Adventure in Remembering..........



Last week I did something that surprised me a little, it felt good, brought back memories of getting on my horse and going exploring.  Going someplace from a different direction, being carefree and requiring a little courage.



Where I grew up......



After my grand daughters got off the bus, I took them for a ride in the Gator.  Lizzy was trying to do a math paper and Cait was reading.  I decided to make it an adventure they would have to give their undivided attention to.   I wanted them to enjoy this warm sun on a late fall day in November.

So we left the horse pasture through the fence that our neighbor had taken down to repair some drain tile.  We were suddenly free to explore a place we had never been.  As we raced along the edge of the still standing corn field, we could hear the hollow dry bones of the corn stalks rattling together from the wonderful breeze.  The girls were suddenly looking around and laughing as they had to duck from low tree branches.  Weed seed flew on us as we raced down the very bumpy ground.  Coming to a rather deep waterway, we had to figure a way around and the girls were full of good ideas. 

As we reached the end of the field we came to the edge of a woods, a place I had not been in probably 30 years.  It looked foreign and yet familiar.  It look so much smaller than I remember.  I hadn't been here since my step father died and the land sold.  It was the house that I grew up in.

It sold all those years ago, the new owners built new structures and backed up a ditch to make a shallow pond that was hauntingly covered with green and an old wooden boat sits afloat at the edge.  Those owners have since moved and the house remained empty for a couple years, neglect took it's tole and so did kids who came and destroyed windows and terrorized the inside of the house.  Critters found harbor there and water leaked from pipes and rain.  It seemed to be in ruin, this home my parents lovingly started building when I was around five years old.

Oh the memories came rushing back, we had an outhouse for years, there is still the idea of a path to that outhouse and on to the chicken houses.  The old shed that protected our rabbits from the wind was gone, as was the trees that held our beloved tree house.  The big oak tree that held our swing is still standing but has died.  One side of the old chinning bar, that was held by two trees, protrudes strangely from one tree still standing, it's end is hidden by the growth of the tree that holds it.  I look at the leaves on the ground and remember having to rake them, funny the area doesn't look as big as I remember it.  I wonder were the old playhouse went and we loved swinging on the thick old grapevines. 

The house itself is being repaired, brought back to it's once beautiful state.  It has been gutted and yet it is found to be strong and solid and will again come back to life.  Windows have been replaced, doors are closed to critters.  A flood of emotions take over me as I write this, remembering the long summers under the shade of those big trees, remembering having only my brother and sister as companions.  Raising rabbits, chickens, and turkeys.  Our dogs and orphan pigs and lambs, my goat, my donkey and then my horse.  So many memories and I got to show my old home place to my grand daughters.