Following my dream to the Little Ponderosa
My boyhood in town during the poverty of the Great Depression was a lesson in economy. Living in a four-room shack without utilities like water, electricity or heat created my desire for a dream home. World War II, the G.I. Bill and 37 years as an educator provided funds for reaching my goal at retirement time. My wife, June and retired kindergarten teacher, agreed to the adventure. She also grew up in a Depression home with four rooms and a path.
A song in “Finian’s Rainbow” has a line that tells the heroine to "follow the fellow who follows his dream." June bought into that idea in 1970 soon after we became empty nesters and we agreed to build a new home on the Little Ponderosa. First priorities were selecting the best location for the house and arranging for utilities. We ended up in a cornfield on a low knoll facing the WPA Road with a party line dial phone to be shared with our four neighbors, the phone number of a reputable well digger and REMC electricity.
Digging a well was our only option for water because the neighbors had not signed for the new South Lawrence Water line when it was first installed. The authorities simply allowed the water line to bypass our WPA road. I called the well digger and we soon had a 200 foot well with pure cool water pumped to the house by an electric pump. We sold our Edgewood home at a bargain price of $14,000 and contracted for a new house. Our retreat was in a deep valley two miles from a major highway and 10 miles from our school, but we had burned our bridges and were committed to follow my dream.
This story from Hutch’s Rainbow Bridge is also a lesson on inflation.
Davis Homes completed our new six-room all electric red brick ranch house including a fireplace and septic system for the grand cost of $21,000. June 1971, we hired a van, and legally migrated to the Little Ponderosa with all our worldly goods plus two cats and our Dachshund, Heidi. This was truly a "Green Acres" move. Our new home was located on a quiet county road in a peaceful wooded valley with only three neighbors a half mile away, Daniel Boone would have been proud of us, we now had ‘elbow room’! We had literally moved to greener pastures and it was the beginning of exciting new adventures for two ‘city slickers’ on the isolated WPA Road, RR 6, Mitchell, Indiana with a new mailbox on the road a hundred feet from the house. Dad made no comment against the move because he and June’s dad, Noble had already planted a big garden!
The Edgewood house sold quickly and our large down payment reduced mortgage payment on to $115 a month. Leaving the family home, neighborhood friends in Edgewood was difficult. The 13 years in that house held many memories, including a son-in-law, our first granddaughter and a horse. We were proud owners of a new ranch house with 140 acres of pasture and woods. Like true pioneers we settled down on the Little Ponderosa.
Our new house was definitely isolated, but the cares of the day seemed to fade away when our Chevy climbed Rairden Hill Road and coasted down the curves of WPA Road into our valley hide-a-way. We knew some family members and friends thought we had lost our minds for building a new home in the hills and hollers. Of course, my mother-in-law fully believed I should be committed. There were several exceptions from those who had pets to donate. Eventually, we ended up with several "donated" dogs and cats! A member of the school board donated three ponies as a house-warming gift. I never intended that the Little Ponderosa become a rescue farm, but it turned out that way because of my financial status. I bought my horses at bargain prices from owners who no longer wanted them. Of course the dogs came as strays or from the dog pound. I considered every horse a bargain and every dog a friend.
Horses gave me recreation, relaxation and transportation for checking on cows and fences lines. Dogs provided protection and companionship in return for food and housing. We would have been knee-deep in field mice without our barn and house cats! They gave the love and devotion many people do not take time to provide.
Scrawny dogs and horses were all champions in my eyes and I enjoyed every one of them as valuable additions to the farm. At one time, the free or ‘low cost’ livestock census rose to five dogs, two cats, eight ponies, seven horses and 26 goats. The novelty of owning so many animals faded away as feed bills climbed and we were swamped by the cost of feeding our homeless friends. Our goat herd had grown and cleaned up enough pasture that we decided to sell them and switch to raising cattle.
Luther Kern’s Red Sale Barn, down on the highway, sold us hay and helped dispose of the goats and ponies. The third year, we sailed into a long cold winter with a more economical menagerie. I never sold a horse and it was obvious to relatives and friends that we were horse poor but happy. The goats were replaced with feeder calves roaming the newly fenced fields each spring.
The financial goal was to graze them all summer, sell in the fall and make money. However, there were too many years it did not work out that way. I converted the ski lodge into a tack room for saddles and feed, but we never changed the name. I simply moved in my gear, installed a sturdy hitching post and it was boots and saddles headquarters for the many trail rides horses and I made on trails through the tall trees, the hills and hollers of the Little Ponderosa.
There was very little traffic on the WPA Road for a few years, only one family lived beyond our new little house and it took time to adjust to the stillness and/or hearing new sounds in the valley. Summer twilights were especially enjoyable when quail exchanged shrill bob white whistles in the meadow. Crystal clear nights when you could see every star were very quiet, but we were sometimes serenaded by haunting ‘hoots’ from owls in woods near the house and the screams of a screech owl would send chills up your spine. Howling coyotes hunting deer on hills in the distance also made us glad to be safely in our house until a new day dawned and the sun came streaming through the big trees east of the house.
Our five granddaughters grew up visiting, playing with all the pets and riding horses. Mamaw June prepared hundreds of family dinners for those occasions. Visiting Mamaw and Papaw on the Ponderosa was a treat and although those girls are now scattered across the nation, I know they will always remember fun days with the dogs, cats and horses of the Ponderosa!
The ranch developed into a great place for our retirement years. There were many projects to occupy our time and energy. I later built a large water garden on the rear patio to enhance the ambiance while loafing in the shade. June had her new house and I had my “dream home,” horses and dogs for the many riding trails through the woods and fields. We had all summer to enjoy and adjust to our new life. Dad helped finish mending fences and I brought Blaze from the farm where he had been boarding for several years.
Hutchinson’s seven books sold at the Lawrence County Museum, Stone Cottage, Twelve Months of Christmas, Inklings Bookstore, Smokin’ Jim’s BBQ and the Persimmon Tree Gifts.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Following My Dream
