When I was small, before my Grandfather Pierpont had retired from Owens Corning Fiberglass in Newark, we visited the farm one weekend. It was in those first few warm and wonderful days of summer. We suburban kids longed so deeply to feel the grass between our toes. We longed for the touch of the evening breeze on our face, the sun on our heads, the scent of things that grow.  We longed for a ride on the tractor-for a evening with our cane poles on the edge of the quiet …

I never see one of these without thinking of the Farm. Grandpa had an old Ford-Ferguson and, for the last few years, a nice 8N or 9N very, very much like the one in this picture. He was proud of it and always wanted to have implements for it. He wanted a front-end loader, but never got one.
Among other things, this summer, I’m working hard on polishing up my manuscript for a book I have been calling Licking County Farm. It is a collection of stories about family faith …

Lately I have been wearing a “costume” sometimes when I tell stories of my grandfather Pierpont’s farm. I’m working on publishing a collection of these stories soon. It may be an eBook. Grandpa, who died in October of 1980 would never have believed the stories of his humble farm would be told all over the country and published “electronically.”

Seeking a way to comfort families grieving the loss of their loved ones I wrote this story:
There was a boy who always grew deathly ill of carsickness on long trips. It happened especially on the way to his grandparents home when the hills began to roll. He was in such pain, that he would complain to his father;
“Daddy, you have to do something. I think I am going to die. I can’t take it anymore.”
His Daddy wouldn’t say much. He would just keep driving toward the farm. “Well, if …

Purring through the dark on a long trip one night my Dad got to talking. He told me a shocking story about our family. During the depression chickens were mysteriously disappearing from the family farm just north of Chatham, Ohio. Times were hard. Money and food were scarce.
After a number of chickens disappeared they began to realize it was not animals but humans who were spiriting the chickens away in the night.
They formed a plan. The boys took turns out on the back porch each night waiting, shot-gun in …

This is chapter sixteen from my new book Licking County Farm. I releasing this book a chapter at a time and sending the each chapter week-by-week in the Stonebridge Newsletter on Monday mornings. If you would like to read the book, subscribe to the newsletter on the tab to the right above. If you enjoy the book, pray with me that I will find a publisher or agent to get it into the hands of more people.
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Everyone has their heartland and everyone has their heart food. The hills of central …