The Job was over, with nothing coming down the road. Well I wasn't hurting for money, yet. You figure even the Gov can't take it all. Sat down and watched the news. Blah NY, blah Ohio, blah Reno. Then they showed a big fire in my home town. I used to work in that factory. It had been empty for awhile they said and suspected arson. I started thinking about "home." I had not been back there in 25 years. Had a Sister back there but we were never close. The Farm where we grew up, had 310 acres and we ran up to 60 head of horses. Allot of work but a lot of fun. Then another memory was triggered about the Farm.! The Buildings dated from 1893 (House and main Barn) up to 1950 for the 3 car garage. The Garage was built onto a tractor shed and a store room, age unknown. The buildings formed a square. The House on the north, Barn on the South, Garage on the west and the tack shed and grainery on the east. This caused massive snow drift's to form in the yard. The driveway was long and lined with poplar trees to act as a snow fence. We sat 2/3 of a mile off the road. When we 1st moved in I got the bedroom to the west and my sister got the one on the east. After 2 days she refused to sleep in the room. Dad moved me into her room and she went into mine. 1st night we got a little wind and the branches scraping against the house kept on waking me up. In the morning, she asked how I slept. I told her and she grabbed my arm and dragged me outside. I looked at the tree and felt a chill, it was at least 10 ft from the bedroom wall. I told Dad and he said he would check it out tonight. We got the night time wind, but no sounds. As soon as he left them room it started up again. I slept down stairs on the couch that night. Dad slept in there for the next week but the sounds never came while he was there. He set traps in the attic, but never caught any mice or rats. As time went on I just got used to it. Little by little we did notice other things about the place. In the basement the floor was cement except for a little "fruit cellar" about 10 x 8. This was a dirt floor. Nobody would go in there. It sucked up any light and gave off a feeling of fear. We also noticed that there were places the 2 dogs would not go. The tractor shed and the store room, they would at times look at them and growl, back away and run. We had a smaller barn out in back of the main Barn. There was a room in there and the dogs would not go in there either. The store room never bothered me much, but the tractor shed was another story. As soon as you walked in you felt like all the woes and misery of the world just jumped into your body. The room in the small barn was a death trap. I had never been in there but we knew it was. The worst problem was the horses. They would not go into the main barn if the doors on the small barn were open. No matter how many times we closed those doors they would always come open somehow. Dad locked those doors, we never really used that small barn anyways. Now horses do form patterns. Go out in the morning and come back at night for water. Too many times they would come flying up the lane at different times and look back at the woods very nervous. We checked out the woods many times and found areas where something very large had lain down, but never saw anything. We never had bears, once in a while a deer, but that was it. The 1st winter was a ball-buster. Snow drifts to the top of the garage. The nights were the worst. The house was old and the wind found every way in. The guest showed up the 1st week in Dec. He would stand there with his hat in his hand and look down at my bed. The 1st time I saw him I was glad I was walking into the room instead of laying in bed and waking up to see him. He was back every year during the 1st week in December. During the 2nd week in Jan the horses would go nuts every night for 2 weeks. This also was repeated every year. We talked to Elmer, the guy we bought the Farm from. He didn't want to answer any questions but after a while he did. He brought out the family album and had me page through it. I spotted the guy on the 3rd page. Elmer asked if I was sure and I told him I was. Well that guy wasn't the dead man. During the winter of 1911 Elmer's uncle died. The snow was so deep they could not get out. So the body laid in my room for a week. The guy that I saw was his brother. The dead guys ghost wasn't there but the ghost of the brother was. We told him about the horses acting funny. He told us that back in 1903 during Jan a Bear was killing the stock. It took 2 weeks to hunt him down. He asked how the dogs acted and he said it was the same way while he was living on the farm, for as long as he could remember. Wow. We have the ghost of a guy who did not die in the house and the ghost of a bear, toss in those weird spots and we had a real mystery. Ok at least we figured out some things. During Jan for the next few years Dad and I swapped nights in the barn to keep the horses calm. Sometimes it didn't work and we could hear something outside banging on the doors trying to get in. I'm glad we put up new, stronger doors. It doesn't matter if you believe in ghosts or not, something was out there banging on the doors.!! By the early 70's the Visits during Jan fell off and in 1973 we didn't set with the horses for the night. I went out to water and feed them one morning. I opened the dutch door and found 2 of them dead. The rest were acting real crazy. I ran back to the house to get my gun. We checked out the barn and all around the out side but didn't find any prints in the snow. No marks on the horses. That was the last encounter we had with what ever it was. I left in 1979. In Jan of 83 it came back. Mom and Dad were coming back from bowling. Getting out of the car Mom thought she saw something by the barn. She did! It let one huge growl and chased them into the house. Dad grabbed the gun and watched the big black thing walk around the house. He put 2 shots into it through the window. It took off running. The next morning they went out side to see. No tracks, no blood, but the gate to the lane was busted like something big hit it with all it's weight. Mom and Dad sold the Farm and moved out here. I hadn't though about that in a long time. Well Why Not. I started to pack and make the trip. Don't know what my reception will be like when I get there but I would like to see the old Farm once more. I drove to Wisconsin, got on old 41 and was driving to town when I got a feeling I should head for the Farm. What the heck. I turned down Cty trunk Z. The area had not changed much. I came up on the drive way and drove up to the house. 1/2 way up I noticed that all the buildings were new. I got out and the man and his wife came out. I told them who I was and that I used to live there. I asked what happened to all the old buildings. The man said they wanted new buildings. I could tell by the wife's look that there was more to it than that. I asked if maybe it was because of the "things" that went on here. The wife asked if I would like to come in for a cup of coffee. Driving back I had time to think about what they went through, what they told me. They cut the tree down but the branches still scraped the house at night. They put a cement floor in the fruit cellar, but no one would go in there and the 2 guys they hired to do the work would not either, so he did it. He was sick for 2 weeks after that and lost his job. They tore down the small barn and planted grass, only weeds would grow where the room was. Tractor shed and store room went next. The last straw was one cold night in January when her Brother come over and something chased him into the field. The husband ran after him and found him dead. They said he died of fright. Place is up for sale but people get a bad feeling about it I guess. All new buildings and 310 acres for only $100,000 is a cheap price.