We do get questions about our story. In case you’re curious about who we are, and want to know more of the about how we restored a 30-year abandoned farm over the course of eight exciting years, read on!
Our Family
We are a family first. Storybook Farm is the homeplace for our extended family: we all co-own it in a family trust. Scott and Marcia live at the farm permanently. Four of our adult children live either on the farm or within an easy one-hour drive. Scott and I have six children, three of whom are married, with twelve grandchildren so far. God has been very good to us! We enjoy close fellowship with our adult children, most of whom are homeschooling, even as they were homeschooled.
About the Farm Adventure
We purchased Storybook Farm in 2011. It had been abandoned for 30 years at that time, but in previous generations it was the home place of generations of Smiths and Pitsenbergers.
It has seen Indian massacres, Civil War soldiers, and we have been told that there’s an Indian graveyard on the hill behind our farmhouse. It was wild, falling down, and old when we first saw in on a chilly February morning. But we fell in love with it, and moved to it full time after owning it for about a year.
For the first few years in residence, we were busy subduing the land, adding plumbing and wiring to the main farmhouse (and generally renovating it), caring for the elderly parents who lived with us, and welcoming our growing tribe of grandchildren to the farm. The picture, right, is of the house in 2019.
In October of 2011, my daughter was married here on the farm! Many other happy memories have been made in the eight years that we have been living the dream!
We have tried our hands at raising various kinds of livestock along the way (cattle, sheep), and have finally settled on keeping a medium sized herd of Mini Nubian goats (along with some barn cats, our livestock guardian dogs, our Mini-Aussie house dog, and our Eclectic parrot, Echo.). The (somewhat amusing) story of how we came to breed and raise chickens is told here, if you are interested! (We no longer keep chickens.)
We so enjoy sharing the farm with our family and local friends and other visitors (through AirBnB, or direct bookings). We offer herdsharing and classes on how to make various cheeses and/or milk goats and making goat milk soaps) to our guests. We also are both teachers, and we love to share, envision and empower those of you who wish to begin farming with your family. Feel free to email us with questions about how to get your homestead started. We’d love to hear from you: storybook.farm.wv@gmail.com.