Saturday, February 21, 2009

Green Acres is the Place to Be

I took these first four photos right after we moved to the farm. It was my first day of working from home back in 2002. I woke up to a beautiful scene at sunrise and took a long walk to start my day. Living in in nature is such an honor. Hardly a day goes by that I don't count my blessing for the beauty in my life.

When I was young one of my favorite TV shows was "Green Acres" starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. If you are not familiar with the show it was about a couple from Park Avenue in New York that move to a small town. Mr. Douglas, the high powered, attorney had a dream of owning a farm and watching his crops grow. They end up buying the old Haney place from Mr. Haney the town's snake oil salesman along with many other items that don't work very well.





One of the Douglas' purchases was their Hoyt Clagwell tractor. It was always breaking down. Here is the "Hoyt Clagwell" we purchased with our farm. This 1964 Ford never did run quite right. Everytime we went to use it something else would break. It literally cost $200.00 everytime we would turn the ingition. Our Hoyt Clagwell didn't last through the first season. It went to live with other tractors of similar vintage. Tractor collecting and tractor shows are very popular in this state.


Back to the old Haney place... When Lisa Douglas needed to use her kitchen appliances she had to use a numbering system. You could plug a #1 in with a #6 but if you added a #7 the fuses would blow. My kitchen has six outlets along the counter but only 3 worked properly. In the summer of 2002 I purchased replacement outlets and misplaced them. I knew I had them somewhere so I could never bring myself to buy more. Well last weekend I cleaned the carpets in my son's old bedroom. Would you believe I found the replacement outlets in his closet? He and I remodeled his bedroom the first summer on the farm and the outlets were mixed in with all the other wiring supplies from that project. I installed them immediately fearing I might lose them again. Now I can plug in my toaster and mixer at the same time!


We have snow here today but I'm dreaming of summer days.








15 comments:

Anonymous said...

YOU LIVE IN HEAVEN!!!!!!!
How beautiful, every single inch of it....sigh. That is what I call LIVING!!
xmichelle

Susan Elliott said...

ahhh, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction and Gilligan's Island...but Green Acres, my dear, is where you're living...ever have an Eva day where you get all glammed up or perhaps you wake up wearing a marabou trimmed robe and slippers?

Jackie's Stitches said...

Your farm is so beautiful! Can't wait to see a picture of the view outside your studio window in the spring!

ArtPropelled said...

Bliss! There's no other word for it.

Lynn Cohen said...

Do you still have that husky? DH had a husky when I met him an he, the dog, had to like me before we could become a couple. Thank goodness he did, like me.

I loved your story and photos Chris.
so lush there. Enjoy your little piece of heaven.

And funny stories so glad you can now plug in two things at once! LOL

Greenmare said...

hey no fair! I thought we had GREEN acres. arr arr arr.
gosh thank you for the lovely pictures!! with all the white stuff outside again, it's very refreshing!!!!

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

Those pictures were so nice on this cold winter day. I was raised on a farm and spent many days walking through the fields and paths with my dog. You have really fresh air I'm sure, something that some people never get to experience.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Chris, your post is precious!! Everything about it is Romantic with a capital R.. We had a tractor like that way back when... they must have been laughing when we drove away with it... never did work and almost killed us!! had a truck like that too..felt sorry when we sold it someone but we warned him first.. he said he only wanted it for the parts.. ..I really don't think they were much good either...

It is magic how a place gets under your skin and captures you.. I understand how you feel... Is it the time in our life that makes this happen?

You live in a most wondrous beautiful place..

The second photo reminds me of an antique English Countryside painting ...


oh and I sure remember Green Acres !

bindu said...

What a lovely, serene place to live! I love the last picture of the red building with the cat and dog.

Sydney said...

It's absolutely beautiful. I can see why you feel so honored each day. Those first two are mesmorizing, but I love the last one too.

em's scrapbag said...

You live in a very beautiful place. Enjoy!

Finn said...

You know I'm bias, but I do think you live in one of the most beautiful places in WI. Your farm valley is gorgeous!! Please allow a couple of points for my bias in saying that *VBS*
Seriously, I'm so very glad you took those pictures. WI has a beauty all its own, and I think it can stand against anywhere else!
Thanks for stopping by and the encouraging comment. Big hugs, Finn

Millie said...

Beautiful pictures. I grew up on a farm, so I just love the picture with the tractor. You are just so lucky. The perfect environment to make quilts and yout jewelry.

rivergardenstudio said...

Oh, what beautiful land... it must be heavenly to live in such a serene place! Roxanne

Lynn Cohen said...

Chris, I just wanted to let you know that I posted your wonderful ATC on my blog today (Saturday).
Thanks again. I love it. So well done and with so many tools and steps taken to achieve a lovely art piece. I am continually amazed at the art that can go into something so small. Your hand stitching is amazing.