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This is the road to our new farmhouse. There are no guard rails, or pavement beneath your wheels. It’s a hard road to travel. You can’t speed down it even if you want to, but there are things to discover along the way. And something beautiful at the end.
Many of the people down this road pass in and out of our lives. The road is scattered with weekend cabins. They come in the fall with their orange coats and their deer rifles. They come in the summer with their ATVs and their beer. If you wait long enough, they’ll go away.
The handful of people who stick around for the isolating snows of winter and the pounding rains of spring are an optimistic bunch. They put out mailboxes at the ends of their driveways as an affirmation to the universe that someday the post office will deliver mail down this road. They know anything is possible if you believe. Even mail.
There’s trouble in the road. Don’t be scared by the first creek. The creeks get bigger. Keep going. You’re not going to drown. Don’t forget to look around. You might see a black bear or a wild turkey. Or maybe the first sweet pea leaning its pretty bloom over a fence post.
Some people want to stop at the second creek. But you can’t turn around. There’s no place to go but forward. Do you see a bunch of abandoned vehicles? People have gone down this road before you and they made it.
Sometimes the road is generous and offers you a bridge. It’s made of wood and it clacks when you drive over it, but it will support you. Look around and see the foundation stones of the old gasoline plant that employed 50 men a century ago in the gas and oil heyday of this now-deserted area. They didn’t have cars. They had to walk this road every day.
The last creek is the biggest. Flash floods can make it temporarily impassable, but if you just wait a little while, the water will go down. If you can get past this one last obstacle, there are better things ahead.
Maybe even a brand new almost-finished farmhouse.
Sometimes life is just that way.
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on December 26, 2007
"It was a cold wintry day when I brought my children to live in rural West Virginia. The farmhouse was one hundred years old, there was already snow on the ground, and the heat was sparse-—as was the insulation. The floors weren’t even, either. My then-twelve-year-old son walked in the door and said, “You’ve brought us to this slanted little house to die." Keep reading our story....
Make friends, ask questions, have fun!
Take Clover with you in 2010!
Pin the map!
Your recipes! (Contributed by forum members.)
I'm a paperback writer.
by Leahld22 on November 20, 2009
by Leahld22 on November 20, 2009
by Helen on November 20, 2009
by Suzanne on November 20, 2009
by Suzanne on November 20, 2009
November 2009
"First it's glowing, then it's snowing! A pause, then screaming squalls and williwaws. Bright but bitter, then a thaw. Yet again it's cold and storming: What ever happened to global warming?"
Friday, Nov 20
Fair
Currently: 47˚F
Feels Like: 47˚ F
Hi: N/A˚, Lo: 34˚
weather feed courtesy of weather.com - thanks!
"Cookies are good." Read my barnyard stories....
Entire Contents © Copyright 2004-2009 SuzanneMcMinn.com. Text and photographs may not be published, broadcast, redistributed or aggregated without express permission. Thank you.
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Cole
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The polka dots really make it difficult reading the text. The only way I can do it comfortably is to highlight the text. BTW I love polka dots just not trying to read through them
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Just found you…and have been catching up…very special.
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I hope you and your entire family had a wonderful Christmas Day.
-Kim :catmeow:
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…Thanks for sharing!
…Blessings…
)
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I feel like I did. I haven’t thought of Black Walnut Festival in too many years. It is a rainy cold day here and I am surfin’. I don’t respond to blogs or other on-line thingys but I am figurin somehow, I should post a response. Where is your farmhouse located, what county? I live in an old farmhouse built 1852 with turkeys that scratch out my flowers, deer that eat in one night 40.00 plants,that I didn’t even think of covering with chicken wire, beaver that dam the creek at the bridge, then water floods the roadway. I feel I live back in WVA, Roane county. Have a safe New Year.
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Tanya
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Just another country girl from the Hill’s of West Va. Love, Fern :guitar:
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