After four long months, creation work began on our future home. It began with unearthing the driveway on March 11, 2013. It was an overcast day on the outside, but inside John’s and my hearts and minds it was a bright and glorious day. Anticipation wasn’t over, but it was at long last on its way to reaching its end.
I don’t know how long the farmland has existed and to my knowledge it never had a name. The farmland has now been named because I have returned to make it my last dwelling place – hopefully – after having been away for just over 31 years. I named it Lee-Hall Farm to honor my parents. Lee is a shortened version of my father’s first name and Hall is my mother’s maiden name.
My parents moved my four siblings and me to the farmland in 1964. I can’t remember the month, but it likely was a summer month, maybe late June after school began its summer break. When we moved there, it was a ~6 acre plot of farmland on Georgetown Road, a couple miles south of Hanover Courthouse. It had few trees and was flat as could be.
Prior to the move to Georgetown Road my family had rented and lived on a very large farm known as Plum Tree Farm off Cold Harbor Road in Mechanicsville, VA. Plum Tree Farm was a sprawling farm with twin ponds separated by a dam. We had all sorts of farm animals. I believe our horses were our favorite of the animals along with one pig named White Boy. We were all saddened to leave Plum Tree Farm, but were anxious to have a home we owned rather than rented. We took three horses with us to Georgetown Road and some chickens, but soon sold them as trails and other riding areas were nonexistent in comparison to Plum Tree Farm and because the land was not conducive to chicken farming.
After selling the animals, the land at Georgetown Road was purely produce farmed. Our crops included tomatoes, peppers, corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, okra, squash, many varieties of beans, potatoes, yams, onions, cabbage, lettuce, winter greens and more. My father also planted a small fruit orchard and grew grapes and berries. In my youth, I never fully realized or appreciated the luxury of being bathed in abundant fresh produce. Because I am a former farm girl, I love fresh produce and am somewhat snobbish about quality.
I left the farmland at Georgetown Road in 1981 when I married. One of my sisters inherited the farmland from my mother upon her death in 1998. With my husband’s death and my sister needing to sell the land, I purchased the farmland in 2010 and have returned to Georgetown Road to make it my new home, a home I will share with my sister and with my new companion, John. Without John’s help, I would not have been able to return in the manner of my wishes. John has provided both moral and financial support as well as has shared my hope for building a retirement home that will accommodate our ever changing physical needs as we advance in years. He now co-owns Lee-Hall Farm with me.
John and I intend to journal the changes made to Lee-Hall Farm from the laying of a new driveway, to the construction of our dream retirement home, to the changes to its landscape. I look forward to becoming a farm old lady, my updated version of farm girl, and to teaching John about farm life. He, however, looks forward to brewing craft beer and enjoying the night’s black rural sky. Our progress can be followed here at leehallfarm.com.
Sign commissioned for Lee-Hall Farm from Danthonia Designs, Australia (www.danthoniadesigns.com/)