Friday favorites...

There's no place like home. Our house on the prairie.

My brother flew over in his plane and he took this snapshot. Every so often, we get advertisements in the mail from a company offering to take aerial pictures of our homestead. I just have to laugh. Like I want to pay for a picture of that! The barn used to stand on the bottom right corner there, but alas it bit the dust quite a few years ago. A sad day, but it was past the point of being repaired and the cost would have been much more than the value of our entire property.

The original house was built in 1891- just two rooms and a buttery- an ingenious creation of a trough in the cellar. A pipe ran from the well that was powered by a wind mill. The water would run down the pipe, through the trough and slowly out into a drain. Kept the milk/cream/butter cold. The floors are mostly wood and the ceilings are around 10'. That gives plenty of room to hang quilts. Over the years, the house has been built onto and I have to admit, we are the primary perpetrators. We didn't move any walls in the original house, but we have certainly more than doubled the living space. Rooms stick out willy nilly. We are exceptionally good at willy nilly. There are four bedrooms and three baths. A very large dining room which doubles as a schoolroom. A small livingroom, and a small TV room. The kitchen is bright and sunny, facing the south, with a very large picture window on the wall over the sink. The laundry room is small, but it has a double sink and two dryers. Oh, and of course I have a quilting room because I'm spoiled rotten. Lest you think it all sounds too perfect: the roof leaks, it's hard to heat on a budget, I can't change the seat on my toilet- it seems to be fused to the stool, cobwebs are a real issue with such high ceilings, wood floors are very loud with lots of kids tramping through, and the water is hard as nails. But I love it and am thankful every day for a home that fits us so well. Every time I walk through the door I think, "I love my house!" (The first time we showed my Dad the property and asked him what he thought, he simply said, "Gotta match?" I am so happy we didn't have one on hand.)

Outside, we have a large garden (bottom right,) a few apple trees (behind the house,) a chicken house (that red dot over on the lower right) and lots of weeds and rubble and then there's the acres of grass that always need to be mowed. There's plenty of privacy and lots of room for the kids to run, play, climb, build, and dig holes. Generally, a great place to be a kid. And it ain't half bad for a grownup, either!