10-20-15

Me: After a LOT more cleaning at mom's house in Atlantic we drove to Elk Horn to get mom's haircut. Right before Elk Horn we stopped to view my niece, Dawn's property & project. Dawn (who lives & works in New York City now) bought her home-place farm where she grew up. The old house was in shambles so she & her husband, Thomas had it torn down. They are building a small cabin for their 2 children & Dawn's siblings + their families to use as a gathering place.

On the property is a falling down barn but they are restoring it. It will be beautiful when finished!

Here is the old chicken coop. They are putting a lot of work & money into restoring these buildings & property but I know it was a special place growing up. Dawn is 5 years younger than me & we grew up just a mile from one another. Dawn's parents are my oldest brother, Rod (DesMoines), my sister-in-law, Susan (Sully, IA) and siblings Danielle (Denver), Dana, (Denver) Robby (MO), Daira (DesMoines) & Reggie (DesMoines). Rod & Susan now have 12 grandchildren.

Here's a map to show where things are for me (us) in Iowa…

(A on the map) is my hometown of Elk Horn (pop 500). I went to Elk Horn-Kimballton K-12. Kimballton (pop 300) is 3 miles from Elk Horn & both towns are small Danish Villages. Tourist attractions include a Danish Windmill, Danish Museum & annual Danish Festivals.

(#1 on map): I grew up on this farm until 4th grade. (#2 on map): We moved to this farm in 4th grade. My folks lived & farmed here until 1997. While they lived here my brother, Monte, Emily & their family lived at farm #1 as Monte farmed with my dad.  (C on the map) In 1997 Mom & Dad moved to Atlantic (15 miles from Elk Horn) where my dad grew up. Dad was semi-retired from farming when they moved. But even from Atlantic (pop 10,000) dad spent each day in the field or doing projects on the farm with Monte. My dad passed away in 2000. Monte had already moved to farm #2 a couple years before & he continued farming #1, #2 & #4 as well as other properties & fields. Today Monte & Emily's son, Jacey is a full time farmer with Monte (Jacey graduated last year from college). Jacey lives on farm #4 and he and his finance', Whitney will live here after they are married July 1st, 2016. Farm #3 on map is Dawn & Thomas's property. This farm is a 1/2 mile from Elk Horn & a mile from farm #2. Farm #1 is 1.5 miles from Elk Horn as well as farms #2 & #4. Jacey's farm #4 is actually on the south side of I-80 (oops, error on my map) and 5 miles from Atlantic. For reference Elk Horn & Atlantic are 60 miles from Omaha and 75 miles from Des Moines. (Ok, that was probably confusing & too much info but in case anyone wanted to see how our small towns & farms lay out). :-)