Comments on my last post caused a flood of memories to come back about our old house.
As I said , my folks didn't have enough money to build a house on the farm. A house was badly needed because the old house was far too small and it was in very poor condition. My Dad was great at putting things together that would work. Sometimes things he made didn't have much quality but the house was well built except for the foundation.
The house was moved in from another farm . Some of the old house had to be torn down so that there was space to work on the new house. So 2/3 s of the old house was torn down . The one third of the old house that was left was used for Mom and Dad's bedroom and to store all of our clothes.
Okay here's where it gets tricky. There were going to be quite a few workers over the summer and they had to be fed. So all the kitchen stuff was moved into a granary. This would be a 12' by 15' wooden structure that was used for storing grain. So all summer my Mom cooked and served meals in the little building. Now remember , this place did not have running water or electricity. The running water came when I was sent to the well to get water. It was our kitchen and living room for the summer. Sometimes we were stuck in it for a few days when it rained. Part of one wall was taken out so that there was enough light for Mom to work.
Okay , with most of the old house torn down and the kitchen and living room in a small wooden building. What happened to the kids? Of course, Dad had a good plan to get a bedroom for his kids. Yes, you know the little wooden granary. We had our beds out in a grain bin all summer and loved it. We were a rough bunch of kids so some very basic shelter was fine by us.
Many neighbors helped Dad do the work to build the house . The house was ready to move in about Sept . before it got cold. It was nice to have space for everybody. When the furnace was lit on one of the first cold evenings it was very comfortable.
For a ten year old kid it was a very exciting summer.
