This 'n That from Lightning Rod Farm and Natural Area

Lightning Rod Farm and Natural Area is located in Ritchie County West Virginia.  This site is dedicated to the things that interest us, our  family and friends.   As we will share these interests and we hope you will find something to enjoy here too. 

Lightning Rod Farm features a 1920's Craftsman Bungalow, two very old barns, and a church that was built in the mid 1800's.   We live in the house, entertain in the "Old Church" and store "stuff" in the "Old Barns".

Bethune Associates, a consulting engineering firm specializing in litigation support, is also an integral part of life at Lightning Rod Farm.

Guess you might like to know how we ended up here.  Life for us at Lightning Rod Farm began  in the Spring of 1997.  It came about because we decided to "drop out", not in the true since, but we decided to slow down.  You see we were living in the Washington DC area, traveling the Beltway everyday to jobs.  We left the house every morning before the sun came up and got home after it had gone down.  It paid the bills but gave us an existence that was far from rewarding. 

One night we decided we would try to find 10 to 20 acres.  Now how we thought we would continue to work and keep up 10 to 20 acres I don't know, but we wanted to give it a try.  Well you should have seen some of the property that we looked at that was in our price range.  Fixer up does not cover it.  So we expanded our search  using the Internet.  West Virginia offered affordable property be we could not find what we wanted until one day our agent said: "I think I have what you are looking for but it has a "little more" acreage than you have requested". 

That day she took Tom to see the 100+ acre property.  It was too far, to small a house, to much land, and a lot of work but Tom loved it.  So the next weekend we both made the 4^1/2 hour drive to see the inside of the house and the land.  A small black mutt greeted us at the car and still greets us each time we come home, for that is what we found in Lightning Rod Farm. 

Contrary to popular financial beliefs we sold the house we had a mortgage on and used the equity to purchase the farm.  I quit my job and went to work with Tom in our consulting engineering firm, which had been run from our house in Maryland.   Because of the type of work we do our office can be located anywhere we have phone and internet service.  The latter was a huge problem in the beginning until we bought a satellite dish, but now we are very in touch with the world. 

We now live on about half what it cost in Maryland and spend most of our days doing the things we love to do.  We walk our woods and fields,  search for wildflowers, insects, birds and other interesting animals and things.