Farm Vacation

A happy plane passenger

Back in March or April, we started studying the calendar for the summer.  We discussed all the upcoming wish list items and potential outings and camps and played around on the maps to figure out drive times and possible routes for summer vacation travels. After my in-laws announced that they were going to try to drive out here for Labor Day weekend, we decided that just the younger kids and I would fly back to Indiana to see my extended family instead of driving the whole family back through Oklahoma and then on to Indiana for the annual family home pilgrimage.  We shortened the trip a bit since we wouldn't be spending six days driving, but still planned to have a nice long visit. 

Then we sat back and looked forward to the trip for a couple months. It seemed a long way in the future. Until it wasn't. And then it was over. 

How quickly time flies when you are on vacation. The days seem to loom ahead long and uneventful, but then they arrive and disappear, and suddenly summer is nearly over.

The grandparents' house

The kids and I are always happy to be back in Indiana. At first we are on the lookout for things that have changed: what new buildings have been added, what trees and plants have died, what animals have come and gone.  But after all the changes are noted, it is nice to settle in and be a part of the farm routine for a few days: drink a lot of coffee on the screened in porch in the mornings, then check on the animals and feed the chickens. Next maybe hang a load of laundry on the line, take a walk or bike ride around the 8 mile block, walk through the woods and check out the fort the kids constructed out of old barn wood and sticks and branches (hoping none are poison ivy).

The new chicken house

July is hot in Indiana, but I didn't mind the feeling of walking out into a warm blanket. The air felt full of growth and fertility - maybe that's just humidity, but after living in the dry, brown environment of Southern California, the greenness of rural Indiana seemed full of life and potential: fields full of rustling corn and soybeans, trees laden with green fruit, hayfields buzzing with bees and butterflies, blackberry brambles crawling out of the woods to reach the sunshine for ripening berries. I loved being back under the wide breadth of the deep blue skies and bright sunshine warming up the scent of corn and clover. Even the brief but violent summer thunderstorm was a welcome change.

Magnolia Trace's Dark Legend, the new bull

Swallows at work

Farm friends

It took a day of restlessness for the kids to settle into the rhythm of summer on the farm and to find their way out to the creek full of minnows and crawdads. The cousins were over nearly every day and they constructed a rustic hideaway in the woods, christened Ft. Dole, because they found an old board in the barn with that name on it.

Catching minnows and crawdads

Another birthday

This visit was punctuated by trips to South Bend to pick up and take our high school daughter to camps at Notre Dame - a 3 day volleyball camp and a 5 day leadership/faith building conference. During the weekend, we made a quick trip up to Michigan to see our cousins at their lake house.  When I was growing up, our yearly vacation was a trip to Crystal Lake for a week with these cousins. We swam, read on the beach, collected shells, painted rocks, spent money in town on glass animals and books and ice cream cones.  After I got married, we went back several times, but those visits have grown farther apart since our travel time lengthened. A quick trip back this summer resurrected happy memories and cemented relationships between the next generation of cousins.

Gray day at the lake

Iconic Point Betsie Lighthouse

A new bridge built by three young Gruffs...

Rose of Sharon

Bees at work

This place will always seem like home to me, regardless of where we spend most of our days.  Even though I didn't grow up in the house where my parents now live, the smells and sights of Indiana farm country must be deeply rooted and trigger the sense of being at home that never has set in here in California. 

Gardening with chickens

The toddler's new best friend, her cousin dog. 

Ft. Dole

Swimming at the boys' camp

Mulberry eater