Our Family Farmstead ~Our Family’s Home ~Sharing Memories, continued ~This Surprised Me Most

This Old House

Thank you, Friends, for all of your kind comments.

Many of you can empathize, as you, too, have lived in your family’s

old farmhouse, and you have memories that you hold close to your heart.

In case you missed it, the flood water prevented us from driving to our farm for years.

That grove of trees, to the right side of the road, is where the house is located.

In the winter, once the road was frozen, and if there wasn’t too much snow,

we could drive our vehicle close, and then walk in.

There are five bedrooms on the second floor,

And this bathroom with this big..beautiful..bathtub.

Our daughters have memories of the fun they had splashing around in the water.

Sometimes they swam laps.

Then there’s this…

The vandals..stole..the..bathtub.

 The big beautiful Clawfoot Bathtub.

This is what surprised me most.

How did they get it out of the house?

You can see that they smashed the bathroom sink to pieces.

I wonder how the thieves are using the bathtub?

Has it been installed in one of their own bathrooms?

I hope that it has not been smashed to little pieces, as well.

I’d like to picture it as the focal point in someone’s garden,

 filled with lovely flowers.

There is a second stairway, which I had never seen.

When entering through the back door, one could go into the house

or down to the basement. This stairway was closed off with paneling.

We called it the Butler’s Staircase, that hid behind that paneling and closed door.

From that entrance one could also go into what we called the back room.

Now days, one might call this a Mudroom.

It was home to a refrigerator, a stove, plenty of storage, and this little sink.

When the men came in from working in the field, they’d wash up here

before coming to the dinner table.

I have fond memories as a little girl, standing and 

watching my Daddy and my Grandpa scrub their hands

using a bar of harsh Lava Soap.

While the water has receded enough for us to drive into the yard,

we can still say our home is lake front property.

The view from an Attic Window…

Looking out on the beauty of nature and beyond

 the dirty mess that is inside the house.

  And I am looking beyond the hurtful actions of the people

that invaded our family’s privacy and intentionally destroyed our property.

I’m focusing on the beauty of five generations of our family’s memories.

Take care,

~Natalie