Indiana Report #1

Kristen and I rolled into the farm around 1:00 am on Thursday morning. We hiked around a bit, and checked out the treehouse via flashlight.

We were both pretty exhausted, and fell asleep the instant our heads hit the pillows of the twin beds in the house. We both were awoken several times during the night due to mysterious bumps and other strange noises coming out of the room with the attic staircase. Luckily the ghosts weren't hungry that night, and we made it through the night in one piece.

Dad swung through the house at around 7 am the next morning. He headed to Indianapolis for the day with Tommy to pick up and learn how to use Tommy's new sawmill. I barely remember the conversation, Kristen and I were both pretty groggy from the trip and lack of sleep.


Later Kristen and I went for a quick hike to see if we could find any daffodils near the old schoolhouse. There were a few, but they were well past their prime.


We then headed into town, believing that we needed to pick Becky and her crew up around 10:00. Luckily she'd left various messages that we were off by a day, so we grabbed some breakfast in Charlestown instead of driving to the airport.

Back on the farm, we got the tractor started up and hooked to the wagon. We hauled all our luggage and the ladder down to the site. After a near accident trying to un-shutter the door, we were in, and were greeted by copious amounts of mouse excrement.



We spent a good portion of the rest of the day cleaning up the place, and making it a bit more livable. We found the sleeping pads that Ma had made us for my birthday, and got them up into the loft. The loft seemed sized just right for sleeping.

Dad showed up in the evening, we cooked porkchops, potatoes, and salad for dinner. Kristen and I then headed down to the treehouse for the first real night. We used the propane lantern we'd recieved for Christmas, it worked well.

The next morning we got up and headed toward the Clarksville airport to pick up Becky and her group. They were right on time, showing up in a spiffy two engine prop plane. We loaded up all three dogs, luggage, and six people into the truck, and headed back to the farm.


Shortly after returning to the farm, Becky and Jason let it be known that for my birthday present I was going to get to fly over the farm at high speed in the plane they'd shown up in, piloted by Daniel. Jason, Daniel and I headed back to the airport and jumped in the plane.


The plane ride was exhilarating, although I did get a bit queasy toward the end. According to Daniel, we made a below tree line pass at 200 knots. Becky, Mariah, Kristen, and the dogs had hiked out to a field to watch. They claimed that we were really moving when we flew overhead, I believe them.


Later in the day Dad burned an acre of grown up pasture near the lack with some help from Hobby (sp?), Jason and I. It was smoky nasty work, but the fire was contained by the crack crew of shovel wielders.


As the sun was going down, I jumped in the lake to clean up a bit. The lighting was really great, Kristen got some good pictures.



To top the evening off, Dad set fire to some large brush piles below the hay barn. Everyone was a little concerned over the size and number of sparks going up, but it all worked out OK in the end.