Hannah's Farm Visit - 2010

This is Grandma Folger doing a guest blog post. Hannah spent the last week at our house for a visit. Once Hannah's feet hit the floor in the morning, life on the Folger Farm was not the same. There was continuous motion, questions, snacking, and eating. Grandma and Grandpap used the silence of naptime and bedtime to recover and prepare for the next adventure.

Hannah had many adventures when she visited Grandma & Grandpap Folger at the farm. One of her favorite things to do was to play in the creek. She ate fresh blackberries, caught crawdads, threw rocks, built sand castles, poured water, and just walked in the creek.
"Fearless" is one word that definitely comes to mind when Hannah plays in the creek. The first time she was a little cautious, however that changed very quickly. She would walk off by herself and liked to walk back and forth under the bridge. It didn't bother her at all if she slipped and fell in the water. She wanted to touch a crawdad. Once she found out that they would not hurt her, she proceeded to try to catch them with her bare hands instead of using the cups. Hannah would throw rocks just to see if she could splash herself or Grandma. At times the rocks were "big" ones that required two hands to handle.

Hannah loves the water and went to the Sistersville Pool three separate days. This is a picture of her in the "baby" pool, but she really preferred the big pool. She could not reach the bottom, but she played on the steps, went under the rope, and just grinned the whole time.

Hannah would look for anything to push in the stroller. She put many miles on her little legs pushing this stroller everywhere.

One day Hannah said she was going to "take a rest." She picked up the Garfield book and sat in Grandpap's chair as she "rested." Grandpap has a chair in the TV room and one on the back porch. Hannah kept telling Grandpap "my chair" as she sat in one or the other of them. Hannah also made a daily trip to the swing on the front porch for a little swing.

Hannah helped Grandma make pepperoni rolls one morning. However, she seemed a lot more interested in eating the dough and the cheese than in actually making the rolls.

Grandpap is on the Sistersville Library Board and always gets invited to their summer reading celebrations. Hannah and the gorilla attended the pizza party and the presentation of the story the "The Silly Billies".

Without a doubt, what Hannah liked the most about the farm visit were the two farm cats. She always looked for them first thing in the morning and followed them everywhere. After a day or two the cats started to look for Hannah and go towards her. She was so gentle and loving and gave them some much-needed attention and love.

Hannah the climber just had to sit on Grandpap's tractor. Notice the seat belt. She insisted that she have the seatbelt fastened.

Hannah's final adventure was a ride on the Sistersville Ferry as we headed back to Columbus. Hannah loves boats and could spot even the smallest one on the river. The drive home also included many, many delays for road construction. The slow down or stop in traffic provoked the question, "What cha doin', Grandma" at least a thousand times. Grandpap then teased Hannah by asking her "What cha doin', Hannah" over and over as she giggled. Hannah has definitely become "the question box" and loves to ask questions about anything and everything.

It is such a rewarding and fun-filled experience to spend time with grandchildren. It brings back wonderful memories of our own children growing up on the farm. It is fun to watch the children play with some of the same toys that their parents used to use. Little children have a way of making us laugh more and play with abandon as we turn back the clock of time.