The Little House

I can't wait to move in!






We bought this little house 16 years ago...almost by accident.

We wanted The Land - twelve acres..and the house was attached to it.

Too small for our sizable family, we bought the house, sold it with two acres, bought it back and rented it....



...over and over again.

And over the years we've grown fond of This Little House.

It is full of history and tradition.

How can it not be full of history when the front parlor was built before the invention of indoor plumbing and electricity?

The basement - a steady 55 degrees winter and summer - was the original root cellar.

I can now use it for wine.

And the upstairs - where the robins nest in the window- is full of nooks and crannies never to be found in modern houses.

Sometime back when, someone added to that original home with the latest new technology - sinks and lightbulbs.

So The Little House now had a kitchen, Master bedroom and a bathroom!



Will wonders never cease!

Later on in years, The Mastin family added a back room for family gatherings but over the years the roof crumbled and tended to leak.

They also added a screened porch - but it fell down.





Luckily we found a great renter last year.

Marilyn has filled our Little House with love - decorating it with the charm it deserves.









China in the cabinet.

Her grandfather's clock on the wall.

Old family photos, antique lamps,

...and a garden out front.




Building on her memory of the Victory gardens of World War II, Marilyn planted vegetables right outside the front door.

Or maybe she is picking up on the new tradition of Obama gardens of fresh produce straight from the soil.





But the Steussy-Williams family has their own traditions of the Little House...

The tree plantings...

...and prairie burnings...





But our best Little House tradition is...

Halloween!




It started with a simple pizza dinner by natural candlelight one Halloween night...

...a reading of the Halloween Tree...

...and a spooky walk through the high autumn grasses by the light of the Harvest moon...

......ending with a scary story under the old hickory tree...

dry leaves rustling in the dark breezes....

..the barking of a dog far away in the night.

Over the years the tradition grew to include friends dressed for spooking the younger kids on the Halloween walk...

...the haunted tractor

...the warm welcoming bonfire...

And now Marilyn is moving out of our Little House.

...and it's time for me to move in.

Kids off to college.
The family is smaller now.

Outside the door we now have 33 acres of tall grass prairie and woods.

We have nesting hawks and trees full of warblers.

I can wake to birdsong and sleep listening for owls.

I can enjoy this land morning through night,
through all four seasons and all kinds of weather.

And, best of all...

...our traditions will continue...