Rebuilding The Story

The Beginning

In 1986, my parents Hildred and Mary Reid purchased 24.7-acre property 2 miles from their home in Hanover Indiana. Dad had begun learning about organic gardening and wanted land to farm. Mom loved to fish and wanted her own private pond. The property had a natural pond, and they decided to make a man-made one too. Dad went on to farm for several years and is considered one of the pioneers of organic produce.

This is jacket and hat that Dad wore when he sold his fresh organic produce at the farmer's market.

This is a jacket Mom made that was one of many craft talents she had.

This was the man-made pond Mom and Dad created. It quickly filled with water and pond stocked with various fish.

My reasons for keeping the property

Friends asked a direct question. What are your plans for the property? Please keep us in mind if you decide to sell the property. I found it incredibly insensitive to ask this question while we were still grieving our parents passing. I understood their reasoning. They wanted to be on the list to purchase an incredible parcel of land for their family.

I heard stories growing up that our family once owned so much property in their small rural town in Georgia that the locals nicknamed of Stephenstown. But our generation has nothing left to claim to ourselves. They sold or lost it all away.I did not want to see the land be turned into commercial or neighborhood development. My parents bought the property less than 2 miles from their home in town. While out there they found quietness and peace. No amount of money can replace that. Period.

While we were executing the Estate Will I was surprised at how low the property was estimated. The explanation was that it was in a flood plain. Since I would not be able to benefit financially it was easier to not consider selling the property. I research into obtaining a government grant to turn into a wetland garden. I wanted to first understand why it was classified as wetlands when I never witness any potential flooding problems after a hard rain. I visited the clerk at the City County Building to get clarification. She explained that in early history there were not instruments to do that in depth analysis on flooding. It most likely had been misclassified and never updated on the records. Uh-huh I thought again about Stephenstown and wondered if it was devalued as a tactic to cheaply acquire the property? I thought about all of this when it was discouraging, and I wanted to give up.

My reason for almost selling the property

Dad owned a Massey Ferguson tractor that we were concerned about leaving in the pole barn two hours from our residence. Fortunately, his friend offered to store it in his barn during the coming winter. As spring approached, he offered to purchase the tractor. I was concerned about how I would transport the tractor back and forth to the property. I was motivated to sell.

Unlike the diligence I showed with finding the real value of the property I did not do any reach on the tractor. I threw out a number and he immediately accepted. When someone is quick to accept the first offer you can sense something was wrong on your behalf. You should be double concerned if the check is expressed to you. I badly underestimated the value. I practically gave it away for a nearly $20,000 loss. I was bothered at first by feeling swindled by my parent's friends. Surely being a seasoned farmer, he knew how much I was off with my offer. I know without a doubt if that was Dad making the deal with his children, he would not have accepted the offer and probably would have presented them with three or four estimates to show them the true value. That is how my family is and that is how we roll.

Selling the tractor also created another problem I should have considered. How would I maintain the property without a tractor and bushhog. I thought it would be easy to hire a farmer to mow the field. But times had changed since I lived there. Farming industry was drying up which meant fewer available farmers.

When spring came the property was quickly being overtaken by weeds and brier bushes. I started getting inundated with phone calls. I was made aware of the town ordinance that required the property to be maintained. They had me worried that I would be fined or worse lose the property. Then I received searing comments from friends. Your parents would be very disappointed in how you have maintained their property. I lived two hours away, had two small children and no resources to address the issue.

What I needed was help and not ridicule. My best buddy helped me place things in perspective. The only hope that my parents would have for the property is that I would enjoy what they had left me. They would have been saddened to know it had become a burden to me. He would remind me that it is only property. It will be there when I am ready.

