The Love Homestead - 1969, my senior year of high school, and the new addition on the house is looking like a house. The porch on the left side of the house and halfway back is now enclosed.

Many things have changed... The tractor shed attached to the left (east) end of the barn fell back in the 80's. The barn burned in May of 2009. The corn crib to the front and left of the tractor shed is gone. The long building just beyond the garage (back end of it was the chicken coop - front end by the drive was Dad's workshop. It is now gone and a concrete pad is in its place... the foundation for a small barn/outbuilding. The garden to the left edge side closest to the garage is now full of Norway spruce that Dad put along the edge of the garden... just until he could find a place to put them! They are now well over 50' high!! My grandfather's old trailer behind the house in the trees is long gone and there is a grape arbor between where it was and the driveway. The black walnut trees to the right (west) end of the barn are twice as high now and are scarred from the fire, but still living. They shade the pigeon/chicken lofts and aviaries and the little chicken coop. The back garden by the tractor shed is now a small young apple orchard; and the space between it and the front garden, is now the garden plot. The rows of plants in front of the front garden and across the front yard are grapes in back, then currants, and then raspberries. A couple of grape vines are still there and about half of the currants. A couple of the raspberry plants reared their leaves a few years ago, so I kept them right in their original spots. However, there is a large Carpathian walnut tree that shades them, so they don't bear a whole lot of fruit.

So many things to comment on. This picture was taken my senior year of high school and it truly brings back memories. By the way, the John Deere 720 that is right in front of the house now sits on the pad where the new building will be. And right at the edge of the picture by the tractor looks like my Daddy working there! I so wish I had a copy of this picture...

Spent my summers there from when I was 6 to18. Bailing hay and doing chores helping my Uncle Ray. Love this place.