Place Bound - Pros and Cons

Place Bound - Pros and Cons

What are the pros and cons of living your whole life in one place?  North American Indian Tribes moved about seeking food sources.  Many tribes did, however, roam seasonally within a small area. When the Europeans settled the Midwest they purchased land or homesteaded a farm.  Through the 1800s and into the early 1900s those settlers, and most of their kids and grand-kids lived on or near the original farm.  Of course that changed with the migration of farm workers to the cities for factory jobs.  Today families are scattered all over the world but connected with their electronic gadgets.

Overhiser Orchards is the home for a family that is an exceptions to that migration pattern.  The families of five generations have lived and worked at the farm starting in 1863.  Rural farm living can be very satisfying.  Within your community you know everyone and can help and be helped by neighbors.  Your land becomes as much a part of your total being as your family.  You know the hills, valleys, soil, drainage, air flow, trees, wildlife, wildflowers and how the seasonal changes impact your crops.  Certain places can invoke fond or not so fond memories.  I have fond memories of the land I lived on while growing up.  Think of some of the places you have lived the kindle fond memories.  Thanks be to God for this good earth upon which we can stay in one place or move about. 

When Henry settled the original farm he set the house on the top of the maple covered ridge that overlooked the road to the south.  Today the five teenage Overhiser kids have a basketball court on the original home site.  Backtracking in history, this one spot on this good earth has supported the following uses:

• Presently a basketball court
• Mobile home parking  site for Allan and Kim
• Location of Grandpa Bill's shuffleboard court
• Home site for William and Edna family until the house burned in 1927
• Home of William Albert and Daisy family until the death of William Albert in 1915
• Home of Henry and Sarah family from 1863 until William Albert and first wife Alta May lived in the house.
• Pre-1863 Maple forest and home of wild amimals that were hunted by the indians of the area.
• Before the trees the terrain was shaped by the ice age and the melting of the glaciers.

Thanksgiving at the Farm - 2012
The birds have been killed and dressed.  The farm is all warped up for winter.  Allan and Kim are down for a long winter nap with visions of next years fruit dancing in their heads.  One need to go back to 1945 to find a comparable year for crop loss.  This is the worst lost Allan can remember in his 52 years.  The fruit trees, however, have survived the spring freezes and summer drougth so should be producing fruit this next year, God willing.

2012 was a good year for growing kids.  Here is the roster: Aaron is 6' - 3" and will be 16 on December 9.  Kelsy, Kortny, Alex and Adam will be 15 this next May 13.  Aaron plays on the varsity basketball team and the other kids are also playing basketball this winter.