Early difficulties in the rebuild

Early on I was able to bring a friend home to help me clean out the barn. We emptied a lot of the contents into a dumpster. There were two refrigerators that had been unplugged for months. Neither one of us were about to open the door to see what was inside. When we heaved the refrigerators into the dumpsters we could hear what sounded like a thousand mice scurrying around inside. The unknown about what was in the barn had been solved yet I had to still overcome being there by myself. I indeed grew up in the country but I was not a real outdoors men. It felt dangerous being out there alone. What if hunters mistaken me for a deer? I heard there were coyotes spotted in the area. Would I get mauled? My dad wasn't there to show me the widow makers. He referred to the broken branches that were trapped high up in between the trees. If you disturbed the tree it could drop the branches on you.

The mysterious pole barn

Reid Organic Garden sign was still standing

Notice how no frontal trees. This was before nature started to reclaim its grounds

Ideas for the property started taking shape

The following five years were painstaking to come home. I felt like Lightning McQueen from Cars returning to Radiator Springs after being away enjoying a successful career. It felt abandoned. The entrance sign to the farm was peeling away with only a trace of the letters left that read Reid's Organic Garden. The top plank was hanging on the post by only a couple of rusty nails. I had previous removed the torn discolored plastic that covered his greenhouse and now the doors were coming unhinged. In the weeds the pots where embedded and aligned just if he was preparing for the next planting season.

After repeatedly talking about my dream for the property to whoever would listen, I finally made some 'lets get it done attitude' friends. I rented a brush mower and a trailer and headed south on an early Saturday morning. The three of us took turns running the mower and whacking down the underbrush.

Working through the weeds with rental brush mower

Mowing path to connect the two ponds

Trying to find tune the beautiful smaller pond

I am with my get 'er done friend

Mowing was like uncovering a diamond in the rough

Hit by another F4 tornado

I bought a Dr. Mower after watching an info commercial. Since I did not have a truck to haul it back in forth, I decided to leave it chained in the barn. But I was not able to keep up with mowing the property by myself. Shortly afterward I was back to trying to find someone to mow it for me. I was approached by a farmer looking for a field to grow a cover crop. Since I was not able to buy a tractor to maintain the land I thought if he would keep the front mowed for me, I would allow him to grow wheat on the other side of the woods. He almost immediately called to tell me that he was able to plow the field but had to wait a week to disc it down. I came home that weekend hoping to find a smooth finely tilled field. Instead, it was cleared out but had deep ruts from a plow.

I was disappointed that he had removed the yard hydrants and did not mark where they were connected to the water line. Also, Dad had planted several apple, pear and peach trees that he plowed over along with the weeds. I started getting anxious that I made a mistake. Every time I inquired about the timeline for completing the job he had a reason. It was too wet. It was too hot. Tractor was broken. Too busy. Etc. Finally, I concluded that there was never going to be a time that was right for him to complete the work.

After two years of trying to get the work completed, I finally broke the agreement with him in a letter. I ask that he return the key to the pole barn. I also let him decide if he felt the appropriate thing to do was to restore my property. I went home a few more times hoping to see the job completed. But like I said earlier my family rolls different than most. Nothing was done as I expected. I was back to trying to maintain the field with my Dr. Mower.

So, I invited a friend to help me one weekend. When I opened the barn door the brush mower was gone! Someone had cut the chain and stole the mower. I would hope it was not the farmer, though I never received my key back. It seems strange that there was not a forced entry. I was devastated. I had no means to mow anymore. If I did, I still would not be able to push the mower over the large ruts. My fruit trees gone. The water faucets buried. He caused more destruction than the F4 tornado that went near the property on April 3, 1974.

Initially I was excited to see such a blessing. Now I could see end to end with the property

Thankful the ground was too soft for the plow to get close and ruin the pond

I had a little solace in knowing that there was nothing I could do now. It was impossible to mow

Like erasing everything from a chalkboard

Time to surrender

Every attempt to launch my dream was futile. I did not understand why I had so many ideas and visions but no breakthrough. While it seems so obvious to me how great of an idea it was, nobody bought in. I probably shared the idea with a hundred people, and I was mostly muted. But when I got ready to surrender my dream there would be something I saw or something someone said that kept me soldiering on.

