It was almost 55 years ago . . .

 
. . . that I was first introduced to this place which has become so much a part of me. The love of my life was then my fianceé. Ora and Rudolph Fox were my wife’s maternal grandparents. They were married in May of 1912 and farmed their entire lives near Rock Port, Missouri, the county seat of Atchison county, in the far northwest corner of the state. Ora and Rudolph were alive and working when I was first introduced to Fox Farm. They lived in a beautiful, two story farm house that Rudolph himself had wrought from oak and pine, concrete, blood and sweat in the early years of the 20th century. The farm is located seven miles from the Nebraska border and twelve miles from the Iowa border. At one time, the farm consisted of 200 acres of prime land in the east foothills of the Missouri river valley, just at the south edge of the Loess Hills of western Iowa. Until the 1950s, Rudolph Fox farmed those 200 acres with just a team of horses, and human brawn, perseverance and determination. ***** Ora and Rudolph had two children, Donald and Katherine (Kitty). Katherine left the farm to study vocal music at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. It was in Kansas City that Katherine met another refugee from another rural area of Missouri, Len Schibi, who hailed from Pilot Grove in the Missouri Ozark country. Katherine Fox became Kitty Schibi and the mother of two daughters. ***** Rudolph Fox suffered a stroke and died in 1960. His last smile was for his great granddaughter, my eldest daughter, Julie. Ora passed away in 1974, quickly followed by son Donald two years later. Len Schibi died in 1995 and Kitty died in 2000. ***** While Fox Farm crop management is in the capable hands of Kevin and Shelli, for me it is a place where I can live out the remaining years of my life enjoying the beauty of God’s natural world while cutting a little firewood and growing produce in my garden. ***** Though not in the family since 1974, it has been well cared for in the intervening years, the farmhouse that Rudolph built circa 1914 is still standing and just as sound and beautiful as the day Ora and he moved in. I spend most of my days now on the 70 where I, accompanied by my menagerie, enjoy a host of varied activities midst one of the most beautiful settings on the face of God’s earth! Depending on the weather, time of year and/or simply the mood I’m in, one may find me relishing . . . — The pleasure and satisfaction of working in and enjoying the fruits of my garden . . . — breathtaking, panoramic vistas of unparalleled beauty . . . — the most gorgeous, color-filled sunsets I have ever seen — anywhere . . . — Quiet country nights where sleep comes easily to the soft chirping of crickets, — punctuated by the occasional plaintive keen of a coyote on the hill . . . — And as my days on this earth grow short . . . Truly, there is no place on earth that I would rather spend the rest of them than . . . In The Grove at Fox Farm. Click here to return to the “Welcome” pageWelcome.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0