I come from a little brood of 2 kids. Merle comes from a major tribe of 7 kids, all boys, by the way. I can only imagine. . . well, no, I really can’t.

The photo above is from the early years on the farm when the 7 brothers lined up to sing, which they always like to do. Merle is second from left.

Anyway, both kinds of families have their own particular advantages, and how lucky am I to have a toe in each!

A good many years ago, when Merle’s folks were still living on their farm but were starting to slow down a little, somebody in the family got a Christmas gift idea for them. Instead of giving them stuff when they were clearly starting to slim down their household, we decided to do fix-up projects around the homestead. Things they weren’t getting done or needed to hire people to do: painting, cleaning out the shop, fixing spouting, repairing mortar in the little stone smokehouse. . . those kinds of projects. Here we are in those early years painting the corn barn.
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