Hocking Hills State Park

A few weeks after moving, we had the privileged of  having some friends from Erie come and visit us for a day.The Augustynak Family.  My friend, JoBeth, found a state park on line that was about 30 minutes from our house. We planned to go hiking and have lunch at the state park for the day. The day was grey and a little drizzly, but it made for nice cool hiking weather.  It was a great adventure. There are six hikes that one can take around the park to see beautiful landscape and area history.  We began our hike on one of the most popular  hikes called, Old Mans's Cave. It was really fun. Lots of waterfalls and lots of cliffs and climbing stairs.

 Old Mans Cave

 Here's Elizaabeth, Allysa, and JoBeth coming down into the cave

 Can you say "Stair Master!" So many stairs up the cliffs.

 One of the waterfalls. Not much water right here, but people say that it's really impressive when they get a good rain.

 Scott and Ethen standing on the bridge over some waterfalls.

 Our second hike was to cedar falls. This was a very quick hike, only about 1 mile.

We took our lunch break between our hikes. We probably walked ago  2 or 3 miles that day. 

We would love to come back again and do some of the other hikes. And some of the locals encourage us to even go back in the winter time to see the water falls all iced over.  It is such a beautiful area. I am really sad that we did not find this park when we my parents were here. They would have loved it. So the next time  anyone comes to visit, this a must do if you like outdoors and hiking.

Country Living Accents

I have posted these pictures on Facebook so some of you may have seen these before. 

Each day that we have lived in this old farm house, I have begun to find some of it's hidden treasures. Little details that are not obvious and grandeur.  I pass by them almost un-noticed. But they have called my attention and I have found some very wonderful accents that make this home the vintage farmhouse that it is. These things were common  in it's era, but are unique to our modern living.  

 There are many more I have yet to photograph. I am in no way a photographer.  Usually my pictures are crap. But I have found that the camera on my iPad takes some pretty good pictures. And I am  very happy with the way these came out.  

A "Domestic"  Treadle sewing machine. This machine is beautiful and timeless. The wooden desk top and  hand painted  design is timeworn, eluding to it's many hours of  utility and handling. 

Sewing machine drawers. This machine only has four of the six drawers. One missing on each side. What I love about the draws is the rich dark wood and the ornate brass handles. These stand out against the black ironwork in which it is incased.

 In the upstairs bedroom you will find a this "Corban USA" skeleton key lock with a white porcelain handle. The lock is thick and cold looking. I love the stark white porcelain handle against the black lock. It's not very apparent in this photo, but  you can peer through the key hole and see into the other room.  

This door some how reminds me of the Liberty jail in Illinois, where Joseph Smith and others where held before his martyrdom. 

On the old barn down our lane, you can find weather worn metals and woods that have stood steadfast through the years. There is nothing special about the barn itself, but it's rustic colors stand out against the faded and deteriorated boards.

  I love the metal hinge and the texture of the wood.

This skeleton keyhole and doorknob  is on the outdoor kitchen building. A little run down block building with and old antique stove inside. Which I would love to go into and photograph, but way to gross and dirty to enter. What I love about this pictures is the old peeling paint in contrast to the drastic rustic color of the metal. It's been very weather worn and neglected.

In our living room, a small door leads to the space under the stairs. It has rich dark wood with wonderful wood grains running throughout the planks. I love the ornate latch and knob. 

Bales of hay are every where. The kids and I watched a farmer cut down the field of grasses and wild flowers. It sat for a week or so to dry out. The clippings where then gathered into rows for a large tractor to collect  the hay in large one ton round bales. These swirls of hay created a very interesting pattern. Layers and layers of grainy wisps.

Cast iron hanging utensils. These were found out in the old barn down the lane.  They are dense and heavy. They look so primitive, yet stylishly decorative.

Farm House in Chillicothe Ohio

The Brower's Farm House

 When we found out Scott was able to begin his 3rd and 4th year clinical rotations at a new facility in Chillicothe Ohio, we were so excited.  But this information came quite late in the semester, which meant we only had about 12 weeks to pack up our house and move. Scott was so busy studying for his first Broad exam, we were unable to take any time to travel down and find housing for our family.  Our only two methods for finding housing was to contact members in the new ward and looking on Craigslist (It was not very promising.) You never  know what you might get. But the Lord was watching out for us and guiding us to who we needed to meet to find a place for us to come to. The Bishop put us in contact with his first Counselor, Doug Brower, who happen to have  a farm house that needed to be rented. The idea was to move into this farm house to at least get us into the area after which we could start to look for a home. We have been hard pressed to find anything that will work for us. It's either too small, too much, or too far away.  

As we have started to settle into this home, we have found that we are really enjoying the place. It was not ideal,only having one bathroom, no dish washer, no close neighbor for the kids to play with, and far from town. But these few inconveniences have melted away and don't seem to be so important. The drive into town is beautiful, and doesn't seem so long now. The Borwer's live down the road and we take the kids over for play dates once a week. Doing dishes by hand has been almost relaxing; a time I can ponder and think to myself. The bathroom issue hasn't been too bad, yet. Still wish there were two.

The house has so much room,  we are not on top of each other,  and tons of playing space outside for the kids. And of course the kids are so excited to have two black and white cats that kind of came with the house. This place has grown on all of us and we think we would like to stay for a year or two. 

The Farm house was build in 1869 and sets on about 35 acres of land.  The house has 3 large bedrooms, two upstairs and one down stairs, a large kitchen and dining room area. A mud room with a washer and dryer. There is a fire place  in the living room. The front porch is a separate room that we are not quite sure to to do with since we do not use the front door. It's barred closed. There is a spare room that is open to the kitchen, living room, and bathroom.  This is where  Ethen sleeps so that he is down stairs near us.  There are two large barn down the lane towards the front road.  Behind the house is a huge two car garage. To the left of the house is a large hill with a place for camping. A picnic table and a large fire pit. It's a wonderful view from the top of the hill. 

The house needs to  be washed, the shutters repainted, some holes in the siding to be filled, and weeding. 

I took a pictures of Jocelyn standing outside the front of the house.  Lots of weeds that need to be pulled on the side patio. Then the next picture is the back of the house where the kitchen and mud room is. The third picture is the view down the land to the front road, where the two barns are.

The really old barn is a great back drop for pictures, so we took a few while my mom and dad where with us.   They turned out great, but I  hope to get some more to update our family pictures. 

For now we are excited to live in the Brower's Farm house.  Don't think we can get any closer to living down on the farm and country living. (Unless we end up getting some chickens and cows! O'my)