Joyful Maiden: My Trip to the States

Have you missed any so far—Part 1 or Part 2?

Tuesday we felt a lot more alive and normal. The boys did some more sledding; there was still enough snow on the ground that they could still do that. Tuesday afternoon, on our way to visit friends, we stopped to see our old house. No one had been there for awhile, but it looked pretty good. Both barns had been sided, and the old house had been knocked down.

Our old road—notice it’s dirt, not gravel. It was so strange to ride on it (and on the wrong side of the road, too!) again.

First glimpse of our old home!

I used to live in that house…how long ago that seems now, although it’s only been 3 1/2 years!

Ahh…this old tree. What fun we had here in the summers! Especially when we hung the rope there, and swung from the tree to the ground….

You can see the skeleton of the greenhouse out there in the middle. Off to the right is where we spent many hours each week butchering chickens.

The house trailer my uncle’s family lived in for 5 years.

The east end of the farm. The pine tree there in the middle is exactly Simon’s age—so we call it Simon’s pine tree! :)

After we drove past our old place, went to visit the family who took over our business when we left. We had a really good visit with them.

The shed they butcher chickens in (the far shed).

Some of the stuff that used to adorn our surfaces when we were chicken farmers!

Aunt Rebecca was still trying to get her dress finished—but she kept getting interrupted when texts came in. It was fun to watch! :) (I hope she won’t mind me posting this picture.…)

Wednesday afternoon we went to a personal shower for Aunt Rebecca at Aunt Ashley’s house. Uncle Tim took the boys to burn a pile of rubble at his house while we were at the shower. It was great to see so many friends at the shower that we hadn’t seen for over three years!

It was a beautiful tea party—I’ve got talented aunts!

We stayed there for supper, and the all the family from Michigan was there. We had a great evening, eating, cleaning up, and sitting around chatting.

Thursday, some old friends came to visit. We had invited them for lunch, so they got here around noon. We had a wonderful several hours of catching up. They are such dear friends!

After supper, Uncle Tim took us over to see his “new” house. It is really close to Grandma’s house, and was built about 1900. It has been re-sided and re-roofed recently, and the shell is in very good shape. He’s planning to take all the plaster down off the walls inside, insulate, re-wire it, and put up all new drywall. It will be an absolutely lovely house when it is finished! The views from the bedroom windows upstairs are beautiful. It will be great to see it finished someday!

We saw wild deer out in the paddock—not something you usually see in your backyard here!

Friday, I went with Aunt Lydia to cook at the Senior Centre. That was lots of fun, but by the time we got done preparing all that yummy food I was ravenous! Good experience, though! There were lots of people there—I’d guess 70 or 80. (I didn’t get any pictures of it, though; I was too busy helping!)

On the way back to Grandmas later, we saw this:

A sight pretty common for Michiganders, but I had forgotten about it! These men are ice fishing. Notice the open water, though—the ice and snow was quickly melting!

Saturday morning Mum, the boys and I went to Muskegon. We visited the farmer’s market we used to sell food at, and it was really nice seeing everyone again! It was fun surprising the people who knew us—only one person knew we were planning to come!

That evening, we had a visit from the family that moved here with us and then moved back. We had a nice visit.

An old friend (we’ve been friends since I was two or so). She’s two years older than me, and when we left I was a lot shorter! It was funny to realize I’m the taller one now! :)