Dominion Falls

Chapter One

Sitting here with my coffee, looking out my window. In the early mornings is the best time to watch the sun come up over the hills in the distance. Living on a remote farm out in the middle of nowhere has its challenges but one that I have accepted.

You see my parents died a few years back and I inherited this old farm from them, never even knew it existed until I sat there for the reading of their wills. I never had any brothers or sisters.

It was just my parents and me, my dad worked in a factory as I was growing up and my mom was a housewife, she took care of the home and made sure it was always exactly right, so when my father walked in the door, he was greeted with love.

I always wanted a love like my parents had, but now that I am in my mid-twenties, I don't think it will ever happen. I have come to terms with growing old on my own, even though I always wanted kids and a husband.

Maybe fate thought that I was better on my own, who knows, but I now have this farm that I have been working on for the past year. People in town always talked behind my back, "how can a girl do a man's work?" I would hear them whisper.

It's not like I had any choice, left with a little bit of money and a rundown old farm, I couldn't afford any help. When I arrived, I stood there and saw what I was left with.

The house was an old farmhouse, which had a wraparound porch, a wooden swing that hung by one chain, the windows were broken in some places. The boards were rotting away so you had to be careful where you stepped.

The barns were in just as bad shape and needed a lot of repairs if I was going to make this a working farm again. I knew it would take a few years of nonstop working to get it where I wanted it.

So, once I settled inside, I spent months cleaning and repairing the house, I was going to get this done first before I even worried about the rest of the buildings on the farm.

Looking around a year later as I stood there in my nightgown sipping my coffee, taking in the beauty of the early morning, I had finally finished the house the other day.

I decided once the house was done, I would take a week off for myself and just relax and work out all the sore muscles that had developed over the past year. The house was perfect in my eyes.

The porch was redone so now the old wooden swing with a few new pieces of wood and two new chains was back up to where it would hold your weight and not have to worry about falling or being stuck with a million splinters.

Why my parents let this place go and didn't sell it was beyond me, but this was home now. All I had left was their memories and this old farm that I vowed to them that I would return it to its former glory.

Little did I know how much was going to be involved, the lawyer told me there were a few people interested in buying it, but I declined. This was home, in every way possible now.

I got dressed and headed downstairs to refill my coffee. Every morning as long as the weather was decent, I walked the grounds and took notes so I could organize what needed to be done and figure out the cost.

Out of all my savings and inheritance I have used half of it so far. But I expected that and made sure some was saved so that way I had something to fall back on if needed.

Walking down the stairs I remembered my first time on them, almost broke my leg falling though a floorboard that had rotten away. Luckily, I caught myself in time.

Now every stair had been ripped out and redone, and carpet lined the stairs. There was a total of four rooms on the main floor and three rooms upstairs. Two bedrooms and a bathroom.

On the main floor, there was the kitchen, living room, family room and a pantry that was off of the kitchen. There was a small bathroom also but that was always called a power room for guests.

I doubt I will ever have any guests but that's okay by me, I don't like dealing with fake people or ones that just want something for nothing. I know I inherited that from my father.

My mother was always entertaining her friends, and they were a bunch of gossiping hens as my father called them. That remark always made me laugh, for it fit those women perfectly.

Walking into the kitchen, I opened the curtains, and opened the windows. It was mid-June, so I wanted the cool morning air in the house before the heat took over and it became stuffy.

The kitchen was a moderate size, an island in the middle and on one side sat the stove by itself, and there was a little bit of a counter with a sink in it. The fridge was on the other wall along with a desk and an old telephone.

I didn't have any phone service out here, but I was fine with that. I could pay their astronomical price, but I was too tight with my money. Maybe come fall before the winter hits in case I needed something.

Walking to the barn, I noticed that I needed a new roof, which was going to cost me a ton of money, but I wanted some farm animals, so it had to be done. The walls were still sound which was amazing.

Luckily, the floor was dirt, so I didn't have to worry about new floors, which was a definite plus for me. There was a total of ten stalls, a wash area, and a tack room. The indoor arena looked in fairly good shape.

I inspected everything that I could, I would need to get a guy out here that could check the electrical for me. Needed to make sure it was up to standard, for the lighting plus the security that I would be putting up.

Lights and cameras were going to be going around this farm, I had a habit of not trusting anyone.

After the barn I went to the gate of the first pasture, there was a total of three full size pastures that could hold about ten big farm animals and twenty small animals.

Knowing I wasn't going to have a lot of animals at first, I was good with just the three pastures right now. This farm sat on three hundred acres and most of it was wooded still.

That was one of the things I had done when I moved here was to get it surveyed. It had been so long since anyone was living here, I didn't want people taking the land thinking they could.

I had a company cement markers every hundred feet, and I posted no trespassing signs around also. At least this way eventually I would fence off areas and have the woods cleared if necessary.

I decided to go back into the house and figure out what kind of gardens I wanted to plant, I could tell that back in the day there was at least six gardens for food and there were two in the front of the house that needed a lot of work, but the flowers would be beautiful.