The homestead, Triple A Farms, the place it all began, or officially I believe we settle on Eagling Farms. My parents farm has gone through a few name changes over the years but it’s always been home. It was a place of solitude and wonder for my two sisters and me. We moved there just before I turned 5 and it still is the place I go back to when I need a little cheering up.
Our earliest records of the farm show the oldest barn standing behind a beautiful Victorian home in 1832 but before that we have no records. The home burnt down at some point and instead of removing it they buried it the yard for us to dig up years later when fixing the well. The old barn would stand until my high school graduation party when my father decided it was a good day to knock it down. In our time it would store my dad’s tools and be home to our chickens after my parents got the wild hair and brought home all the leftover Easter chicks from the local Quality Farm and Fleet one year. 100 chicks later my sister and I had our newest pets including the one that pecked me in the eye and the rooster that would chase my mom around the barn yard. Before that it was grain mill and the marks from the prices could still be found on the walls. When we first moved in it was like a treasure hunt in there finding old bottles and horse harnesses from years gone by.
I don’t know when the new barns were added but they housed all the projects my dad was crazy enough to let us try. From veal calves to steers to pigs to my failed worm farm he never complained, well maybe a little but he never let us give up and he always let us be ourselves. My sister learned how to train her own horse and I started my own small pig farm. My older sister had her own herd of cattle separate from my fathers before she was even 18. We learned hard work, to handle our own money, and not to take no for answer.
My happiest memories are in these barns and on these grounds but so are my saddest. Its where I first ran my own sled dog team but also where all my first team is buried. Its where I halter broke my first steer and where I helped pull my first still born calf. Where I hunted for newborn baby kittens but had to watch my father say goodbye to his childhood horse. It is the place I watched the horse my sister loved beyond measure pass in front of her eyes but also the place I watched an entire neighborhood come together to help when our cattle got a mysterious disease and needed daily shots. The entire community showed up for nightly round up every day without fail no questions asked and that’s the type of place I am glad to call home. A place I am glad has raised me.
These barns have raised me to know a hard day’s work and blisters on my hands, to love unconditionally, and to give generously. There isn’t a lesson I have learned in this life that hasn’t come from these barns in some way or another. I am proud to be barn raised!
Raising Barns will feature at least one new barn or farm every month as well as the story of the people it has helped raised. It’s important to remember the places and people that got us where we are and the things closest to us. As this is a special project of mine no farmer will be charged for there shoot but will have the chance to receive a discounted family session during the farm shoot if they so choose. If you know of a Raising Barn you’d like to nominate please contact me at eaglingam@gmail.com or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MayShinePhotography!
MayShine Photography 