Homestead Open Space

Homestead Park

               Traveling down a secondary highway, I would pass through farm country.  Urban blight had moved in among the farms and suburbs were being erected.  What had once been open fields were now houses and fences.  This was mostly irrigated truck farms and vegetables and orchards were the primary crops, well no more.  Now the crops were two by sixes and homes. 

               One of the old farm houses next to the roadway had a sign on it saying it was now owned by the county open space parks people.  Gates were closed and locked and there was no sign of life.  So on past I drove.  A few years later I was in the area again and this time when driving past, the gates were open and there were signs of people.  I pulled off and turned into the gate, parking in the lot I ventured forth. 

               Back door of the house was propped open I there were people inside.  Going in, I found one of the park rangers.  The ranger explained to me the history of the homestead and what the county had plans to do with it.  I listened to her talk about the area, and while she was talking some university students walked in.   The ranger said they were volunteers at the homestead and they could guide me around the property.  Going outside the students started chattering about their projects from the summer.   They pointed to the flower patches, chattering away at all their flowers.  Then we got to their garden patch and said next year we are going plant a garden and grow our vegetables.  They listed everything they were going to grow. I was impressed, for their patch was about 4 feet by 6 feet.

               They pointed towards the barn and explained it was an ice barn.  That the farmer would harvest ice from the nearby pond and store it in the barn through the summer.  Then they pointed to a shed and said be careful when going in there, there is a barn owl that lives in there.  I nodded and looked around the grounds at the other buildings and the farm house.  As we were standing there, the students said they had to get back to school for their next class. 

               So I said thanks and goodbye, off they went, leaving me by myself.  I walked over the barn to have a look and it was huge.  It was hard to imagine ice being stacked up in here in blocks to last all summer.  Most of it was still intact, built early 1900.  On the West side was a lower level and here were milking stalls, milk room and feed bunk.  There were about 12 stalls for milking, so made me wonder if they also made ice cream with all the ice.  The other possibility would be, that as they delivered ice, they were also delivering milk, maybe butter and or ice cream.  There were lots of possibilities, then being an ice farm, made it very unique. 

               I wandered around looking at the assorted stuff lying around the grounds.  I then headed for the machine shed to look at the equipment stored in there.  As I turned the corner to walk in, I startled the owl and out he flew, wings a flapping in a hasty furry to get away.  The racket of the owl gave me start as ducked down to keep from being scalped.   It was not the kind of encounter I had wanted, for I had hopes of getting pictures. 

               He circled around a couple of times and saw me standing there.  So off to another shed he went while the stranger continued his snooping.

               I enjoyed my walk around of the old homestead and was happy the park people were going to take care of a piece of history.  Complete homesteads, in their original location, were few and far apart.  Here they were going to preserve an original homestead at its original location. 

               The farmhouse was a classic two story building, front and rear porches.  Kitchen on the backside that lead to a cellar door.  The front door opened into a parlor and back to the eating area by the kitchen.  Stairs went up to the bedrooms.  The outhouse was in back.  There had been no plumbing until later and heat was a parlor stove or the kitchen stove.  It was everything the pioneer settler worked for. 

               Some years later I passed through the area and was going to stop in and see what progress there was.  The gates were locked and there were no signs of any activity.  Things were overgrown, the garden patch was filled with weeds and flowers were brown.  Not sure what had happened, it was like the county had deserted the property. 

               Years after that, I was in a nearby town, so I decided to take a trip out there and see if there were any changes.  As I drove out there, new subdivisions had been built, more farmland had disappeared.  The homestead was almost surrounded by new homes.  No the gates were not open.  The place looked very unkempt and derelict. 

               I have not been back to the area in some years, but hopefully the county got somebody in there to take care of the place and fix it back up.