10.01.2006

10.1.06 ekj land split/Barbara Little house

Gail correspondance

The story I am currently telling myself has to do with
leaving this house - which I love more than life -
Well, almost.  Daddy (or maybe it was my
passive-aggressive sister who instigated it) brought
up the subject of splittin up the land.  She wants the
back 50 acres.  My brother and I are okay with that. 
It leaves the front part for us to work with.  I have
now said I want the 'little house' which is a house
daddy built for his mother after his father died. 
Then mother's mother lived there for several years. 
So I can eventually live in the house my father built
and both my grandmothers lived in, on a site where the
original farm house stood, and where my father and his
brothers and sisters  were born.  

The original fireplace is still standing in the back
yard and the original barn - which is now over a
hundred years old - is across the field but not too
far away.  I used to walk out there to feed the
chickens with my grandmother when I was maybe two or
three.  She carried the corn folded up in her apron
so she only had one free hand and I was pretty much 
on my own...toddling along beside her.  There were
barn cats so I was always excited to go there, and
once in a while grandma would let me carry an egg back
to the house.  Heady times.

It's just over 800 sq feet so I will be adding another
800 sf, with a garage and family room with big windows
over the meadow.  Deer and fox and wild turkeys come
out into the meadow, especially in the early morning
and twilight.  It is really quite beautiful.

So the story I tell myself is that looking at deer,
etc., is just as good as watching the dolphins go by. 
And building the addition will be pretty exciting.