I feel as though with my personality and creativity; God specifically designed this dream for me. But what I had not done was surrender my dream to God. I was trying to make it happen, right now and at my strength. I remembered Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

I began to accept that if it was God's will for me, it will happen on His time and not mine. I stopped soliciting help and seeking a buy in from other people. I tuned out my doubters. I accepted possibility that a letter might arrive from the city, stating that I was in violation of the ordinance and that I was required to mow the property or be fined and possibly lose the property entirely. I waited and I prayed. I prayed not to get ahead of God's plan but continue to prepare for when the opportunity arose.

Mining for treasure

There was yet a glimpse of hope that day I surrendered to God. After filing a police report on the stolen mower, we went back to the property. I did not have a mower to do what I had planned but I managed to chop weeds with a sickle. We discovered that a path had been freshly mowed. We followed that path hoping to find clues about the theft. We heard some rustling in the bushes ahead. There was a man. I introduced myself as the owner of the property and peppered him with questions like a seasoned lawyer. I believed that he knew nothing about the mower. He is the neighbor on the southwest end of the property and also good friends with my best buddy's family.

That is the beauty of a small country town. You are only about 1- or 2-degree separation. He explained that the path was for his kids to walk to their friend's house. By going across the property, they were able to avoid having to walk along the highway. But what was he doing on the property? He had baskets of blackberries! Apparently his mom has been making the family delicious pies for many years from the berries on my property. There must have been at least an acre of blackberries. I thought about how expensive they are to purchase at the store. Dad had never planted a single blueberry seed and yet nature produced such a bountiful crop.

The turning point on a visit home

I started taking less trips home after my mower was stolen. I couldn't bare looking at how overgrown the property had become. I wanted to remember the joy I had bush hogging and helping Dad till the garden. I think about the laughter I watching Mom feed her fish in the pond as if they were in an aquarium bowl. I started sharing my dream and vision with a spiritual mentor that I meet with every other Tuesday. One evening he ask me the question that is always music to my ears. Do you think we can visit your hometown, and you show The Story? That might be one of my most favorite things to do as I mentioned in an earlier writing.

On the two-hour trip south, I tried to tamper his expectations. My vision was not what was the reality. The only things that might come from the trip are some sore knees after tripping on the deep ruts and a body covered with mosquito bites and ticks. We might be chased from the ponds by snakes and maybe even mice in the barn (not fond of those critters either). But he was a country boy and therefore was not fazed by any of my talk.

We walked through the woods to the back side of the property. I pointed towards where the big pond was located. I shared with him on the drive down how my parents had that pond built. He wanted to take a closer look, but I hesitated to move further in the thickets. I was concerned what might not be seen while walking. But I was glad he led the way to the dam on the north side of the pond. I stood on that end for the first time without my parents. I hadn't noticed how much the landscape had changed. The property went from plains to being filled in by trees. Where I use to be able to see end to end now it was more private which made it all the more beautiful.

My spiritual mentor talked me into walking through the tall brush to show him the pond.

Glad I found the courage to explore, it changed everything for me.

Finally, I understood the delay

I finally understood why it had been such a struggle to carry out the vision which I was so certain was given to me by God. I had an ah ha moment. I had a plan for The Story but God had an even better plan. I wanted the field mowed. I wanted to add strategic plants and trees to make it more private and intimate for a getaway feeling. As I looked across the landscape, I realized I had all of that and a lot more. I had no idea that nature would reclaim the land when I left it alone.

It had to go through the ugly phase for new trees and wildflowers and berries to have time to sprout. I would not have had the patience to wait. Certainly I would not have waited nearly two decades for it to mature. I would have spent a lot of resources to keep nearly 20 acres mowed and would have invested a lot on trees and flowers assuming that I had someone to take care of the land during the early stages. I had discovered a crown jewel all because I did not get my way.

Trees hide the pole barn and green house

Earlier years, I dreamed about planting more trees to add privacy to the front property

Instead, God took over while I waited and created a beautiful canvas