House By The Side Of The Road

    Our Bed and Breakfast opened   August 2006  after  years of planning, decorating, and remodeling.  Our home is situated on 4 1/2 acres.  We’re not doing this to get rich, we’re doing it because we love it ,  and it was on my list of 50 things to do before I  die .  Not everyone gets to  wake up in the morning to the sound of wild turkey, pheasants, morning doves, squirrels, and who knows what else chattering.   When you come in the   entrance to our home you will see a poem :  “Let me live in the house by the side of the road and be a friend of man.”   The view from the second floor balcony is right out of a Grant Wood print: http://www.artunframed.com/images/wood56/4057.jpg

     At this point, we have 80+  apple trees just beginning to produce. In the Fall we will host our 8th annual  music fest in the old barn.   It’s called “Apple Jam”. It is a serendipitous event for the whole family  It starts @ 4 and goes until 9:30-10.  There is an open mike for the first portion , a pot luck supper and  then two husband/wife musical teams  to finish the evening.   The barn is a 100 yr old post and beam structure.  The acoustics in it rock!  We’ve wired the barn to handle a band, lights that dim…  Anyway, if you’re reading this, consider it your personal invitation to come.  Drop me a note and I can give you more details .   Two weeks ago we had an author and her mother stay in the B and B  for two days  . The main suite in the B and B has (in addition to a private bath), a lounge and a second floor balcony.    In closing I’d like to share with you another portion of that poem by Samual Foss:

     There are hermit souls that live withdrawn  In the place of their self-content;  There are souls like stars, that dwell apart, In  a fellow-less firmament;  There are pioneer souls that blaze the paths, where highways never ran- but let me live by the side of the road and be a friend of man.

     Let me live in the house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by-  The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I.  I would not sit in the scorner’s seat, Nor hurl the cynic’s ban- Let me live in the house by the side of the road , And be a friend of man.

     I see from my house by the side of the road, By the side of the highway of life,  the men who press with the ardor of hope, The men who are faint with the strife, But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,  Both parts of an infinite plan- Let me live in a house by the side of the road , And be a friend to man.  …..it goes on, but that’s all I’ll include.   Thanks for reading!