Apr 28, 2017

What is a Farmhouse?


Farm.house--noun--A house attached to a farm, especially the main house in which the farmer lives.
farmhouse is a building that serves as the primary residence in a rural or agricultural setting. Historically, farmhouses were often combined with space for animals called a house barn.



Farmhouse Home Types. Farmhouse is a term used more often to describe function. Very simply put, homes built on agricultural lands were called farmhouses. They were built out of necessity -- to house and protect the inhabitants who either owned or worked the farm.



What defines a farm house?

The most prominent characteristic of a 
farmhouse plan is a porch that stretches along the front of the home and may wrap around to the side or rear. A steeply pitched roof typically runs along the length of the home and is sometimes accented by dormers and gables. ... Wraparound porch.

Most Colonial home plans offer ease of construction, with square or rectangular footprints, symmetrical massing, and side-gabled or hipped roofs. Colonial house plans are typically two stories high and are warmed by central or end chimneys.

A Farm is an area of land where livestock (animals) are raised and crops (plants) are grown for use as food, fiber, and fuel.  The people who own and work on the farm are called farmers.  A farm usually has buildings where equipment such as tractors and supplies are stored.





We have a few chickens to provide us with farm fresh eggs and a Great Pyrenees to keep them alive and well. He's also pretty good as a watch dog and can let himself out of the pen at any given time.  He is a brilliant, protective, guard, and yet loving dog. This breed of dog is a must for farm animal safety.

I've always wanted a milk cow and some goats.  I could also see the fields surrounding us fenced in white with a horse barn sitting on property with horses running free.  Yes, a dream of mine.

Let's see we have the farmhouse that sits on family farmland that has been in the family for well over a hundred years. The fields that surround the house are farmed. We both have had grandparents that made their living as farmers, so we've been raised around farming our entire lives.




We grow some of our vegetables and fruits out here.  Maybe not as much as we used to grow but find local farmers and buy the best we can from them what we don't grow.




I have a strawberry patch that provides a small crop of the fruit that I love!  We have a few surviving fruit trees that are young but hopefully will give us some delicious fruit. Our grapevines have already given us many grapes for use in juices, jams etc.


Delicious!

While Chuck and I are not farmers by even our definition we are what I'll call us hobby farmers--hob.by farm noun a small farm operated for pleasure or supplemental income rather than for primary income.

I can remember walking the old farm road, currently our driveway, with my sister Gwen. We walked it barefoot because it brought to mind walking on our granddaddy's farm as children. We talked about if I would be able to like living out here in what we and others call the middle of nowhere, Chuck's boys call the sticks.  We also thought about how far it is from the shopping and other areas we would need to go.

The family ties Chuck has, my love of simple country living and the fond memories it brought to mind, were enough for she and I to want this home built here.

Where else can you look out of your window and see bobcats, otters, groundhogs, opossums, coyotes, birds of many varieties, bunnies gnawing at your new porch paint? (ugh but love bunnies). The most beautiful sunrises, sunsets, huge moon and so many stars can be seen here.

Out here in the 'sticks', as the boys call it, is/has been one of the most pleasurable places I've lived.


Talk to you soon with more farm talk.
Until then I'll leave you today with some sights and sounds around here.







3 comments:

  1. I love that you are on family land, Dolly. It is a precious place you have there. I went back by my grandmother's old homestead when I went home last year and it was really bittersweet. The last 72 acres of our family farm was sold this past winter and my heart aches just a bit to think that I can never really go home again. You are blessed to be able to be connected to the land like you are now. xo Diana

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    1. Oh Diana, It saddens me that you can never really go home again.  I would hope that if you get by there the new owners would let you go up there. Yes bittersweet. You're right we are blessed and it makes Chuck's heart overflow to be here where he was born. xo Dolly

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