Painting House Exterior in July 2013

Prepped exterior by pressure washing to remove loose paint and 'chalking':

East end

Northeast corner

The finished look with white alkyd latex paint:

Southeast corner

Northeast corner

Northwest corner

Southwest corner

North side-front of house

Our first year's accomplishments on restoring the farm

'Chainsaw Mike' with the first of many brushpiles to come.

My husband and I purchased the 6.5 acres of pasture and farm buildings Thanksgiving week 2011 and have made some noticeable progress during the first year which the photos below show:

Lisa rolling aluminum paint--messy stuff!




Hog barn with new roof tin on South side as of January 2012.




Hog barn with repaired roof and siding on North side; all painted with aluminum paint in February 2012.



Freshly painted 1000 gallon propane tank as of April 2012.



Well House with freshly painted door and trim as of April 2012.



Maggie, the farm dog, 'helping us' work on barn.
 

 

New soffits on south side of house as of June 2012

Farm house has steel siding that was installed during remodel in 1975. Since it is almost 40 years old, the siding needs a paint job. We are planning for that to be our major project for 2013.




New aluminum facia wrap and vinyl soffits in progress on west end of house.

New soffits and facia trim; window trim clad in aluminum for low maintenance.

Aerial photos through the years

A common thing you see in the country is aerial photos of farms.  Various companies will hire photographers to fly over and take photos of farms then send their salespeople out to sell the photos to the farmers.  Here are some photos of our farm taken through the years:

1956 aerial photo taken from the southwest.  You can see the large West barn (that burned in 1966). This photo was before the long finishing hogbarn (where the weaned piglets are finished to market weight) was built on the south side of the silo in 1966 and before the farrowing shed (where sows give birth to their litters of piglets and are kept unil weaned) was built onto the east end of the East barn.

1976 aerial photo taken from the west.  This was shortly after the house was remodeled into a gambrel-style (right side of photo).  The finishing hogbarn is visible south of the red tile silo.  A Morton building hay shed had been built on the old foundation of the West barn.  In the forefront is part of  'the 20' acres which we also owned at that time.

August 2012 aerial photo  taken from the south.  All the pastures and fields look very brown since this was taken during the 2012 severe drought and the corn had already been harvested.  You can see the shiny roofs on the outbuildings that had just been replaced or repainted in 2012.  The east barn is also gone since we had it torn down in the Spring of 2012.  The house is barely visible through the trees.

'Blast from the past' photos

Here are some farm photos from the 1950's and 1960's:

Earl Hininger (Daddy) feeding the cows at the manger of the East barn in January 1954.
 

Lone Hereford cow in muddy barn lot March 1957.

Hereford cows in a muddy barn lot March 1957 next to the West barn (that burned in October 1966).  I still have vivid memories of the Sunday night the barn burned down and not having to go to school on Monday since we had been up almost all night during the fire.  I remember falling asleep on a straw bale in that barn while Mom and Dad were doing chores that evening.; I swear I had nothing to do with it!

Virginia Hininger (Mom) with cows inside barn in 1950's.

Earl Hininger (Daddy) with our Hereford bull in 1960.

Daddy in a rare moment of rest on a Sunday afternoon in 1963.  Barely visible sitting  next to him on the couch is 'Kitten Wicker' the cat.  I was 3 years old when this photo was taken. 

Danny Hininger, my brother, playing with pets probably in late 1950's.  The black dog is Spooky, our Cocker Spaniel.

Missouri Century Farm Recognition and Sign Installation



From left: Patty and Danny Hininger, Virginia Hininger, Mike and Lisa Friedemann

Our family was honored to receive a Missouri Century Farm recognition in August 2012.  This program, sponsored by University of Missouri Extension and Missouri Farm Bureau, recognizes Missouri farms with at least 40 acres that have been owned by the same family for at least 100 years.  We received a sign we plan to place in the front yard of our farm house this fall.

The original 40 acres that initially qualified for the Century Farm program, were purchased by my paternal great-grandfather, Lewis Lisher, in 1901.  There was already a farmhouse on this parcel, part of which was built before the Civil War. He purchased the adjoining 88 acres a few years later.  This 128 acres passed down to his daughter (my paternal grandmother), Ruby Lisher Hininger, then equally to my father and his younger sister upon her premature death when my father was 10 years old. My paternal grandfather, Arthur Hininger, along with my father, Earl Hininger, farmed the land together until the 1950's.  My father purchased his sister's 50% interest in the late 1940's and then moved to the farm house when he married my mother in April 1951.  Upon my fathers' premature death in 1969, the acreage passed to my mother, brother and myself and ag land is still owned jointly by us.  My brother and sister-in-law now own 3.5 acres where they built a house and my husband and I purchased the 6.5 acres where the original farm house, barns and outbuildings sit.  My mother continues to live in the house since 1951.

Update:
At Thanksgiving 2012, Mike installed our Century Farm sign at the farm.  He constructed the frame around the sign from 4x4 treated lumber posts and set them in Quickcrete:

Bringin' down the barn




Barn before demolition-west end

When we acquired the property, the old 1920's haybarn was in such bad shape it could not be restored. We hired some Amish contractors to take it down in March 2012. They took it down in one day and the only tools they used were ropes and crowbars.  




Old manger area -south side




 

Demolition in March 2012:



Half down



Just the north wall left. Former hog farrowing shed remains.



Barn rubble and old straw ready for the bonfire

 

 

 

After the demolition, Mike pushed all the rubble into a pile with a skidloader and we had a large bonfire.

Welcome to our Missouri Century Farm blog!

Soybeans ready for harvest Fall 2011

Welcome to our Missouri Century Farm located in Barton County, Missouri.  The original 40 acre farm was purchased by my great-grandfather, Lewis Lisher, in 1901, qualifying it for the Century Farm designation sponsored by the University of Missouri Extension program.  Another 80 acres was purchased a few years later and these 120 acres were passed down to my grandmother and then to my father, Earl Hininger.  The original farmland and homestead have remained in our family since then.

 Corn field BEFORE the 2012 drought. Stalks were at least 8 ft tall.

Our family farmed this land, as well as several other acres in Barton County, growing row crops such as corn, beans and wheat and raising Hereford beef cattle and Duroc and Chester White hogs until 1984.  Since that time, the farmland has been rented for row crops.

My husband and I purchased the remaining family interest in the house and outbuildings that sit on 6.5 acres of mostly pasture in November 2011. The house and outbuildings had not had much maintenance  over the last 30 years, so most of them were in some state of disrepair when we purchased them.  Our current goal is to preserve all the buildings we can by repairing/painting metal roofs and repainting metal and wooden buildings so they can be used for equipment storage, etc.  The house also needs exterior painting and repair of windows, soffits, facia, etc.

This blog will serve as an online journal of farm memories and our progress as my 'city slicker' husband discovers and I rediscover the joys and challenges of rural life, on a part-time basis for now.



Hog barn in need of roof repair - November 2011