Celebrating The Life of Jean Kraft

Yesterday was a special day at JK Heritage Farms.

We got to celebrate the life of Jean Kraft.

This morning as I sit at the kitchen table in the very spot her table sat I feel overwhelmingly 

thankful.

Yesterday was an afternoon filled with food, shared stories, laughter and love.

 

 We decorated the room with her treasures and things she loved.

We gazed a pictures of her life from birth to 95

We heard stories of how and why Kraft Dairy had to change its name to Johnny and Jeans Dairy.

It's because there is a little known company called Kraft

that sent a cease and desist letter to a farmer who milked 57 cows and sold the milk right off the farm.

 When we bought the farm we bought it not only filled with love, but with treasures.

We have lots and lots of goodies from steamer trunks and milk cans to every single Del's OK Tire bill they've ever paid and all their farm records.

It's fascinating to see how much they paid for stock trucks and how much they bought and sold calves for.

 

Some of my favorite things about Johnny and Jean we learned yesterday was:

 

Mrs. Kraft graduated from Astoria High School at 16 and headed off to New York.

She rode the train stopping along the way knocking on doors in prominent neighborhoods asking if they needed a cook.

She met Johnny, and immigrant of Norway, at a park in New York.

 

They married in 1942 eventually heading back to Clatsop County.

They lived near what is Fort Clatsop.

When the government decided they wanted to build a park where their house sat they sold the land, picked up the house and moved it to Youngs River Rd.

This is the house we live in.

 They milked 57 cows.

55 Guernseys

1 Jersey

1 Holstein

Johnny named every cow and knew which one was which.

He talked to every cow as he hand milked them.

They ran the cows from the pasture across the road to the barn for milking.

Mrs. Kraft could be seen carrying hay out to the cows in the pasture from the barn a hay bale in each hand.

Those bales weigh 60lbs each!

Mrs. Kraft was a crossfitter before crossfit was cool.

Mrs. Kraft loved to cook and often hosted their family for Thanksgiving in this tiny house.

She would clear out the living room and move in a dining table so they could all sit together.

Before knowing this I drew out a house plan a few years ago adding on to our tiny house and in that plan our current living room would become our dining room with a long farm table big enough to host our families for meals.

I got to keep all of Mrs. Krafts cookbooks and her handwritten recipes and after hearing how she loved to cook and spend time in the kitchen it makes it that much more special.

To think her hands touched the very recipe I am following

brings a smile to my face.

I'm told she could be seen sitting in the kitchen window reading her bible.

We got to keep that too.

I wonder if she sat praying for Her Farmer, for the visiting kids that ran from pasture to pasture, climbing high up into the hay mound, for the health of their animals and the farm they loved so much.

While they didn't have kids of their own they loved to have kids here.

These kids learned what a hard days work was and how delicious Mrs. Krafts fried chicken was.

Kids would dip fresh milk from the tank and buck bales up high onto the stock truck event though their chins barely reached the bed of the truck.

Lots of kids kept horses here.

One horse, Sarah, could tap her hoof to tell you how old she was and add 2+2.

 

Some of her family came into the house to see what we have done to bring it back to life.

Each one of them said the same things.
"Jean would love everything and would be smiling"

They loved how we have incorporated Johnny and Jean into our family including their family photos in with ours.

How our fireplace mantle right down to the nails holding it together comes from things found in the barn.

"Happy"

They said she would be "happy"

That makes me happy too.

I have never met Mrs. Kraft, but I feel so connected to her.

I have a deep respect for the things she has done in her life and a love for her I can't explain.

Mrs. Kraft was a no nonsense gal who liked T's crossed and I's dotted.

She was strong and independent, tender and loving.

She loved Johnny, her home and her farm.

Much like I think I am or hope to be.

 

I love this place we get to call home.

Sometimes overwhelmingly so.

Our home is small, but our love is BIG

When you walk into our barn you can feel a consuming love that covers you like a warm blanket.

If you quiet yourself and close your eyes you can hear the sounds of the past and kids giggling as they climb higher and higher up the bales of hay.

 

I hope as Johnny and Jean watch over the farm together from the heavens that they are proud of what we have done and what we still plan to do.
I hope they know we love this place like they did.

I hope they know that love continues to live here.

I hope they are smiling and happy.

They forever will be a part of our story.

A story of dedication, trial, hard work, prayer and love.

Blessed is me...