Self-Sufficiency

Our original family homestead

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I had linked some pics of our family farm a couple years ago from my brothers facebook page. Then I found out you could link back to my facebook page so I removed them. My grandmother passed away last week so before I left our hometown in Pennsylvania yesterday to head back to Maine I swung by our old family farm and took some pictures. It was a little sad and bittersweet driving down the road named after my family because everyone who lived on the road was a family member at one point and now no one lives there any more.

This was the old general store that sat at the end of our road. My grandfather drove school bus and would take my brother, aunts and uncles to school each morning. I was only three at the time and was to young for school, but he would take me along and set me on the heater next to him so I could drive the bus with him. He would always stop at the store and buy us kids root beer barrels. I miss that man.

This is the road heading into the farm. I would always look at the hill as a child and wonder what is on the other side. I still do that when I look at a mountain or hill. All the land you see my family once owned.

our old barn, the fields use to be filled with cows and horses, now it’s slowly turning back into swamp

our old crick, my brother, aunts and uncles spent many a day down there fishing and hunting for snakes and turtles

this was my great uncles house he had built for him and his family. My second cousin was living there for awhile and then my uncle was. I don’t know who lives there now

the old dirt driveway where my grandfather would let us sit on his lap and steer the tractors. My uncle who was a little bit of a hippy would let me sit on his lap and steer his old vw bug up and down the driveway

because of the posted sign I didn’t go up the driveway, some people are a little wary of strangers in the area due to the gas companies

we use to let the cows out of the barn and let them across the road to graze. This use to be all pasture area, my uncle use to take me and my brother squirrel hunting out there.

My great grandfather use to own the whole valley and had a extensive lettuce and celery farm around the turn of the century. I still have some old crates and papers with the family name on them that they would wrap the veg in and pack them in for shipping. By the time we came along in the 60’s and 70’s the family was down to about 300 acres and we were mostly dairy farmers. We use to have feed corn as far as you could see. Us kids spent many a afternoon playing hide and seek in the fields

I can’t believe one of the old corn cribs is still standing

The home my grandfather built sits up behind the trees, I wish I could have gotten a better picture. My grandfather built a small cement block house from a book. I think that’s where I got the bug from. Him and my grammy raised 10 kids in a three bedroom ranch. There were bunkbeds everywhere.

to the right of the barn was our pig pens and chicken coops, but they look like they are long gone. My grandfather kept his horses there as well and we would go feed them apples from the trees often.

This is my great grandfathers home across the road from my grandfathers home. When we were kids it was all white and we called it the white house. I wish I had pictures of the inside. It was beautiful.

My great grandfather lived there with my great uncle after my great grandmother passed away. When my great grandfather was getting older and ill, my grandfather and grandmother moved in with him to help take care of him. I remember walking in the house and my great grandfather just sitting in his recliner staring out the window. He was a gentle man from my memories. Us kids would sit in the living room watching three stooges, little rascals and shirley temple on tv.

we use to have a large greenhouse where the trees are, sadly that has gone the way of most things, back to the dust

the small patch of woods behind the white house, we would build forts and play cowboys and indians in there all afternoon, funny it looked much bigger as a kid

our family pond behind the house, my grandparents use to tell us to stay away from it or the snappers and rattlesnakes would get us, I was always scared of it as a child, I wonder why.