Thinking of Moving to Indiana

[Guest guest]

.... well that's if... 1) My husband falls in love with my family's

land near Burnettsville/Delphi, and 2) If raw milk can be obtained

or sold.

My family's farms are in the Wabash River delta and surrounding hill

country.

I've long dreamed of a small sustainable farm that would provide for

my family. I don't want much, just my own poultry, and beeves to

feed us and enough land to support them and us with what we need.

Which means enough room to pature feed, and to garden.

This weekend I was back in my father's childhood stompin' grounds

and fell hard in love with the land. As a child it was taken for

granted that it would be there when ever we wanted. Unfortunately

there were leans on the land for my grandparents nursing home care

and the land had to be sold to pay the leans off. ( It's still in

the family's hands though)

My elder cousin Johah has an impressive farm that is mostly

still old growth forest but has enough land cleared for farming to

make some money. ( I wanted to cry at all the soy beans growing but

there's only so much you can do in the first meeting with family in

33 years. ) The 's were always forward thinking. Jonah is

amazing man. His barn home has been featured in many publications as

a model home. His most recent alteration to the three homes on his

land is to add geo-thermal heating and cooling.

I did cry seeing my grand father's strawberry fields and his

watermelon fields covered with soy and when I saw what had been done

to the lovely farm house over the years since dad sold the parcel. I

noticed that some folks in Indiana are partial to a very unappealing

combination of a greenish yellow siding and brown trim. Pair that

with brown shingles that are in need of replacement and you have the

start of a good cry.

The wonderful porch where my sister and I sat on the swing with my

cousin Kay rocking into the hillside has become a windowless room.

The sunny (summer) kitchen too is enclosed and windowless. They even

removed a window from the master bedroom. The garage, spring house

and barn remain, but the yard around the house is run down and

overgrown making it seem even smaller than the years tend to do. The

chicken coop is gone as are the pasture fences that contained my

grandfather's Belgin team and dairy cows.

Though I was sadedend to see my childhood memories so roughly

treated I was thrilled to be back in my farming roots and now my

mind is wandering back to the hills of Indiana.

, Somewhere in S.E. Mi.

P.S. On the drive home, we counted no less than 160 deer along

Towpath Rd, Route 24 and I-69, six of them bucks!