The Changelog

Today as we were getting ready to head out, Terah said to me, "There are people on our yard with cameras and I don't know who they are!"

I looked out and they looked friendly, so I went on out and said hi.

I'm glad I did, too, because these weren't just any random people with cameras. The group included Ed, who grew up in what is now our house. He's probably in his 70s or 80s now. His wife, son, and daughter-in-law were along, too. They had all driven up from Oklahoma and wanted to see the old farm. Ed's family had sold it to my grandparents back in the 40s.

They apologized for tresspassing. I told them, "I don't mind as long as you share a few stories."

Ed told us that he remembered the second story and kitchen being added on to the house when he was about 10, shortly after it was moved to its present location. He remembered his dad building the elevator that still stands on our property. It is quite the marvel of engineering and craftsmanship. I learned that its first power source was an engine from a Model T.

Ed kept looking at the house smiling. A few years ago, maybe 2 or 3, he got to see the place for the first time in 40 years. But it wasn't doing so well then already. He said we had done a wonderful job restoring it. He remembered, back before there was a sidewalk, sitting on the porch letting his feet dangle in the mud. Or sitting out there Sunday evenings making ice cream.

I invited them to take a quick look inside. They politely declined, not wanting to impose. Terah and I assured them that it would be fine, though we did need to leave in a few minutes. They came inside and Ed started describing the place to his family.

He pointed to the oak floor in the living room. "Is that original?" I told him, "Yes, it is; we added on about 2 feet to it but the rest of it is original." He said that he helped lay that floor. I asked him something I had been wondering for awhile: did they put the oak floor on top of a pine floor? He smiled and said, "Yes, we sure did!"

We came to the office. He asked if the wood ceilings were original. Yes, I told him they are. He confirmed what I had heard about the reason for a burned spot on the office floor: that someone had opened a wood stove and a live log fell out. He also asked if we had taken out the chimney. Yes, we did, but we saved the bricks. "Ah! We had a chimney fire in there one time! We all thought the whole house might burn down." I told him that the bricks still were marked from that.

He told me of one time he was standing on the north side of the house, idly throwing stones at it. His sister was playing piano at a window, in what is now the office. One of Ed's stones went through the window and hit her (but didn't hurt her seriously). "Boy did I ever hear about breaking that window!" One of his relatives asked, "What about hitting your sister?" "Well, that wasn't as bad as the window."

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. It's really neat to hear stories about the place and learn about its life before it came to be in my family.

I was glad I went out and said hi to our visitors instead of ignoring them or chasing them off.

Good things can come from strangers sometimes. I think I'm going to gather up a batch of photos and send them to Ed and his family, along with a few questions for them!

Terah and I realized something the other day. This table should demonstrate:

Person	Relation	Attends our church
Heating/Air Person	Great Uncle	Yes
Plumber	First Cousin, Once Removed	Yes
Interior Designer	First Cousin, Once Removed	Yes
Electrician	Second Cousin	Yes
Phone Company Line Installer	First Cousin, Once Removed	No
General contractor	None	Yes
General worker #1	None that we know of, but his great grandfather built the place	Yes
General worker #2	None	Yes
Historians	Yes	Yes

It seems this is typical for this sort of project around here.

Yes, it's true. Yesterday morning, Terah and I closed on our purchase of Grandpa's farm! We're excited, and now the real work begins.

Obviously, we seem to have ignored everyone that thought we were crazy. Or perhaps we just admit it and move on. <grin>

So... Our big move (yes, we're buying a farm) is moving along!

We're tentatively set to close on it next Tuesday. The last two months have been busy. A lot of phone calls to arrange permits.

The director of planning and zoning retired recently, and they didn't have a replacement ready. So all building permits were on hold until a replacement arrives. In the meantime, the county clerk's office was trying to handle basic inquiries. I called it one day, and didn't realize until later that I was speaking to the county clerk. I grew up in this county but obviously I've lived in larger ones too long if I'm surprised about this. Everyone was very friendly and as helpful as possible with an unfortunate situation.

I got a surprise phone call today. Apparently the telephone company is running new lines in rural areas of the county (upgrading to support DSL) and they wanted to know if that place was going to stay vacant. A "not at all!" later, and it looks like we'll be able to get DSL by the time we move in. WOOHOO! We were bracing for dialup or wireless...

There are still some bits of paperwork that have to get done before Tuesday yet, so it's not 100% guaranteed that we'll close then. But we're getting excited anyway!