Hilltop Farm - Then

If you look closely in this picture, you can see trees in the background with leaves on them. It was October 8, 2007 when the barn burned to the ground. I remember, because it was my husband's birthday. When you look at the trees in front, you notice no leaves. It's because the fire, and the heat from the fire, burnt the trees. They ended up dieing and had to be taken down. Same story with the original house site. There was a small house that used to sit on the hilltop. The previous owners of the land burnt it down. The sad thing is, a lot of trees died in that process and we had to take them down.

It made me sad to see such majestic trees be torn down. But in the shape they were in, they weren't looking so good.
Maybe they secretly wished someone would end their misery!

We did.

Some of the old concrete from the burnt house got buried. And there was a lot of 'muck' in that hole. I remember hearing something about hitting the old septic... And there were a lot of bonfires going on because we had to burn the root balls to these trees. One evening my husband called me and said, "why don't you join me out here. I have a nice fire going. Oh, and by the way, can you bring me something to eat? I had some beer on an empty stomach." (poor thing) As I was getting ready to leave, food in hand, I opened the door and there stood my husband! He had fallen in the hole! It was cold out, he was wet, and I remember something 'mucky' hanging from his ear! He said, "I fell in the %^&* septic hole." Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to take a pic. The next day I went out there and his hat was floating on top of the muck! We got the hole covered quickly.

After covering the hole, we reseeded the muddy hilltop....

and winter came.

Cindy