Our chapter in a very long story

This story began in the winter of 1776. Washington (yes, General George Washington) had captured Hessian soldiers at Trenton on December 26th. These mercenary soldiers who had been fighting for the British were marched to the Shenandoah Valley for internment. It is during this time that they built several homes from the local stone. (history provided by current owners)

Our family has been blessed to live in one of those houses for the past year.

In the 1800's a building that had been a town tavern was brought to the farm and added to the back of the house. Decades and decades of updates have resulted in this kitchen and a great dining room:

One of our favorite parts of the house was the library. Our homeschool books and family albums filled the shelves. The ladder was so much fun, until it wasn't. From the computer in this room, many blog post were written.

As you walk down the staircase in the house, the treads are all worn down. So many times, we've wondered who has lived here and what their lives were like.

Actually, as we were moving out last week, a family stopped by. The husband had lived in the house in the 1970's, proposed to his wife on the hilltop, and they wanted to show their children the place they had heard about for years. History is so interesting.

Our stay here was just a year, yet it was such a blessing. We completed our first year of farming, gardened for the first time, practiced reading, writing, arithmatic, and learned just how expensive it can be to heat an old house during a cold winter. It was a wonderful place to dwell.