Our little corner of the world is located in the north woods of Wisconsin, in beautiful Minocqua, Wisconsin; an unlikely place to be growing lavender. Challenge accepted. This summer has been quite an adventure, with our little agriculture project doing better than we had ever expected, and turning into something a little bigger than we were ready for, but we are taking it all in stride and having a great time. ( I say “we”, but I’m pretty sure it’s just me…I think the hubby and three teenage boys are just glad that we’ve settled in and I have something other than nagging to do.)
But first things first..
This past year or so has been a whirlwind for our family, moving from my sons’ home of 15 years, (an entire 1/4 mile down the road,) and starting over. I spent the last decade forcing my family to live in a constant construction zone, because in true Wilcox fashion, there is nothing I love more than a good “project,” and I’m pretty sure they were a little dismayed to find out it only took me a month to wrap everything up and make the joint look brand new as soon as I knew we were moving out. “And we’ve lived like this for how long ma?…”
Well, guess what….we moved into another GIANT project. I’m not even sure how we ended up here. We had no intentions of moving at the time this all transpired. My youngest son Devan and I had been discussing one night how great it would be to live on a farm. Just for the heck of it, I typed in “farms” on Trulia, and this amazing property, a few driveways down from ours popped up. Not exactly a farm, more of a greenhouse, but totally an amazing, super fantastic, piece of Minocqua history. I remembered seeing the stone barn foundation on my drive home from town every day, and it peaked my interest, so we checked it out.
Formerly Benjamin’s Greenery, and formerly-formerly Bassett’s Greenhouse built in 1935, this property had everything- a bit of acreage, old buildings, a story, junk (one of my other favorite things in life,) and most importantly..projects! I decided right then and there that this would mine. I could not let this place fall into the hands of someone who would not appreciate the rich history, the backache, heartache, the joys that made this house a home. After the lengthy process of purchasing real estate, (mortgages are WAY more involved than I remember from 15 years ago …shout out to my friend and realtor Pat VanHefty for getting it done,) the deed was sealed. Thank you a million times over to the Benjamin family. I know my good fortune derived from their misfortune, and I don’t for a day forget what they have been through. These thoughts drive me to want to breathe new life into this place and keep the memory alive. Sorry about the weeds Donald. I try…..
So here we are. We moved into the old farmhouse in February of 2016. A few walls needed to come down to accommodate our family, but this was a relatively easy job. I gotta say, this house was built to last. The floors are level, the walls are plumb, none of that “fancy fabricating” was required that my dad taught me when working on our first home.
The rest of the grounds were another story. I think I had to sign a waiver for one of the buildings just to get insurance.
Oh yes… a project indeed. This doesn’t quite bring you up to date on our current situation, but more to come…..