When we moved here we came with little of nothing. Had sold our charming little home in Grass Valley, California...up in the Sierra Mountains. I loved our first home that was bought, not rented. Large front yard with gigantic cedar and pine trees at the far edge near the white picket fence. The driveway was lined with these huge trees that had ivy growing around the trunks. I remember looking out the living room window and watching the squirrels jump from bough to bough or run along the picket fence.
Grass Valley was unique. An old gold mining town where the 49ers came to make their fortunes and the famous Lola Montez lived there with her pet bear and she sang, danced and entertained people from there to San Francisco. I loved the old Victorian looking homes and history of the place. I also loved the serenity, the mountains and trees, pine cones and pine needles, the people. It was paradise.
One day when I had just had my third son and child, Ned came to me and said that he and his older brother heard about the Columbia Basin near a town called Moses Lake in Washington State. Okay, I am an Oregonian, then a Californian and now he wanted me to become a Washingtonian!! He wanted to become a farmer. He was raised on a small farm and he missed the sights, the sounds, the smells. I, the good and loving wife, saw him off to his adventure north. He came home several days later, happy as can be. He found a farm. His brother found another farm. His brother and family moved in November and settled on Stratford Road out of Moses Lake. We had to wait until the very first of March. Now Ned's brother...Jim is his name, told his wife Charlotte that they were moving into a basement home. No top to it except a roof but they would be living below the ground for awhile. He lied. They had a very nice home with huge rooms and a wonderful kitchen...the date they moved was 1965.
Ned told me about our farm...6 miles from his brothers. He told me we were going to move into a garage. I gulped, but then something told me he was fibbing just as his brother Jim had fibbed to his wife about a "basement" home. About March 2nd we left...having paid $3700 down on the farm...and made our way to our new way of life with three very young sons. We arrived about 1:00 am in the morning on the 3rd...straight driving with the car, the old pickup, the old truck (two friends of Ned's helped in the driving) with our accumulation of 6 years of marriage and 3 little boys. We were tired but excited. We slept at Jim's for a few hours and then Ned and our oldest (4 and 1/2 yrs. old) son came over to our farm. My sister-in-law took me and the two youngest boys over a little later to our farm. I just knew I was going to have a house to live in.
What can I say? It was a garage! It was bad! It has been converted into living quarters with three thicknesses of linoleum on the floor!!! One cupboard in the kitchen. Only door was the front door and one on the tiny bathroom. My oldest son, who had come over with his father, came around a corner and was crying. He blurted out, "I don't like this house." Neither did I, but I did not tell him that. Instead it was, "oh you just watch...when we get the curtains up ,(windows were only in two areas..one side of the garage and on the other side of the garage...measuring about 2 1/2 feet high by 5 feet wide) put pictures on the wall and fix up your bed, it will be home." I think I was trying to convince myself.
Eight years later with six children, we moved into our present home. Lots of changes, adjustments and growth came into our lives. We often wondered what we would have been like as people had we stayed in our little paradise in California. We can only know what life has been like because we came here.
The children grew up learning to work, to run all kinds of equipment, to appreciate the land and God's hand in it, to learn to be a team, to have fun on the farm. The children learned to appreciate what they had and did not ask for more. We had financial struggles...a pound of hamburger went to feed all 8 most of the time. We coped with harsh winters, dead cattle, failed crops, broken down equipment, injuries, heartache and heartbreak.
We also had unbelievable blessings. One of those is that all six of our children are very active in our church, are raising their children in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; our children work hard, are responsible, and are teaching their children values that they learned because of the farm, of having struggles, of weathering the storms of life. We all learned that when you get knocked down by the adverse happenings that you pick yourself up and you do not quit!! We call it the "bouncing ball" syndrome. We still experience it at times. We got knocked down but we learned to bounce like a ball and just keep at keeping on.
Why am I telling you all this...I could tell you more believe me...I should write a book...I am telling you this because we finally after 45 years reached our goal.
THE FARM IS OURS. IT IS PAID FOR. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE THE BIGGEST CELEBRATION PARTY. FINALLY THE LAST PAYMENT HAS BEEN MADE.
We are old now...we came as 25 and 26 year old energetic, ambitious, naive youngsters....we are in our 70's. We still "bounce"....we keep our sense of humor...and we have had the wonderful blessing of having our children and grandchildren nearby.
