Hammerstead Farms


 Honoring Our Ancestors, Honoring Our Land


 Hammer Running in the South Pasture

Owning a farm has been a dream of ours since well before we ever saw it. Both of us grew up on or around farms - our parents, grandparents and on back as far as we can see were folk of the land - farmers and herdsmen. And though we've spent a good deal of our lives in the technology sector (and we still have our hosting and programming company), the time has come to return to our roots.

This is not a sales page for our products or livestock - That's over at hammerstead.com. Rather, this page celebrates our farm - our land, our animals and our heritage as people of the earth.

 

When the property became available through an estate sale, Dave immediately jumped at the opportunity. He closed on the property on August 1st, 2002 and finally moved in just in time for Mother Night, December 20th, 2002. We have 12 acres - ten in pasture with the remainder being taken up by house, yard and barn lot. We have a huge barn, which formerly housed a dairy operation many, many years ago. The barn, according to our contractor was built before 1850 - most of the framing timbers are hand-hewn.

The smaller building was a originally a 'drive though' corn crib - you'd take your wagon in and out the ends, and toss the corn into the bins on either side. There was a machine shed added to it sometime in the past. This building was probably built betwen 1850 and 1870, and was moved from what is now a neighbors field to the west to it's current location, and set on a new foundation. This building will eventually be used as a hof, or a temple. The machine shed will be removed to make a large covered 'porch' off the east side of the building.

There's an old garage, of course - totally unremarkable, but very serviceable. And then there's the house ...

The house was built in 1912. It was quite something, too. Cedar floors, native hardwood joists. But by the time we got here it had certainly seen it's better days. The previous owner, Mr. Harold ["Honk"] Dahoney, died in December of 2001 at age 102. He was an altogether remarkable man (about whom I hope to have more to say at a later date) who'd actively farmed the property until age 95. But his health was failing and he was placed in a residential care facility in Lebanon, IN in December of 1998. In those three years the house had sat virtually untended. The yard was maintained, and the fields were rented out, but everything else just slowly decayed.

 It took a month just to get to the point where a contractor could be hired.

The roof was replaced, all the windows, the furnace, the plumbing, the kitchen, the bathroom and all the floors. Things were painted and scraped and cut and hammered. The barn was painted and the roof was sealed. Two new stalls were built and cleared the hay mow of nearly a ton of forty year old straw. There's still plenty of work to be done - mostly fencing!

Here's some photo's:

 
The Barn Lot, looking southeast. (December, 2002)


Sheep in the fog (April, 2003)

 
Hammer checks out a new arrival.. (April, 2003)

 
A Wille in the snow. (February, 2003)

 
A Hammer in the snow ... (February, 2003)

 
Looking west in winter. (March, 2003)

 
The east pasture in spring. (April, 2003)

 
The "Dolly" Llama.... (April, 2003)

 
Mauve, the first Highland heifer (May, 2003)

 
Tup, a Scottish Blackfaced ram (May, 2003)