Ode to my Grandparents, Parents and the Day Family Farm

These buttercups as my grandmother called them were planted up to 100 years ago on a farm my grandparents Charlie Smith and Blondie James Day purchased in 1910 from the Gates family and has been in the family for over 100 years.

Day Family Farm

My grandparents moved into a 2 room log house around 1906 and had a total of 11 children that this farm supported. This is a photo of my son Matthew standing in the upstairs part of the 2 room log house.

2 room log house built in the 1800s

The logs were hand hewn.

The exact construction date of the classic wood frame home house is unknown. My parents brought the home place in 1968.

I played many a game of catch by bouncing a baseball against this chimney.

I remember my granddaddy’s daily walks of the property to check the crops and now know he was just enjoying the beauty.

Walking the fields

I remember the community quiltings in this upstairs room . The women of the community would come together to put the finishing touches of hand sewing the patches as well as catching up with all the community gossip of the day.

Many a child has played on these stairs ….

Hand Made quilts and stairs

As a child and teenager a lot of sweat was created in this old tobacco barn.

There were always plenty of places to explore on these lands with the fields, woods and creek.

The whole farm was one big play ground.

Having grown up and farmed this land in some manner since the age of about 5 when my legs were just long enough to reach the clutch and brake of a Farmall Super A as a hay trailer was loaded to commercially growing more grain on this land in 1 year than my grandfather produced in a lifetime. It will be an eternal grieving process in losing this Day family sacred ground.