Verlon was back from Virginia during July of 2007. In addition to painting our house and other "home maintenance" chores, we went out north of Garland to visit our old farm. This farm was a couple miles from the Vrana farm where I "grew-up" and we had rented it for a few years during the 40's. We then bought it at a foreclosure auction in 1956 and began a renovation process. Our objective was to seed it to native grass and put it in the Federal Conservation Reserve Program. The first step was having a conservation plan installed with it all terraced and grassed waterways developed. Then we seeded the whole farm to a mixture of warm season native grasses.
We planted Multifloria Rose for wildlife and also Red Cedars near an area where we planned to build a dam. It took a couple years of spraying and clipping weeds but eventually the grass took over and it required little attention. Meanwhile we were transferred back to Washington, D.C. and sold the farm in the early 70's. This is background information for Verlon and my visit and walking over the farm in 2007. Here is what the Red Cedars look like after Verlon helped plant them as a little kid. None of the grass has been plowed and it is still in good condition. A future owner went ahead with building a dam in a bit different location than we planned, but it provides water for the cattle that spend the summer there. Our walk brought back a lot of happy memories and some frustration. (Incidently, the picture on my blog page of me with a couple of the kids, was taken on this farm as the native grass got established)
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