Blog – Page 15 – Cerakko Farm

Cute as can be…here’s Gracie!

July 13, 2015July 14, 2015

We have a new addition and her name is Gracie! This Strawberry Roan Tennessee Walking Horse made her way to us after her former owner passed away and a very kind woman in Northwest Alabama took in his whole herd to find them homes.

The only hiccup was that Gracie arrived at our farm a day early. I was out of town working and, well, hadn’t exactly gotten around to telling Mike we had a new horse. So when the trailer pulled up to deliver her, he was truly fit to be tied (and we won’t even talk about the battery of angry text messages that followed!). But time heals even the foulest of Italian tempers and now we’re all smitten with this sweet little mare. Plus here’s the kicker: it’s Mike D’Avanzo who’s loving on her the most. 😉

Welcome, Gracie, to your “forever home!”

What’s in your nest?

June 1, 2015June 2, 2015

A poignant view on why clutter doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, Dominick Browning’s “In Praise of the Comfort of Clutter.”

“There is a reason we talk about nesting. Next time you are out walking, take a close look at a nest. Nests are full of twigs, bits of fluff, string, moss and bark. Stuff birds take home, and fit to a shape that accommodates their lives. Some birds even press their warm bodies against their stuff as they are making their nests, molding them to the shape of their breasts, so that they feel like…home. A home that is uniquely theirs, and uniquely beloved.”

‘Our Consistently Surprising Alabama’

15 Years, 15 Blessings

Into the Light

Are you a two-sided southerner?

Linus Love

May 14, 2015May 14, 2015

Does it get any sweeter than this?

A Mother’s Gift

May 10, 2015May 11, 2015

Our mom wasn’t one to stand on much ceremony. But she sure surprised Mike and me five years ago when she gave us Papa Brooks’ old farm bell on Mother’s Day. Grandma Brooks used to clang this bell to call our older brothers, Billy and Doug, up from the pond where they were fishing. I remember that big bell vividly, seeing it every time we pulled up to their farm. My little sister Janna and I loved ringing it as loudly as we could, only to be scolded by Grandma or some other adult standing nearby. When our family sold the farm after Papa and Grandma passed away, Mom sent Doug over in secret to retrieve the bell. Little did the rest of us know she kept it out back at our family home in a storage shed for 20 years. And on Mother’s Day 2010 she gave it to us as a gift for our farm. Now every time I look at it I think of her — and often tug on the old rope just to feel the bell reverberate in my ears…and in my heart. Thinking of you this Mother’s Day, Mom. We sure miss you..

(Updated from the original post on May 11, 2010)

15 Years, 15 Blessings

‘country’ girl

Gather ‘Round the Campfire

History.

May 7, 2015May 7, 2015

A beautiful surprise crossed my email today, a post about our grandfather’s family homestead — a place, quite honestly, I hadn’t thought of in years. Yet today there it was, with old black-and-white images staring me in the face…offering tiny glimpses into the log cabin where Forrest C. Brooks (“Papa”) was raised in a family of seven sons. Kolb Farm was restored in the 1960s to preserve the history of The Battle of Kolb’s Farm, which took place during the American Civil War. It is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

“Kolb-Brooks Farm”

Peter Valentine Kolb built this log house in 1836 as four rooms with an open dogtrot (huge by 1836 pioneer standards!), enclosing the dogtrot into a central hall sometime before the Civil War. William Franklin Brooks (1864-1952) and Emma Latimer Brooks (1865-1949) purchased it from the Kolb family and had seven boys (William, Jr., George, Clyde, Glen, Grover, Guy, and Forrest) that lived and grew up on this farm.