When we married in 2000, we bought an old 3 bedroom trailer. Several years later, we bought several acres of "junk" farmland on a funny shaped hill, and Leon began making something beautiful out of that pile of dirt with a bulldozer. We moved the old trailer on the land, and settled in. The long-term plan was to build a house, live in the basement, eventually finish the top part of the house, and we'd be all set. We could raise our family on 2 acres in the country, surrounded by corn fields, and gravel roads. It would be the perfect life for us.
Then a young man from the community came knocking on our door. He had a 3 acre hog farm he wanted to sell to us badly. We had 2 little boys and were expecting our 3rd child by fall. This was in the spring. We told him we weren't interested.
Several months later, he stopped by again. This time we decided to ask a few people for advice. Everywhere we turned, people were encouraging us to go for it. What??!! This was not in our plans at all.
After several sleepless nights for Leon, (I was pregnant, remember, and nothing kept me awake!) lots of seeking advice and ultimately begging God to show us, we decided to buy the farm.
We got possession on August 9, 2006. My sister and husband from Wisconsin came and spent 10 days with us, working like crazy to get our farm ready to move on to. I was 8 months pregnant, and not up to a lot of physical activity.
The house had been lived in by a bachelor for 3-4 years, and needed paint, and lots of scrubbing. My efficient sister organized painting crews and did a ton of painting herself. My entire Bontrager family came for a whole day and whacked weeds as high as the barn, mowed, washed and bleached the basement, scrubbed and painted. We had other friends who brought food and helped paint or clean. Almost all the carpets got ripped out and the wood floors underneath got a fresh coat of paint.
The barn was in a terrible state of neglect. Leon and my brother-in-law worked long days out there, cleaning out drains, repairing water leaks, cleaning up in general, plus taking care of our first batch of baby pigs- 1400 of them.
I packed up the trailer and took care of my little boys. I made food for the hard workers and tried to stay organized and rested. I really felt like I didn't do much at all compared to everyone else.
But with lots of help, we were able to move on August 19, 2006. Our furniture from the trailer didn't even come close to furnishing our big farm house. But we were settled and now this baby could be born. (Annika was born almost 4 weeks later.)
Leon went back to work at his full-time job. He worked long hours, then came home and took care of the pigs. We wonder sometimes how we managed those first several years.....
The boys just loved the farm. They explored and played outside all day long. We had a cement patio to ride trikes on. We had an old garage that quickly became their "shop" and all kinds of adventures were had in there. One of the first things they did was to dig a very large hole in the middle of this garage. Of course, nobody knows why. The hole is still there.
Over the years, we've made lots of improvements to this place. Leon has spent countless hours working in the pig barn, repairing things. We had a wall put in the huge 5 car garage so that the back part could be an insulated shop for Leon to work in.
And the house- I cried the first time we walked through it. It was so dirty and smelled like pigs, and it was just such a strange house! Two staircases, strange nooks and crannies, crooked floors, and nasty old windows.
The first winter we worked in the kitchen and added some cupboards. We hired someone to put a railing on the open stairway in the living room so my babies wouldn't fall down and break their heads. Leon put shelves in the door-less, shelf-less closets. He also put shelves in the damp, dark basement for my canned food.
We put carpet in the living room, on the stairs, and in the school room and girl's room. We painted the storage room and turned it into a tiny guest room. We replaced several windows.
More recently, we jacked up the kitchen/dining room floor and put hardwood flooring in. We also repaired the front porch and tore out the rotten railing and replaced it with pillars.
New windows are on the agenda next.....!!!!!!!!!
The crazy thing is- I fell in love with this old house! When people advise us to tear it down and build new, (it was built in 1905) something inside of me gets a sick feeling. Tear down my house that has so much character? No way.
This house is home to so many memories. This house that I didn't want to live in has now has become my cozy friend. This house that I finally have room to entertain guests in, host parties in, and so much more......
And now- a trip down memory lane.....
It's been a wild ride, but I'm so grateful for this farm.
