Our Second Farmhouse - Running in Circles!

This house was massive - 3,000 to 3,500 square feet - but because of its layout and age, the size did not resemble any grand house of a century ago or even large modern houses.  It was well over a century old but was in 3 parts and each joined in their own haphazard way without any thought to the overall flow.
 
The main entrance was through a side porch that extended along half of one side of the house.  You entered through a screen door that did little to keep the cold and snow out and 5 feet straight across the long but narrow porch from the screen door was a more solid wooden door that led into the kitchen.  This was the only door of the 2 with a lock - a bathroom lock!  I felt really safe and secure...NOT!  I also felt really cold as you could see daylight around the door.  Because the two doors were straight across from each other, the air just blew straight through into the main house.

From the porch, you walked into what was the first addition, added on in the 20's or 30's.  This contained the kitchen and back stairs that led up to an ancient bathroom and 1 bedroom.  The kitchen led into the main hallway of the original house that ended at the main set of stairs.  I always thought that old houses with 2 sets of stairs were so cool as only old houses had back stairs.  I had no idea how much fun kids could have running up one set of stairs and down the other.  Or how many heart attacks I could have worrying about them getting hurt, especially when their selectively-deaf cousins came over (not that my own kids weren't selective!). 

Just in case the two sets of stairs weren't enough fun for the kids, there was more.  When you stepped into the hallway from the kitchen, you had a choice of 3 doors - the one to the right leading to a huge living room that ran the entire length of the original house, the one to the left that led into another huge living room that was equally large and one just ahead and a little to the right that led to the basement.  Straight ahead, the hall ended as there was a closet blocking it, facing the other way.  You had to go through either the room on the left or right, as both rooms had another door.  These doors led to the entrance to the closet, to the main stairs and the front door.  Both of these rooms also had a third door, one leading to the kitchen and the other to the dining room.

So all told, the kids could run in at least 6 circles, counting the 2 sets of basement stairs.  Talk about nuts!  Later, we closed off the door to the old basement steps and just used the newer stairs in the 2nd addition.  That slowed the kids down a bit.  We closed off both doors into the living room on the right and just used the door from the dining room. That slowed them down a lot more.  We took one doorway out of the other large living room to the left and left 2 doorways in so we could turn this room into 2 rooms.  Blocking all these doorways meant that we could no longer get through to the front door or stairs unless we took out the closet.  This gave us a nice, long hallway with lots of light...and really slowed the kids down!

Too many doors.
http://www.craftster.org/

The old stairwell at the back of the Delaney House

http://www.62ndstreet.blogspot.com/

Our Second Farmhouse-Controversial Hedge!

Our second farmhouse had a massive evergreen hedge around it that was at least 10-12 feet high and 6 feet thick.  Even though I'd always wanted to live in the country after having grown up in the city, I still unknowingly approached everything from a city frame of mind.  I should have been thrilled upon seeing this huge windbreak but instead, all I could imagine was lots of flying and creepy-crawling insects, moths, bats, mice, etc.  I really like all of these things...NOT!  And the hedge was dark and looming, blocking the light from the front windows.  And...it had not been looked after for many years.

The first year, I planted the garden behind one section of the hedge.  The next spring, I went to do the same thing and noticed that the hedge had died and turned brown for at least a foot in. A few years before this, when a small evergreen bush that I had planted was dying, my sister-in-law had told me that tiny red spiders were killing it and without chemical spray, it would die for sure.  Well, I didn't use chemical spray, even though it was common and completely legal then.
 
Back to the hedge - within a number of days, it had died at least 6 feet in.  Again, I was not going to use chemicals and we did the only thing we could think of...we pulled it out, that section at least.  We looked at the other section which was at least twice as long, went across the front of the house and turned in an "L" shape to come up to the house.  We decided that we would keep it but cut it down to 3 feet high in order to let some light into the house and front yard and we would do what we could (we knew nothing about hedges, trees or gardening, for that matter.  Only what we stumbled upon!) to let it grow up again a little healthier. When we did this, however, we realized that there was nothing of the hedge left below the 3-foot mark so we took it out, also.

Shortly after all of this, hubby asked the previous owner, who still lived next door, where the septic tank and drilled well was (he never found either!).  While he was at our place looking, he noticed all the hedges gone and freaked!!  He was so mad and did not hesitate to let us know!  We explained about how it was dying...he didn't care.  We then explained about how there was nothing left on the bottom 3 feet.  He stopped, thought for a minute, then said that part was likely his fault because they had stored wood in the bottom 3 feet of the hedges in order to dry it.  Year 'round and for 40 - 50 years.  But he stayed peeved at us forever after that and never forgave us.

For me, it was really hurtful because everwhere I've lived, I've always left everything just as the previous owner had it for up to 5 years, as much as possible, (whether I liked it or not didn't matter)because they usually came back for a visit and I did not want to upset or insult them.  So for me to want to get rid of the hedge was a big deal and I did worry about his reaction.  I certainly did not expect such a strong one!

To some degree, I do understand him, though, because the owner who lived there for the previous year had taken out the white picket fence so that he could drive across the lawn right up to the house.  The white picket fence and the hedge had both been there for decades and I'm sure he (the original owner) was watching the slow disintegration of his life's work!

http://www.nyceducator.com/
The way our hedge should have looked or perhaps the previous owner thought it looked!

http://www.gizmodo.com/
How I REALLY want my hedge to look!

http://www.geograph.org.uk/
This is more like our hedge.
 
Within the next few years after that, we visited the West twice (Saskatchewan) and noticed how many farms had either a windbreak of trees or hedge or a combination of both.  Since I'd grown up in the city and the tall buildings were all the windbreak we needed, I had never spent any time thinking about trees or hedges or their value (even though the nickname for our city was 'The Forest City'.  You'd think something would have registered but no.  In fact, when I would hear 'Forest City', I used to wonder what city they were talking about!  Duh!)

Field windbreak.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/

 An Iowa windbreak (shelterbelt).
http://www.iowapf.org/
I understand a lot better now, why the old guy was so angry with us.  I understand much better what we lost when we took down our already-existing windbreak and I understand better the benefits to pioneer and current homesteaders.  Anything that keeps our houses warmer, keeps the dust and dirt in the fields where it belongs instead of blowing away and possibly provides us with food in the form of berries is ultra important.

Rabbiteye Blueberry hedge that will grow to 8-10 feet.

Raspberries that will grow 4-8 feet.

Thornless Blackberry that will grow up to 6 feet.

http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/
Cranberry that will grow 8-12 feet.

Elderberry bushes are described by wiki as reaching from 9-26 feet.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/
Saskatoon Berries, also known as the Saskatoon, Serviceberry, Sarvisberry, Juneberry and historically as Pigeon Berry can grow up to 26 feet and sometimes 33 feet.  I mistakenly thought that it was named after Saskatoon, Saskatchewan but instead, the city was named after the berry.  They are found in Alaska, western Canada and the western and north central U.S.

The thornier the hedge, the better.  It might not keep out all 4-legged creatures but might help against the 2-legged kind!

http://www.123rf.com/