Farmstead Chronicles

There is never a dull moment with a toddler! If you don't shut the pantry door ALL THE WAY Noah will get in it. The cereal boxes are on the bottom shelf and he will grab anything he can. Today he grabbed the cereal box and brought it out to show me. I asked Charley to get it from him before it spilled and guess what happened... 3/4 of the box spilled all over the floor.  All I could do was laugh. Charley got the vacuum and cleaned it up, not before Noah stepped on a few of them because the crunching sound was so much fun!!!   Some days I just have to laugh because I know one day I won't have these messes to clean up and my house will be clean (if my husband will keep it that way.) I enjoy this stage of life with him because he will be grown up before I know it. So carry on little buddy...  Wishing you sunny skies and green pastures, McKession  

Charley will be 9 the end of July and I'm calling this her "Summer of Independence." She is such a big helper to everyone, but there are a few things she needs to work on to be more independent. I won't name them as I don't want to embarrass her. They are not life altering skills, just some minutiae things that I think she needs to know. So, as soon as school let out last week we started. I have also started making her do things like unload the dishwasher and put the dishes away. She's already responsible for putting away her own laundry and feeding the dogs each night, but I am adding to the list each week. We have these handy dandy sticky notes that remind her what she needs to do each morning and each evening. This keeps me from repeating myself (and if you know me, you know I hate to repeat myself) 1000x a day. It's a work in progress, but she's only been out of school for 6 days as of this posting.  She does come to the Mercantile a few days a we...

This place, I'm not even sure I have the words to describe what it means to me. In August, 2019 when we opened the doors, I had NO CLUE the impact the people in this community would have on my life. I have raised 2 of my children in this store. Charley went to Kindergarten in 2019, Drake would wash dishes when he got in trouble (it was great punishment, LOL) and sweet Noah was born in December 2021. I know all of my customers look out for my children like they are their own and for that I am eternally grateful!  They are not only my customers, they are my family. If you follow the Middlebrook Mercantile Facebook page you have heard me say that before, but it is so true! I have met so many wonderful people who have impacted my life. I have had to say good-bye to some that felt like Grandparents to me. People come and go in life, this business ebbs and flows like everything else, but in this little village town it hurts a little deeper.  There are days I just want to lock the do...

 I am now officially the "hay widow." My husband will be making hay while the sun shines from now until September if we are fortunate enough. I know so many of my farmer wife friends can relate. You eat dinner in the hay field some nights just so the kids can see Dad, you take care of the house chores and the animals and the kids on your own while he's on a tractor until dark to get all the hay down or up that he can before it rains, because if you want it to rain all  you have to do is mow hay. Works every time.  I love the smell of a fresh cut hay field. It's a beautiful place to go out and talk to God. It's a long, hot, summer day when he comes in sweaty and tired. He loves this and we love him. So I will sacrifice and pick up the slack at home so he can sacrifice time with us to feed the animals this winter. We are grateful.  If any of my farmer wife friends want to get together for a big picnic with a bunch of wild kids this summer, let me know! I'll brin...

  These are the shoes that sit on our front porch... there are ALWAYS shoes (and mud/dirt) on our front porch. When I first moved to the farm about a year after Garrett and I got married, getting used to the mud, and dirt, and dust was a struggle for me! I could dust a piece of furniture and literally 5 minutes later there would be dust on it again. I remember Garrett saying it was because we lived on a dirt road. UGH!  Then there were the shoes, everywhere! They would come in the house and take their shoes off and just leave them right there. It drove me crazy. Almost 11 years later I have gotten more used to the mud, dirt, and dust. The shoes, well they still leave them right here on the front porch most days and inside the front door there is a shoe rack, even though most days they take their shoes off RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT. 😬 I'm ever so grateful for these shoes strung everywhere. It means I have people to take care of and love and who love me back. I hope you all get...

  Tomorrow is the last day of school for Drake and Charley. Drake will be a senior this year 😲🙌, and Charley will be in the 4th grade ( I swear I just sent her to Kindergarten yesterday.) Charley didn't get to finish Kindergarten, it was March 2020 and Covid became a thing. This has been her first "normal" school year. She has LOVED having Mrs. Heizer as her teacher and we are all going to miss her so much! I cannot believe Drake will be a senior either! He cannot wait to be done with school! If I'm being honest, I will be glad when he's done with school also!   So many of my "favorite" village kids will be graduating the 5th grade tomorrow. I wish them all the luck in the world and know they will all do great things! I hope they all know I'll just be a the Mercantile when they need me.  Tripp, Tyler & Sydney will all go to Middle School 😃   Wishing you sunny skies and green pastures, McKession

This is "my church." I came to this church as a pre-teen, when the Pastor now was just the youth pastor then. I loved this church! We lived on the same street as another family that came to this church and I'm sure that's probably how we ended up there also. That family became one of the biggest influences in my life. I loved them! The Thompson's lived at the end of Twin Hill Rd. and had 3 children, twins, David & Danielle and the youngest Cassandra. My sister became friends with Danielle in school and when we discovered we lived just 2 houses up the hill from them, we were at their house all the time! Aron & Karen Thompson became a second home to us. Especially in the summer. Mrs. Thompson drove a transportation car for the school so she was off during the summer with her kids (little did she know my sister and I would also be tagging along for most of the summer fun) she took us to the pool in Greenville at the hotel that smelled like incense a couple ti...

  Two weeks ago my husband, Garrett, had his gallbladder removed in an emergency surgery on a  Sunday afternoon. We had been in the ER since 6:30 a.m. and at about 12:30 p.m. they wheeled him down for surgery. He was in A LOT of pain, even in the days following. We are ending his second week off of work and he's starting to get back to it. He works in corrections and farms on his families farm (where we live.) He would love to farm full-time, but unfortunately that doesn't pay the bills. We have 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl, ages 22(Dylan), 16(Drake), 8(Charley) & 16 months (Noah) at the time of this post. The younger two are ours together, the older two are mine; but Garrett has helped me raise them since they were 7 & 3. I couldn't have gotten through it without him! He doesn't know what it means to "sit still" and while he was recovering from surgery, he was going stir crazy. I'm so grateful he's getting back in the swing of things, it make...

 Hi! I’m McKession, I’m an accidental farm girl who fell in love with this farmer over a decade ago 😮. He has taught me countless things about farm life and livestock. Now, I’m his best farm hand! Come along with me as I show you what our life is like way out here.