The Farm - Conclusion

The Barn

I've just about exhausted the story about our farm in Quakertown, so I'd like to thank everyone who has been following along through all ten chapters and for your kind words about the posts.

Some of you have said how much fun it must have been to have this farm and you're right. It was a blast.

Others have said how much work it must have been and you're also right. It was a TON of work.

Looking back on those years, there was a lot of blood, sweat and yes, some tears. Some emotional family experiences that I don't care to share and some adventures that none of us will ever forget. Was it worth it? Absolutely. The kids learned the meaning of hard work, responsibility and are better for it. I learned a bit of humility, how to be a better father, how to better budget money and time.

Some things that I haven't mentioned in other posts:

We had RATS at one point. Our next-door neighbor decided to build a compost pile in his yard and basically threw all his food scraps into an open bin in his yard. This attracted rats the size of small cats that wound up digging nests in the drywall of our garage. It took a while to get rid of them.

We used propane to heat the house and barn. Whenever I had to fill three one-hundred-gallon tanks, I dreaded the thousand-dollar bills that came along with it. I hoped I had enough left over to feed everyone and pay my expenses. We ate a lot of eggs and powdered mashed potatoes in those days.

One summer afternoon. the boys took all my guns out to the backyard and were shooting bottles and targets. It drew the attention of the state police, but we were not fined that day.

Luke walked behind one of the horses one day and was kicked in the ribs so hard that he was slammed against the side of the barn. We also had a couple of experiences where a horse would mistake a finger for a carrot and bite down on someone. Thankfully, horses have flat teeth and while they wouldn't pierce the skin, they would chomp down and grind the finger - pretty painful.

We accidentally gave too much dewormer medicine to a couple of pigs and killed them. The vet came out to the house, did an impromptu autopsy there in the field and left pig parts all over the place. We had to use a backhoe to dig a hole and bury them.

We lost a horse one night when he figured out how to maneuver the slide lock and let himself out of his stall. He got up on the road and was hit and killed by a drunk driver. Fortunately, the driver was not badly hurt but his car was totaled.

I came home one day to find the kids had pushed the trampoline next to the pool. They had put a sprinkler underneath it and were bouncing up and down with the water spraying up through the mesh. Then they would jump into the pool from the trampoline. More gray hair but no one broke their necks.

My vegetable garden was an experiment in overkill. I planted FIFTY tomato plants the first year and had so many tomatoes that I was putting them in 55-gallon trashcans and offering them for free out at the end of the road.

Our oldest was out driving one night and had to swerve to avoid someone backing out of their driveway without looking. When the police called me to come to the scene of the accident, I was happy to see Rob unhurt and that his pickup truck was not smashed up. As we were talking, I happen to see clumps of grass embedded in the roof line of the cab and learned that in the process of swerving around the other driver, he flipped the truck completely over and back onto its wheels. God was looking over him that night.

I learned a lot about hay during that time. I learned that there is no standard size or weight for a hay bale and that there was a first, second and even third cutting of hay for farms. Sometimes the hay bales we got to feed the livestock weighed 30 pounds and other times, up to 75 pounds. Sometimes it was green and lush and other times so dried out that they hated eating it. Sometimes it would get wet and rot to the point where it was black and useless. In the beginning, I got ripped off a couple of times buying hay bales that were two to three years old and basically dusty. Other times, I had to pay two or three dollars over normal prices just to GET hay when supply ran low. We learned early on to buy hay when stock was plentiful and how to store it without it getting too dried out.

Deer loved our farm and would frequent the meadow out back. Occasionally, they would come up to the house, nose around, trample the flower beds and knocked over the ornamental gazing ball we had out back breaking the glass into a million pieces.

I had to go to California for a business conference for a week leaving my teenagers "in charge". They decided to have a huge party while I was gone. My first clue should have been when I got home that the house was spotless. My suspicions were confirmed when I went out to mow the field and started kicking up beer bottles. Additionally, I discovered that someone had backed their pickup truck into one of my massive oak trees that lined the driveway and knocked a huge chunk of bark off one of the trees. The kids' solution was to superglue the bark back onto the trunk like a jigsaw puzzle in hope that I wouldn't discover it. Sensing something looked "wrong" with the tree, I walked up and touched the bark, and it all fell off.

Our driveway was about 150 feet or more from the road and the kids were responsible for taking 5-6 trash cans out to the road and back on trash day. I came home from work, saw the cans scattered all over the apron of the driveway. My daughter's car tracks swerved around the cans, onto the lawn and her car was parked in its usual spot by the house. When I went in the house, she was watching television. I asked her why she didn't bring the trash cans in, she said, "Oh, I didn't see them..."

More gray hair.

When it was time to sell the farm, a corporation purchased it and converted it into a home for children with lung issues. To my knowledge, it has never been used as a working farm since.

I wouldn't trade those days on the farm for anything. We learned a lot. We worked hard. We made a lot of friends and had life changing experiences that have helped us even today. Our children are all successful in their adult lives, all went into the military and are now living the good life as civilians. I couldn't be prouder of them.

Thanks for your support of this series and have a good day. Stay warm. Bob