The Warren D. Neal farm, Madison County, Iowa, four miles south of Dexter. Old Creamery Road is along the right side, with a tiny red flag on the rural mailbox.
I stitched the needlepoint in 1976 for Dad, who built the house between about 1961 and 1963. Artistic license: Lilacs are blooming, corn tasseled, and the pumpkins are ripe. We still lived in Colorado, so I plotted everything from photos.
It sits where my childhood house was, so everything else is very familiar. The upper part of the granary is where I caught a mouse but it bit my finger as I climbed down. I haven’t been fond of mice since then.
Sis Gloria and I helped pull “square” bales of hay off the elevator in the haymow which faced the house. We also played with Minnie and her kittens in there.
Dad built the house from 1961-1964. 1971 - the garage 1953 - granery 1973 - hoghouse on granery 1968 - wooden gravity wagon 1952 - hog shed 1964 - farrowing house 1960-1963 - grain bins
Dudley, my sister’s cat, the only “farm animal,” is on the porch.
The two-bedroom house has cement floors, except in the kitchen. Underneath the kitchen is the old cellar with steps leading down to it from a utility room. The cellar doors on the old house were below the kitchen windows, outside to the south.
There’s no furnace. Electrical heat radiates from the ceilings in each room. Above is an unfinished attic. Now my sister lives in the house, which she had painted white.
The basic needlepoint stitch seemed hard on my hands, so that hobby didn’t last as long as most of the others. Does anyone do needlepoint anymore?