My great-grandfather built the family farmhouse in the 1800s.
It was moved 1/2 mile across a soybean field to face the county road
before my grandparents were married and raised their family in it.
Then the once-small house grew with additional rooms
for each new generation.
When my parents raised their family here,
the porch was screened
and we had a comfy porch swing and
lots of geraniums and ivy in planters.
The siding was a dark gray then.
We tromped through the big yard pretending to be on a cattle drive,
twirled our batons and marched to music,
and tossed corn cob airplanes having chicken feathers
for wings and tails.
We mowed the acres of grassy lawn with a
John Deere riding tractor.
It was one of the "keepers" that moved to town with Mom and Dad.
Now the farmhouse is home to a new family,
friends of ours from high school,
and they have a daughter named Abbie (my grandma's name)
and some boys to climb the trees and race around the yard.
A mile away is the scenic Maumee River,
where many boaters gather in the summer.
It's an historic area--in the late 1700s,
General Anthony Wayne and his troops followed the river
and set up forts, hence the name
The General Anthony Wayne Trail for State Highway 24.
In the winter, we ice skated and made bonfires here,
and some brave people ice fished on the Maumee River.
My great-grandfather and grandfather
helped make ice blocks on the river in the winter time,
and hauled them home on horse-drawn wagons
to help keep food preserved in their cellars.
Little farmhouse on the NW Ohio plains ...
I could write a book about it.
