my dad grew up on a farm. i think most of who he is and what he knows how to do (fix everything! be down to earth and casual with others, and be frugal!) originates with his experience on the family farm.
july 2009 marks 140 years that the farm was settled by our family and in business of farming the land. my uncle and his wife who live there decided it was time to celebrate! it turned out to be a huge family reunion and one of the best times at the farm i have ever had. my uncle, cousin robert, my dad and aunt spent days getting the farm grounds cleaned and looking the best they have ever looked. they also spent time working on the farm house especially the bathroom--i will forever be grateful to a cousin who made it possible to bring the bathroom into the 21st century! most of us tented on the side lawn and enjoyed the shade of the big trees. the food was delicious and the kids just ran themselves out doing what i and my cousins used to do when we would visit in the summers as kids. there were pony rides, atv rides, feeding billy goats, exploring empty sheds, playing in the creek, a tree swing and of course driving tractors. probably the best part for me was being with all of the family there at one time together. my dad's family is so seldomly all together in one place. there was just something extra unique about this time together. i think most of us felt it was a chance of a lifetime--something not to be missed.
morgan plays in the creek that runs through the farm. my grandmother used to wash her hair with this water because it is soft and the water in the house is hard.
on the way home from the long weekend we asked out boys to help us count up how many "firsts" they had had during our trip. the list was longer than i thought. it always makes me thrilled to expose our children to so many new things. many of the things rod & i found ourselves enjoying as "firsts" too.
aunt loretta's new home
my mother's sister has retired to a beautiful new home in cedar hills, utah. it is spacious and decadent. it was our first stop on our trip. it was such a comfortable and inviting place to stay after the drive from vegas. seeing her place made me so very happy for her and this stage of her life. she is in a good place surrounded by good people and family.
meeting up with family
this was crazy fun for the first day. trying to remember everyone's names, children and where they live now was a bit of a brain overload, especially for rod for whom most of them were new. most of my 1st cousins are older than i am so many of them have children not too much younger than i and my siblings. this makes keeping things straight even trickier but at some point my children and husband just called everyone "cousin" and isn't that the way it should be anyway?
family photos
when i suggested that we take a series of family photos to some of my cousins, aunt and uncle, i sort of got a few laughs. one even said, "isn't that sort of like trying to herd cats?" i agreed but i was determined to get everyone on board. and it worked for the most part. when we began the sky was a perfect overcast afternoon which makes photo taking heavenly. periodically the sun would come out here and there so i tried to deal with the lighting issues but everyone was super at getting together their respective family when their time was called to sit for me. i was able to get the groupings i needed. we did a first cousin's photo--this would be all of the grandchildren of morgan w. & mary d. harris. only one was girl cousin was unable to make it. but looking at that photo makes me laugh--there are soooo many men in my dad's family! it is a varied group and they are all different but each one of them has a memory of time spent working on the farm (be it short or long). most all of them have stories of growing up being sent to the farm to help with the work. some of them even nicknamed it "little russia." regardless of whether they loved or hated it the fact remains that it is part of their life's experience--part of their family history. even though we girl cousin's don't necessarily have those same memories as the boys we too still have memories that bind us to the farm. it is the one place that connects everyone of us as cousins. that connection was awesome to see through the viewfinder o fmy camera and while editing the photos later.
my grandfather's name on his mailbox
the harris grandchildren (my first cousins) with uncle dave, aunt sharon, and my dad morgan d.
my uncle, my aunt, and my dad & mom behind him with all my siblings, spouses and our children
camping at the farm
this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. i am NOT a camper. i will admit that i crave being clean and having a shower each day with a blowdryer for the hair. but for this trip we decided to join the cousins camping on the side lawn. some friends of our let us borrow their two room tent which made sleeping with the children so easy! the weather was great! i love to sleep with it cooler outside and under a big down comforter. rod had gotten us blow up air mattresses and with the sheets i brought and the down comforter i was almost more comfortable than in my own home. the boys went to bed easily because they had been in the sun all day and running non-stop. granted we only stayed overnight one night but i think that is the way to go when one stays at the farm. it is the experience of camping but having the amenities of the farmhouse to enjoy as well.
the 3:00 am wake up call
the farm property backs up onto I-15 freeway. from the farm house you can hear the cars traveling on it in the distance. it is a very rural stretch of highway and exceptionally dark since there are no town lights or lights on the highway other than car headlights. there are two south bound and two north bound lanes with a grassy divide in the middle. off either side of the north or south bound shoulders is a fairly good drop off into tall grassy ditches. i mention this because on friday night, the 3rd of july, we were sleeping out in our tent. at 3 a.m. in the morning i heard a screeching of tires and scraping of metal and it woke me up sharply out of a deep sleep. as soon as i heard it almost immediately i said outloud, "that was a car crash. someone has just crashed on the highway!" i just knew that was what it was and yet when i asked rod if he too had heard it he said it was just in his dreams. but he was now awake and we both sat there wondering what do we do. i could not shake that feeling of dread i had upon first hearing the noises that woke me up. in my head i could only imagine that it was some family with young children in a van or something traveling by night to get someplace for the 4th of july. all of these "what if's" were running through my head. what if they ran off the side of the highway in to the tall grass no one would ever see them from the highway? what if they were all seriously injured and had no way of getting to help? what if they had to sit it out until day light? what if they were freezing and in shock? and so rod and i sat there waiting--for what I am not sure but just waiting for some kind of confirmation that we had not been just dreaming if someone really did need assistance.
