The Farm That Used To Be

I was moving things around in our living room yesterday, moving some furniture to new locations, changing up pictures on the wall, and rearranging my decorations.

Sometime you just need to move things around for a new look. 

Well one of the things I moved was this picture, moving from one wall to another wall. On this space I think I like it best. It has its own little area it seems.

My husband and I have a strong appreciation for history, local history more specifically. Even more than that we truly appreciate the history of our property and surrounding area. As I moved this picture and look at it, I just wonder how is used to be and what it was like. 

The land we live on was bought by Rudolph Savich from Benjamin Gifford (where the little old town of Gifford got its name). The old gambrel style barn was built in 1913 and lived in until 1939, when the house was built. Oh how I wish that barn was still there! 

The hill our house sets on was called Rattlesnake Island until the muck was drained. Rudolph's wife dug a mote on the property while they were building the house, to keep the snakes out. Some of this is still present today and is part of the driveway. 

Rudolph's son Emil took over the farm at some point. He added onto the house. You can still see the spot on the wall where the old stove used to be. 

The large buildings were built for potato storage. After he quit potatoes, the block shed was converted to a hog barn.

This aerial photo was from 1966, when the farm we live on was probably in its prime.  Scott got it as a gift one year for Christmas.

The house and the three large sheds are still standing and also the shed in the back. Now there is also a swing set, two greenhouses, a chicken coop, a covered pavilion, and 3 children and a chocolate lab that play outside.  Now it is Walker Farms. We grow produce for our CSA and local farmers markets. We grow pumpkins, gourds, squash, and Indian corn as well. Most of what we grow is off site but this is where it all comes. We hope to add more chickens, and some beef cows. We will eventually put up some more greenhouses as well. We continue to update the old farm house to make it our own.

We won't ever forget the history of our farm, we will pass it down.

Thanks for reading!
Stacy