Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the day we finally moved here to the farm.  We packed up our 1960s ranch house in Elmwood, NE and together with our families trucked our posessions to our new home.

We'd spent six long months renovating the old farmhouse, taking it down to the studs.  It had been a good, long time since any major projects had been done on the late 1800s house with 1950s addition.  The house needed a new roof, new windows, new electrical, new furnace, central air...  We were able to restore the original pine floors and salvaged the original light fixtures and doors with glass doorknobs.  Those glass doorknobs were a MUST for me -- when I was a child they seemed "magical" somehow, and that is something I will always remember about visiting Grandma when she lived here.

In some ways it seems like we've been here much longer than six years.  We've done so much work outside the house since then--cleaning up the old farmstead, removing countless loads of scrap metal, brush and debris,  tearing out ruined fences, landscaping, building a garage, restoring the barn, starting our pumpkin patch business...  How did we get all that done in six years?  We must be crazy! 

In other ways it seems as though we couldn't possibly have been here that long.  What I know for sure is that its been the best six years of my life, and this is where I was meant to be!

Before -- July 2002

After -- Spring 2007

Making a gourmet lunch during renovation, summer 2002