Over the weekend, Karl and I drove down to the metropolis of Toulon, Illinois (population 1,226) to visit his extended family, who we hadn't seen since his grandmother's funeral last fall. The story is pretty neat: Karl's grandparents had a farm- it was a Century farm, meaning that it was in the family for over 100 years. Karl and his cousins all have wonderful childhood memories of holidays on the farm, running wild in the fields and climbing huge mountains of corn (sounds safe, doesn't it?). In the 1990s, his grandparents sold their farm and moved to a house in town. Fast forward to 2011, when the couple who bought the farm sell it to Karl's cousin, Jill, who lovingly moves in with her family and decorates with a lot of the same items her grandparents had owned many years before.
I haven't seen Karl as happy as he was this weekend in a long, long time. He loved every second of being back on that farm, from feeding the chickens to roasting hot dogs over a bonfire to target practice with Uncle Dan.
You can just see someone's beak poking out of the door:
These chickens are serious egg-layers. I collected eleven eggs in the coop one morning- and that's not counting the six we found under a bush that same day!
With Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan at the thrift store where Sue volunteers
In the dining room at the farm! Joe (Jill's husband), Mitchell (Joe's son), cousin Jill, Aunt Sue, Karl, and me!
I'm incredibly thankful that we had the chance to visit, and that Karl's family can look forward to many more get-togethers on the farm!
