Background

  • Background,  Memories from others,  The Gift of People

    TRANSFORMATIONS by Kay Bascom

      For those who have not been to the Swihart Farm, it is unusual to describe.  Most farms are squarish. This farm is on a quarter mile wide strip that spans a half mile (80 acres east and 80 acres west) on each side with a “belt” in the middle – a fairly straight Kitten Creek Road which roughly follows a very crooked Kitten Creek.  When the Swiharts bought the old Fritz farm in l982, there were just a scattering of dilapidated buildings west of the road: a house, barns, and sheds. Transformed now, I picture the geography in terms of a butterfly at rest.  Her body is Kitten Creek…

  • Background

    How to Begin?

    A great invention, those strings that sew shut bags of animal feed!  For years I have fumbled my way from one end of the seam to the other, trying to find the magical string among the bundle that will, with one quick tug, untangle the stitch all the way across the top of the bag.  But it has to be the RIGHT string; no other will work.  And then, voila, the bag is open and the contents are available. In writing the story of the farm, I feel like I am opening that feed sack once again.  How to find the right string?  How do I untie this story so…

  • Background

    What Did I Miss?

    I am sure that I missed it. But I am not sure what it was because I wasn’t looking for it. Oh, yes, I caught some of it, but I diminished it by grumbling, complaining, and wishing for something other. Although, I know I miss much of God’s presence every day of my life, this blog is a reflection on my failures before we moved to the farm. We lived in California temporarily for eleven years, and I was always looking for the escape clause. I was seven months pregnant with my second child when I had my first introduction to the San Fernando Valley. Barb, one of my lifetime…

  • Background

    The Group at the Place by Nancy Swihart

      In those first years we called ourselves “The Group at the Place With a Plan.”  Later we were to incorporate as Wellspring, Incorporated, a 501c3 which was to be active for a number of years. (We have since shut down the corporation, but still call ourselves Wellspring. ) This is the story of what developed from that ragtag group as we formed and then as we followed where the wind of the Spirit led. The hundred and sixty acre farm on Kitten Creek Road which created the backdrop for this book has become a rich community of family and friends.  Many, many people have contributed to the fabric of…

  • Background

    A Sense of Anticipation: Part Two

    When our little family crossed the western states decades ago to replant ourselves in Kansas, we were in great anticipation. Leaving behind friends and memories, we began our journey. We were anticipating that God was going to “set our table” before us, a table of blessing and promise. The scenery had slowly changed from browns to various shades of green. Long fields of yellow wheat gave way to rolling pastures dotted with Black Angus and red Herefords. Fancy, our orange tabby, was all but voiceless by now. Not enjoying his close confinement in the cat carrier, Fancy had been incessantly verbalizing his complaints across the desert and the mountains. After…