Grandpa's Farm: Part I

We left the raging wildfire at home to hop on a plane and visit my grandparents in Illinois.  We've had the trip planned for a few months now, and at the time we purchased our plane tickets we had no idea that we'd be leaving during a natural disaster of epic proportions.

We flew right over the fire in the airplane, and it looked ominous from the air.

It was my kids first ride on an airplane, and they were excited beyond words.

My grandparents' farm is in the heart of Amish country, and although my grandpa is no longer Amish, he still lives and farms on the same land that my great-grandfather purchased in the 1940's.

He grows corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see.

This old barn was built by my Amish great grandfather in the 1940's.  It was made to hold ear corn, and he built many other barns like this one in the surrounding area.

A tornado came hit my grandpa's farm and destroyed many of the old buildings, but this one stayed standing.

The original house was bulldozed under and my grandpa built a new home when my mom was growing up.  Many of the sheds, shops, and barns on the property are new, but the old barn stands as an iconic reminder of the past.

The clip- clop of horses can be heard throughout the day as the Amish neighbors  and Mennonites on surrounding farms go about their day.  It's so quiet on the farm that you can hear horses approaching from quite a ways away.

It's a neat community because there are farms that use draft horses in the field next to farms that use giant tractors.  It's like stepping back in the past one moment, and then returning to modern agriculture in the next.  I'm glad that there is a place for both types of farming in the area.

From daybreak until dark, we explored the farm and enjoyed the surrounding beauty. My children played so hard that they fell asleep as soon as their little heads hit the pillow.

More To come Tomorrow!