| Remembering the Busch Farm Home Look at "This old house" - the old Busch farm home in June 1991, just months before it was replaced with a new home next door. Note the dinner bell just to the right of the house. Nine children were born in this home, and innumerable events in this family's conversation beginning with its construction in 1905. The original house was the two story center, with no attachments. The kitchen, at right, started as a detached cook house on the other side of the home, and was later moved and attached. A bedroom and living room and porch were added to the home in 1927. The house came down in 2000, as part of a family deconstruction project. (See last photo in this album.)  For years, the dinner bell called workers in from the field, the barn, the garden. Doubtless those who see this picture, who heard the bell, can remember its sound in their minds, even today. Photo from September 1986.  North Dakota in winter means snow, and occasional blizzards. Vincent took a photo of Edithe by the evergreen after a heavy snow in the bad winter of 1996-97.  Vincent after a long-ago blizzard. This photo is from one of eight negatives found at the farm in the summer of 2005. Vincent thought that this picture was taken after the great Armistice Day Blizzard of 1941, a deadly and early blizzard in the Midwest. He noted the Army surplus overcoat he was wearing at the time. This would have been before the U.S. entered WWII.  Every farm has its dog. In recent years, the Busch farm dog was Sam (1991-2005), who in this June 2000, photo, is investigating a bird out in a field. Sam 'minded his manners' this time, but was not always quite so gentle with his quarry. His genes were in part a hunter's genes.  Past its prime, but still silent witness to days of old, this sofa-bed is still in storage at the farm. For years it was part of the living room in the old house.  A prime winter activity in a farm home was quilting, including these quilts stuffed with home grown and carded wool. Photo from August 1998, out by the clothesline.  Uncle Vince with Grandpa Busch's old fiddle, October 1992. Grandpa was a farm-fiddler who actually had a band and played country dances in the area. Grandpa was unusual in that he was a trained fiddler, and played from sheet music, rather than improvise as was very common.  For many years, a piano in the living room got a lot of 'exercise.' This piano (photo in 1998) was built in 1917, and was purchased used by the Busch's about 1927. There was never a visit without music at the Busch farm.  Edithe with molded jello, August 1985. Farm tables were for eating, and mostly the produce was home grown or raised.  Church was very important to this Catholic farm family, and St. John's Church in Berlin, which opened ten years after their arrival in 1905, was central to their life. After the church closed, the family saved the Busch and Berning window (Busch misspelled). Photo from August 1998.  In the yard, for many years, continuing to 2006, has stood this statue of the Virgin Mary (July 1992 photo)  A one acre garden, here photo'ed in August 1998, has brought forth riches for many years. Here Vince and Edithe stand near the sweet corn. Unfortunately for the Busch's, there is annual competition for this succulent crop: deer and raccoons are also connoisseurs! Every season is a battle!  Vincent with two of the farm apple crop in September 1997. The farm has several prolific apple trees, with delicious fruits.  A great crop of farm apples, October 2004.  Just a few short miles east of the farm runs the James River, a major mid-continent river. Fishing is an avocation for Vincent, and the park at Grand Rapids, and the dam in LaMoure, are favorite 'fishing holes.' Photo by Edithe Summer 2000  North Dakota is a hunter's paradise, no less for farmers. In this fall, 1996, photo, Br'er Fox couldn't outwit Vince and Sam. Sam stands proudly by!  The descendants of the Busch and Berning families at a reunion in the Grand Rapids park, July 1993. In the background is a school, now a museum, in which Esther Busch taught in the 1930s. At left is the original LaMoure County Court House which has been made into a museum. The county seat was 'snatched' by neighboring LaMoure over 100 years ago.  Requiem for a home: Edithe, Vince and Art Busch stand in the remains of their upstairs rooms as the old farmhouse comes down in the summer of 2000. A crew of family members gave a respectable end to the old house. More Photos! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
