The Farm

These photos are of the farm I lived on from age three to twelve and where Roger Adams and his family currently live. Roger has made major changes - including widening, leveling, and straightening the driveway, adding a couple of ponds and building a new house and barn.
I loved living there. It was a beautiful place - especially in the spring and summer. I spent much of my time outdoors exploring every inch of the woods, streams, orchards and fields. I talked about the farm a lot over the years to my daughters and every place I lived since paled in comparison. In 2011, when I took the photos below, one of my daughters was with me. Less than a minute after entering the driveway she turned to me and said "Now I understand."

farm farm

The photo above left is the house where Roger and Phyllis live. It was built at the same location as the house I lived in from age eight to twelve.
The photo on the right shows Roger's house on the left and a cement block building on the right. When we moved to the farm the part of the building with the white roof had recently been built as a shop for woodworking and welding as well as storage. My mother did not get along with her new mother-in-law so within weeks we were moved out to the workshop. The part of the building with the brown roof was added on. The new section had a living room in the front and bedroom for my mother and her husband in the back. The middle part of the building had a kitchen in the front and kid's bedroom in the back. (Instead of the current sliding door there were windows.) The far end of the building was kept as a workshop.
We had a wood stove for heat but electric for cooking. We had cold water piped into the sink but no hot water or drains, just a bucket under the kitchen sink that had to be emptied. Sometimes we took baths at my grandparents house in town and sometimes we went in the basement of the main house (which had it's own outside entry) and took baths in a washtub. There was a wood cook stove there to heat up water. There was also a pump from a cistern - which was was very nice because rainwater is great for washing your hair.
Living in a cement block building with tin roof in Kansas has its drawbacks but the outdoors more than made up for them.
When I was eight we moved into the main house after my step-grandparents moved to town. We did a lot of remodeling, including adding a bathroom and gas heating.

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