old homesteads

    Have you ever driven past an old homestead in the middle of nowhere and wondered who lived there? What kind of life those people must have had? Here in Montana I do this a lot. I want to explore those old homes. I sometimes stop and imagine what it would have been like. Sometimes I make up a whole life for the people that once lived there. If I know the person who owns the property, I get permission to tour the place and peek through the windows and admire the layout of the home.

     I imagine the colors of the walls throughout the years, and wonder if maybe they hung sheets for color. There is a place in the middle of a cow pasture in Ingomar, MT that makes my heart flutter. It is a wonderful little 2 bedroom home, with the wood cook stove still in it. I love to go out there and just admire the home. I can feel the love and care that went into making it the perfect place for a wife and children. I wonder what the wife must have felt as the husband showed her for the first time the home he built for them. I feel the growing love and laughter as the children were born, and the sadness as maybe a loved one was lost.

    When I pull up to that beautiful little homestead I always notice the door. The peeling whitewash against the grey of the cabin wood inspires me. It inspires my creativity and imagination. I can see it in my mind as clear as if I was there. The beautiful newly painted white door against the cabin wood. The white washed window frames and shutters. All of it would make my heart flutter with love. I would stand there in awe and I don't know if I would ever be able to love a home more than the one my husband put so much time and love into making ours.

    If I close my eyes I can smell the burning of the cook stove fire and baking bread. I can hear the laughter of little girls as they play with their pretty little dolls. Sitting there in their bonnets and and pinafores laughing the night away. The mother pulling on her apron in the kitchen area to get dinner started, as the father is out in the field cutting hay. I can hear the faint moo of a mother cow calling to her calf that wandered to far away.
    What a life they must have had. Not much money or luxuries, but a life filled with love and hard work. I wonder what they would think of our world now. The world they worked so hard to give their children and grandchildren. Would our ancestors be happy with what the world has achieved? or would they want to go home to the love filled rooms and do hard work?

    I can only imagine what they would feel, but I know what I feel. I long for the quiet nights with mooing cows lulling me to sleep. I long for the simplicity of the cabin with the bright white door against the grey aging wood. The home a husband so lovingly created  for me to raise our children in.  Those homesteads mean something to me. Deep in my heart I will always long to have what they had. What do you long for? what kind of things inspire you and make your heart flutter?