of here but east of "West Concord". Old concord is where my mom's family is buried.....

...my grandparents Gertrude & Lee, and my grandpa's parents and some of my great aunt's and uncles. I knew my Grandma She died in 1980, and wish I had known my Grandpa Thomas but he died 2 years before I came about.

We payed our respects, I asked mom a few "who's who " questions and then I asked mom if we could drive by ...

THE FARM

This sight brought me back to my childhood, when Grandma still lived on the farm. It was a place we loved to go explore, there were a few animals....

Grandma proabably would have whooped us if she knew we put those chickens "to sleep" and made them all dizzy....poor chickens, I wonder what that did for their egg laying?

We played in some awesome old buildings with holes in the lofts in the barn that if a child fell through they would surely land on their head on the cement below.....and proably die.

~

Maybe it seemed higher cuz we were kids, but i know it was fun up in the loft... the parents and grandma were busy visiting, having coffee and grandma's home made cake donuts. I'm pretty sure they never checked on us. Not that they were delinquent parents it's just the way it was.....

Kids played....

without helmets....

in dangerous places and somehow we lived :)

To the right of the driveway used to be the old farm house.


I miss the old house with the lopsided kitchen floor and the neat pantry. Grandpa's old jean overalls still hung on a hook on the wall in the kithen...right by the front door. I miss the old wood burning stove in the living room that kept the farm warm. I miss the Crank telephone on the wall, yes the ones you see on old movies that you crank and then the operator puts you through. And the outside cellar...you know where the canned good were kept, cuz it was cooler down there with the dirt floor and all.
~

Then there was that door.... the one we were not allowed to open. We did know this much, it lead up some stairs to the bedrooms that my mom and her 6 siblings shared.

But we were NEVER...

EVER ...

allowed up there....never even got to peek.

After Grandma died, mom and I went back to the farm to get a few things and I asked if I could open the door and go upstairs, Mom said sure, "but it's just bedrooms up there, there's really nothing to see". All those year of never being let to see what was behind that door was finally gonna happen. Mom was right, not much to see but....

I'm glad I got to see where my mom slept all those years on the farm. It was ALOT to see....

to me!