Farm Horizons
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Dec. 5, 2016
clean.
“I remember our dad always needed to have the barn
looking just right – spotless, we had to have the barn
spotless,” Cindy said.
“[Our uncles] Butch and Paulie used to say [our dad]
had the cleanest barn around,” Sandy added.
The house
According to David, the farm had about 160 acres
when the Lachermeiers lived there. Now, the property
includes about 99 acres, which has been used to farm
corn.
When the Lachermeiers first moved into the farm,
Sharon was just in sixth grade.
“We came out there and there was no bathroom inside
– [we had] an outhouse. We had no running water, we
had the pump in the kitchen, and then we had to take
baths in little washtubs in the living room in front of the
stove,” Sharon said. “Our house was cold because all
they heated it with was the stove.”
The house has still retained some of its beautiful
woodwork, though other parts of the house have worn
down over time.
“At that time, our house was considered high-end,”
Cindy said. “It had all of the decorative woodwork and
rounded windows.”
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After the land was auctioned off, the Lachermeier
kids asked Barfknecht if they could walk through the
house.
“When we went out there, now [the house] seems so
small, but when we were smaller, it seemed so big,” Sue
said.
Each one of them also got to take a memento back
with them.
“We asked [Barfknecht]
Barfknecht] if we could go in and take
Barfknecht
some thing for memories, and he said to go ahead,”
Cindy said.
Cindy took a register cover from one of the rooms,
which she plans to use as a frame for a black-and-white
photo of the house. David had a similar idea – he plans
to use a piece he removed from the built-in cabinets in
the home as a frame for a black-and-white photo of the
house. Sandy took the portion of a bedroom door that
she had painted flowers on.
The Lachermeiers expressed that it was neat to see the
house, and some of the little details they remembered
from it during their childhood – their names scrawled
in the wallpaper, their old playroom, and pretty flowers
Sandy had painted on one of the bedroom doors.
“It was fun to see our names on the walls, and go
through there,” Sue said. n