With a Little Help From Our Friends...The Chatsworth Farm Comes Back to Life

Community...at work.

We continue to sludge our way through the grunge, debri, and destruction left behind by the folks who semi-resided on our Chatsworth farm this past year and slowly, we are making headway. In fact, "headway" gathered great speed this past Saturday when a motley crew of relatives and friends came together to make the farm presentable enough for realtor photos. They included sisters Mary (and husband Dave), Peg and Teresa, friends Marty, Will, and Emma, sons Jason and Kyle (with his wife Amanda and baby Easton to spread light and joy) and our granddaughter Nicole.

Last week daughter Raven and our other two grandchildren Allana and Wesley tackled garden weeds while neighbor Duane made the first pass through the front yard with HIS tractor and mower. In between these two groups of helpers, we were offered tons of assistance from other friends and past customers but I could not fathom taking them up on their offers until the grossest leftovers (especially those within our old farmhouse) were carted away by Keith and I.  But, it worked out well this way, as Keith and I were, after two straight weeks of cleaning,  physically tired and emotionally drained. Thus, this Saturday Morning Live group, motivated us again.

These people were amazing.

Will and Marty of the world famous, or at least it should be, Spence Farm, started the day with  heavy equipment, a tractor and pull behind mower. Marty tackled the front two acres of pasture with weeds that were in some places, over eight feet tall. He worked on it all drizzly morning. His son Will worked with me gathering up old fence posts for the metal pile and then he worked alongside Keith and our son Jason pulling out the ridiculous fencing the previous tenants had left, where they had pastured the cows literally up to our back door, blocking off the entire west side of the driveway.

This allowed Jason to mow the backyard and when he was done, except for the multitude of cow pies, it resembled, well... a backyard again.The transformation was made complete by son Kyle who weed wacked the house right down to its brick and pored concrete foundation! Some of the trees allowed to grow alongside the house needed chainsaw action from him as well.

My three sisters and brother-in-law tackled the farmhouse and small garage with vigor. Trash went to the big burn pile, junk went to the dumpster, cobwebs were sent screaming into outerspace and toilets were shining like diamonds when they were done.

I kid you not. The queen of England herself does not have cleaner thrones.

Friend Emma led the brigade against all weedy things in the two raised flower boxes in the yard which two weeks ago could not be seen at all, and she and the sisters freed up three rose bushes also left for dead. And might I say, my sister Teresa with an industrial sized weed wacker in her hands, wresting with shoulder high Comfrey and Horseradish plants, is a frightening sight. This morning two of the three rose bushes had new blooms, just in time for the realtor photos. Sadly the blooms were not big enough to cover up the porch destroyed by the last tenants, but still, their red and yellow colors may soften the blow for prospective buyers.

We listed the house with a realtor today and half our our livestock has now been sold. Our farm equipment is going up on Craigs list and next week we'll tackle barn cleanup. Selling our farm business, and  home via contract for deed turned into a nightmare for us, but with the help of all our friends and family the fog is lifting. Soon, we hope to once again focus primarily on our Poor Farm activities. Soon.

I'll end this post with a few before (we assumed ownership again of the Chatsworth farm ) and after (we hacked away all the weeds and cleared up the debri) photos.

          The front porch

        The shop

        The Wee Garage

       The front pasture    

     The Farm Store