The Changelog

One year ago today, I wrote that we had moved onto the farm on Jan. 20. That was quite the day: 7.5" of snow, and windy.

When we moved in, our kitchen didn't yet have its flooring or any appliances. We had a microwave sitting on a 5-gallon bucket and a borrowed dorm fridge for the "kitchen". There were other little things being finished up, too. Of course, "moving in" doesn't just happen in an afternoon either. We are still sorting through boxes from time to time, cleaning up stuff in the elevator (some of which was grandpa's), and punching down the last few network runs.

Before we moved in, we spent three months in a drafty basement apartment. Our previous house had sold, and the farmhouse wasn't ready to move into yet. And we moved out of that other house about 3 weeks after Jacob was born.

It was a busy, exhausting time. But we're so glad we did it. Jacob's room is much closer to ours, which is quite helpful. He loves to scoot around on the wood floors. Terah bought him a large pillow, and he likes it when I give him pillow rides around the house.

Older people that knew my grandparents love to drop by, too. For awhile after we moved in, we'd have people just drive on the yard to see what it looks like now. The person who pruned our trees hinted that he was curious what the inside of the house looked like, so I showed him. He grew up Amish, and said, "wow, this would be a perfect Amish house!" I guess the Amish could remove the network jacks.

We have some neighbors a mile away. They're two sisters living on their parents' farm. I think they're in their 70s or 80s. They drive whatever car their dad bought before he died 20 or 30 years ago. Last month, one of them gave me a call. I've been collecting photos for the upcoming church centennial, and she had some that she thought I might be interested in. It was snowy and cold, so I said I'd be happy to go over and look at them sometime. That wasn't quite her plan. "Oh, that's no trouble. I like to get out, and you're not far away." She brought over some wonderful photos (which I scanned), and also got to see the inside of the house for the first time in years.

That's how things go out there. Last June, we had some tourists drop by. It's been a lot of fun to be part of this community again.

Before long, Jacob is going to love playing in the elevator and walking down to the creek. Maybe he'll like making a snowman next winter, or riding a bicycle up and down the driveway someday. It will be fun to see.