Friday, August 2, 2013

Visiting the farm

I’ve gone country for this week’s Random 5.
I’m joining in with Nancy of A Rural Journal for Random 5 Friday, where, as Nancy says, “you can share 5 random facts about you, your day, your pets, your kids, whatever!”
Thanks to Nancy for hosting this fun meme!
Note on the photos: I took them in the 1980s with my 35 mm camera. They have faded with time and poor storage, though.

 One
I was a back in Evington on Wednesday. One of Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates for this November’s election was in the county and visited a dairy farm where another politician gave his endorsement.
My editor wrote the story, while I took the photos for the newspaper.
The dairy farmer gave the politicians a tour of his place. It included a walk through a cow lot and a visit to see calves.
I grew up on a farm, and my uncle had a dairy farm nearby. On Wednesday, I smelled things and saw things I haven’t seen in many years. I also picked my way through manure like I haven’t done for a while.


Two
My family lived in a white house with a red tin roof on the farm until I was 10 years old. The farm had been my father’s grandfather’s, then had gone out of the family. My father rented it, and then when he and my mother were first married, they bought it on a five-year note.
It was called Terrace View Farm.

The white farmhouse, my first home,  in a photo taken from the yard of the second house. On the right, you can see the roof of the old red mill across from the white house.

Three
When I was about 5 years old, my father started working for the post office as a rural letter carrier. He kept farming, but eventually, my parents decided to sell part of the farm, along with the house, to make it easier on him.
They built a new house, a brick ranch, in sight of the white farmhouse, and we moved there in 1973, when I was 10.
My parents sold the rest of the farm and the brick house in 1989.

The lower pasture below the brick house. This was a good place to go sledding when we got a good snow.

 Four
Once we moved, my father limited his farming to raising beef cows, Black Angus. But when he was farming full time, he also had milk cows, pigs and chickens, and he raised tobacco as a main crop. My mother made butter and sold it and eggs.
Farming can be a 24 hour/7 day a week endeavor. It’s hard work. I was reminded of that as I toured the dairy farm Wednesday and heard about all the tasks that needed to be done to get the milking done and take care of the animals.

The stable at the second house. The wood was for the woodstove that my parents had in the house.

 Five
My father built the stable and tractor shed at the second home. I put my footprint in the footing of the stable. I wonder if it’s still there?
Old barns and sheds have a smell that takes me right back to childhood. It’s a mix of musty and dusty scents with some oil from the tractor thrown in. I smelled some of those scents on Wednesday.




26 comments:

  1. I like the name Terrace View Farm, Tina! Perhaps your photos have faded with time...however, I like the feel of them!

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  2. I love the name of your farm too. :) And that really does look like some pretty darn good sledding. I've many great memories of sledding at my grandparents farm in Maine when i was a child. These photos remind me of their place in a way, though these were not taken in New England! I like the faded look too. It's like i could step into the photos and be back in those years!

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  3. Nice place you got to grow up on! We need more farmers, but it seems that farming is going to big business instead of staying small family farms. Sad. Nice post remembering your farm!!

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  4. Your photos have a great vintage feel and are perfect reminiscing! You grew up in a beautiful place!

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  5. these are quite lovely, gives a feeling of time-two of my cousins were Postmen one rural one city :-)

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  6. Oh I bet you loved every minute of this. My girls come home and cannot wait to be immersed in the familiar smells of home. I think you were a lucky girl to have such a clever hardworking father. I am sure your footprint is still there.
    My self I would have gone up to ask if I could see but I am strange like that. Love this post and I am sure it will stay with you a long time. Wonderful place to grow up. HUGS B

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  7. What a wonderful trip down memory lane. I bet the rain sounded wonderful on that tin rof didn't it? And I can't imagine how much work went into storing all that wood for winter!

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  8. i bet your father would have some interesting stories of the post office. that would be fun to hear. i've been there too. hard times. but great lessons i did learn.

    enjoy your weekend. ( :

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  9. I bet your footprint is still there! Wouldn't it be fun to go back and take a picture of it?

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  10. What a nice post, Tina! I bet you could find your footprint still!

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  11. having come close to marrying a dairy farmer in wis., i often wonder if i could have survived the life - i don't think so. :)

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  12. What a lovely post ... full of nice memories for you. Terrace View Farm .... go find that footprint!

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  13. I also grew up on a farm. Although our barn burned down, so no cows. We still visit it often.

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  14. Our sense of smell evokes memories more than any other sense.......it's amazing to me how one whiff can completely transport us in time!

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  15. Thoroughly enjoyed this post Tina -- the vintage photos and how you described your farming history. Awesome!

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  16. Thanks for the neat pics, Tina! Growing up in the city, that just all seems so foreign to me. It's interesting to hear about a different lifestyle.

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  17. Wonderful photos and memories! I have always wanted to spend a rainy day someplace that has a tin roof. :) I really enjoyed hearing about your families history.

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  18. You have a lot of great and interesting history to share..

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  19. Fabulous Random 5...stirring up lots of memories for me too! :-) Oh, butter and egg money! Many a woman depended on her butter and egg money!

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  20. You grew up in a such a peaceful looking place. It's wonderful that you have these photos to trace your history.

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  21. I really like this post! Thank you for sharing with us. The ever changing story of our lives fascinates me and yours is rich with wonder and deep in detail.

    -g-

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  22. A trip down memory lane for you, I am sure. That place reminds me of the farm we had in Alabama. And, my husband grew beef cattle, too. Some parallels there.

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  23. I bet you really enjoyed your walk down memory lane...smells and all!!

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  24. In love reading about farming since I always have been a city girl. I learn so much from bloggers. Hope you have a nice Sunday.

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  25. Wow! so interesting!! love the pictures (some looking nostalgic too- I like things with a nostalgic feel)

    and now.... are you and hubby still going to do a little of farm-veggie-gardening ??? I'm rooting for you!!
    Blessings! Deanna

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  26. oh tina, country...i had no idea!! this is a wonderful read filled with so many details i was not expecting!!

    i am certain your foot print is still there!!

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