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Along the Natchez Trace

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Autumn Begins... Fall Equinox

Today is a day of balance...  equal daylight... equal night.  Kind of fitting for our first day back "home"...
We were here last September and when we left we'd made arrangements for our rental manager to have a concrete pad poured for our motorhome.  Bill put in a septic line/dump station 13 years ago when we first made plans to travel.  We come back to Ohio at least once a year and each time Bill has had to use some boards to make us level.  This time he backed right in...  after making sure that the overhead branches weren't going to take off any of our antennas.
 Here we are...  balanced on our new landing pad.

We're only about 100' from our "old" home.  This is the home we built many years ago.
 Not your ordinary house...
The very bottom (bank barn) is where the goats stalls were and at the very front (right) was the milking room and "certified" kitchen.  In Ohio, you have to be inspected by the Dept of Agriculture when you sell (in our case) goat cheese.  The middle level was where we kept critter feed and hay, as well as Bill's workshop.  There is also a greenhouse on the other side.  The top level is where we lived.  Again, not your run of the mill type house...  it was one big room, with ceiling to floor windows on 2 sides.  

Another view of the house...  taken from the lower edge of the goat pasture, at the edge of the woods.
 Now the goat's area is either mowed, garden, or back to the wild.  The renter in the old farm house which you can't see from here, has been putting in vegetable gardens in the past few years.  It's great to have a renter who loves the land as we did.
The top level (living area) is rented...  has been ever since we started traveling.  We've been fortunate to have a very good rental manager who finds us good tenants.  The middle level is now our storage area, and the bottom level houses Bill's tractors and other equipment.  We both know it's getting time to make some decisions about all the "stuff" we have in storage.

A few months ago, DizzyDick posted about trumpet vine.  The photo below shows my arbor, with the "porch" swing...  that's trumpet vine that is growing on the trellis.  That bright green leaf is some kind of volunteer thing that needs cut down.  The upper right photo is of the mimosa tree that Bill planted for me about 15 years ago.  The house I lived in as a teenager had a beautiful mimosa tree in the front yard.  (we drove by yesterday and the tree is long gone)...  it was my Dad's pride and joy.  I love my tree...  someday I might be here when it blooms.
The lower right is the view of the arbor swing from the back.  That's horseradish growing so profusely at its base. 
The swing arbor has a story of its own.  I was in Lowe's many years ago and came home... told Bill I wanted to buy one of those arbor-like swing areas.  Within a week he had built this... and it's SO much nicer than what Lowe's was selling.  We bought 6 trumpet vine plants...  took years to produce the shade we wanted.  But... look at it now! 

While we haven't lived here for nearly 13 years, I'll readily admit that it is "home" to me.  So far we've maintained a balance between life on the road and my love of our farm.

The balance is still good...
I feel like we have the best of both worlds.

That's All For Today!


15 comments:

  1. Very interesting place. It is great that you've had good renters.

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  2. That's one fine bank barn. Welcome home.

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  3. Well since home is where you park it - that just makes for a really great home place. Especially since it's nice and level now. That's neat that you have such good luck with renters. That could be a challenge.Have a great time while you're home.

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  4. Love that house. It is unique and looks like it would be quite functional. Very nice. And yes, sometimes it feels good to "be home" again. I always get that feeling when I visit Pennsylvania even though I moved away from there back in the late 70's.

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  5. Yes, indeed. Looks like you have the best of both worlds.

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  6. That is exactly the kind of house I want. I could see the river and hills if I had that. jeeeeez I love it. YOu do indeed have the best of both worlds... lucky to have such good renters.

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  7. There's no place like home, right? That is a really interesting looking house/barn/kitchen. It is nice that you've been able to hang onto it all of these years and had good renters.

    Mark

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  8. Always nice to have a place to come home to. It's the reason we didn't sell when we moved to Europe, just wasn't going to happen.

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  9. A great place to call home. Many years ago I was looking for a barn that I could put an apartment in. I have always liked the look of barns and I like houses that are a big open space.

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  10. You indeed have a wonderful place to call home! The house is very unique.

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  11. I remember reading about your unique house in an earlier post and I loved it. I feel the same about our house. It's good to have a piece of land to call "home." Bet you really enjoy having that nice level concrete pad. Enjoy your time at home.

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  12. Very good that you have "good renters"--those are hard to find it seems! I would have loved to see your unique house!

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  13. It's so nice to have a man around the house! The sing arbor is pretty and I'm sure you've spent many hours there - and many more to come.

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  14. That is a fantastically interesting dwelling where you lived. I love it, really love it.

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  15. Howdy Sharon & Bill,
    That's a beautiful place... I was wondering how you 'mowed' that hillside; I'd forgotten about the 'goat-cheese'... How do the 'renters' mow it, by the way; do they, also, have nubies?? Oh yeah, if you sell the cheese, you'll be inspected by the state; we had a Grade 'A' dairy !!!!!
    That swing looks like it is covered in KUDZU... In a 'small' town atmosphere, renters can be 'controlled' and if they are truly 'small-town' people, who WANT to live in that type of environment, they'll take care of your place.. They're glad to have a nice place to 'keep-up'....

    Hope you get the swing 'cleaned' up and get to use it, again, in the HAPPY DAYS, AHEAD !!!!!

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