and then we heard a car horn. someone was laying hard on their car horn. over and over as if to say, "here i am. help me." and that is when rod jumped up, got dressed and with the flashlight went out to our truck and set out to find the accident in case there were anything he could do to help. similarly my aunt who heard it too woke my cousin up and he too went out looking. i stayed back until enough time had passed with neither rod nor my cousin returning that i knew they had to have found the accident. my brother in the next tent over was awake too and i asked him to listen for my boys if they happened to wake and i went in and got my dad so we could drive to the edge of the property in his truck and see if we could see anything. from the edge of our field we could see up on the highway a few headlights of stopped cars and then we called rod. he told us that a man had rolled his truck and was pinned in his truck. my dad and i drove closer and could see the condition of the truck. only rod and my cousin and aunt were there and one other car. they were keeping the man talking and reassuring him that the paramedics were on their way. the man had fought with his wife and left to go golfing up north. he was driving back home that night, had fallen asleep at the wheel and rolled his truck so many times that he was lucky to be alive. he said he was married and had two little children at home. when the ambulance finally got there rod, my dad and i returned to the farm house. it was a scary wake up call and made me so grateful that we had been safe in all of our driving that weekend thus far. it only takes a split second and your entire life can change in an accident like that.
the one thing i am still most struck by regarding that experience that night was how intensely strong i woke up knowing that someone had just crashed. it was so vivid in my mind and it was only after asking rod and talking about it a bit that i second guessed my gut feeling. and when i heard the car horn it was as if everything in me said, "see, it is possible to just know things are actual and true even if you can't see them." it was not a premonition because i knew it happened at the very moment i heard it but i could not see it and was not really even that close to the actual site of the accident. it was just an intense feeling. it was difficult to relax and go to sleep for a time after we returned to our tents.
i understand the man survived the accident. considering what the truck looked like, i would say he has been given a miraculous second chance at life.
the big 140 year bash
my aunt and uncle are very active in their community. they put on a wonderful celebration for the public and family to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Harris family farm. There was fried chicken, fresh fruit, homemade potato salad, baked beans, rolls, homemade sheet cakes, and Aggie ice-cream. they had a country band, a cowboy poet, pony rides for the little ones and two huge belgian draft horses pulling a 1900's restored wagon giving rides to all. it was such a treat to see my uncle thoroughly happy. he was relaxed and smiling from ear to ear during the entire party. my aunt was thrilled too with the turn out and it was fun to see them among friends.
morgan rides as aunt nikki leads
jack enjoys his ride
my uncle dave greeting friends
morgan on the "other" horse at the farm
time spent with the next generation of cousins at the farm
the great grand children of my grandparents are now enjoying the farm and hopefully will have more future opportunities to play together there. it was awesome to have all the great grand children and even some great great grandchildren getting to know each other more.
my nephew and niece--cousins the same age play together
morgan and stella on the back lawn
my cousin robert and our cousin's grandchild who was wiped out from a long fun day.
learning to drive
as a kid on the farm you get to have one of the greatest freedoms ever--learning to drive every possible new and old tractor ever made since 1900. well, if they don't actually start you can certainly pretend to drive and steer from that seat way up high overlooking the world below. and with a little help from grandpa or anyone with the know how you can actually help steer one of them around the farm for a joy ride.
morgan and ann marie
jack and stella and lauren
my brother, stella, and my dad
berkeley, rod and morgan
atv riding up gardner's canyon
this was a huge first for me at the farm. i have never gone anywhere off the farm when i have been there. i have only gone out into the fields. i mean on the farm everyone is always working. there is no down time. so this day off was unusual and so much fun! my dad and cousin's took rod and i and our boys on a four wheeler ride up into the canyon across the valley. it was a spectacular ride. it is beautiful up in those mountains and so much fun with everyone who went. it was an extra bit of work for my dad to trailer up two of our 4 wheelers from the cabin to the farm but i was extra thankful that he thought to do that--for that ride alone was worth it. spending time doing those types of things with our boys and my dad are things i hope to remember and i hope our boys remember too. we were creating memories with their grand-dad on the farm.
getting gassed up for the atv ride. this ain't your typical chevron line-up! the gas pump on the farm takes a little know how as well.
getting to see my dad and uncle relaxed
at the farm if you are my dad or my uncle it seems you are either one of the two--working or asleep.
this weekend was a great opportunity to catch both of them doing things that are different than the daily grind of fixing broken sprinklers, machinery or bailing. my dad only has one brother and he finds possibly the most happiness in life at this point being on the farm working side by side with him.
thanks uncle dave, aunt sharon (and dad and cousin robert) for making that weekend at the farm so enjoyable!
images of my grandmother's home
images from the grounds:
Wow! What an awesome trip for you and your family! I'm glad everyone finally consented and let you take their family pictures. I'm sure they will treasure those pictures for years to come.
That is so scary about that accident! I'm glad to hear that the man survived and that you listened to your gut! You guys probably saved that man's life. (This is also a good reminder that when we argue with our spouse, we really should just stick it out and not leave upset!)
Your boys look like they had such a great time!! I'm sure they'll remember this trip for years to come.
Posted by: JoEllen Giani | July 14, 2009 at 12:57 PM