We went to a land auction back in 2002, bought 25 acres of abandoned cow pasture just 2.5 miles west Paxton, IL, and our lives changed forever.
We had tried to buy the same property fifteen years earlier to build a new home on. It was owned by a local banker named Wally Judkins who lived across the stream. He was also a partner in a dairy farm and the property was part of their pasture. At the time he wasn't interested in selling, but now after his demise, the heirs decided to sell the land in addition to some other parcels. Our plan was to use the land as a "getaway place" close to home. We wanted to build a cabin, roast hotdogs, and ride our ATV on it. We knew it would take some work to get it ready.
There really wasn't a lane, just old tire tracks that could be seen here and there. Water sat in these tracks in one low area. An old rusted gate was at the front of the property and the grass and weeds were over 7' tall in places. We started clearing the brush and trees with a chainsaw after the closing, but it didn't take long to realize we needed something bigger...a lot bigger...as in a D5H Caterpillar
...and some other equipment
like a Case Excavator.
The original entry. Rock from Indiana.
A split cedar fence for safety. Limestone from an old highway bridge we tore down.
A rustic cabin for the family was next on the list. We finally decided on purchasing a modular cabin from a sawmill in Northern Indiana. It came one day on a truck with 10 Amish carpenters. Somehow they lifted it off the semi trailer with a system of wenches and pulleys and onto a concrete pad we had poured earlier. They fastened the two pieces together and started laying up the logs on the gable ends. The rafters came next followed by tongue and groove planking and a shingled roof. Then the interior loft and yes, the 5x6 small rustic cabin which would become the half bath. Did I mention this happened in one day?
About this time, Jim decided that he wanted to build a shop on the new property. He had sold a couple of businesses to a large company and wanted to spend more time there. He was also tired after running a fast-paced, high-stress business for seventeen years. So that it would fit into the countryside, we wanted the shop to look like a barn. With the size it needed to be, however, it became so tall that we ended up with a lot of wasted space in the attic. We decided to build a second floor and use it for something. Perhaps we should build some Bed & Breakfast rooms up there we thought. Upon further thought we concluded that it wouldn't be too wise to have B&B rooms above a shop with tools, a tractor, noise, and fuel. And all of a sudden we dropped the idea of a shop and had an entire Bed & Breakfast building planned where people could enjoy the countryside and relax. The building began.
Setting Posts Roof Trusses
Roof Sheating Shingles
Steel skin Pouring the concrete floor.
Framing Rose Garden Jacuzzi area
Arches Applying pickling stain
Stone Fireplace in Gathering Room Brick Flooring
Drywalling Trimming
Crown Trim Landscaping
FINISHED!!
We hosted an Open House for the public in July 2003. Over 1,000 people came. We took reservations that day and immediately afterwards opened for business. Our very first guest was a heavy set man. So heavy, in fact, that he cracked the shower base in the Rose Garden Suite. We had it repaired and it has never happened again. BUT THEN REAL TROUBLE BEGAN.
One day in 2004 the sky went black in the middle of the day and the winds picked up. They say it wasn't a tornado but straight line winds. I'm not sure of the difference. Regardless, the aftermath looked like a bomb had been dropped on TimberCreek. The buildings were spared, but we lost half of our trees. We had to hire heavy equipment again. It would have taken a couple of months to clear everything away with a chainsaw.
This poor squirrel ended up losing his tail. We had 2 piles like this this that were 20' tall.
This is our favorite tree at TimberCreek. It must be at least 200 years old. If you look real close, we have a rope swing hanging from it. Somehow it made it through the wind storm virtually unscathed. Lesser trees went down all over, but not this tree. We use a shorter version of this tree in our logo. We love it's huge trunk, height, and obvious strength.
While the lane and yard were torn up from the tracks of the excavator and tree debris, we decided to repair a stream bank that had been eroding. It made sense while the heavy equipment was around. There was a manufacturing plant close by which produced concrete wall panels. Whenever they poured wall panels, they would have excess concrete left over to dispose of. They dumped this concrete into forms in the shape of rectangular logs. We were able to use this concrete log material for the bottom of the new stream bank shown in the photograhy below. This was completed in October 2004.
Done.
Winter is a beautiful time at TimberCreek, especially when the landscape is covered with snow. The kids like to walk on the ice in the stream when it's frozen thick enough to be safe. They really like to take rides on sleds behind the the four wheeler. The lane from the highway back to the B&B is fairly long and it tends to drift quite a bit by the entrance. It can be a lot of work clearing the lane of snow. All in all, though, it's a fun time.
It was January 8th, 2006 and the ground was frozen hard. Sometime earlier, the weather had warmed up enough to rain. And it rained and rained and rained. The water had no where to go with frozen ground everywhere. It was in the middle of the night. The little stream that flows by TimberCreek turned into an uncontrollable raging river. It inundated the front meadow and kept on rising. It came out of the banks by the B&B and didn't stop until the building had 14" of water in it.
Connie, our hostess, had awakened earlier sensing that something was wrong. She stepped out of bed into an inch of muddy water on her bedroom floor. We had guests with little children in a 2nd floor suite whom she woke up although she didn't know where to tell them to go or what to do. The water was rising in the building and was even deeper outside. Their car was in the parking lot and was filling up with water. Eventually they all grabbed what they could and got out. The car ended up being a total loss although it really didn't matter. Believe it or not, these particular guests were staying in America for their last night. They were moving to another country and were flying out the next morning. They told us that they didn''t know what they were going to do with their car anyway. I wish we would have been as fortunate with the building. We did not have flood insurance.
Later, neighbors who lived in the vicinity of TimberCreek said that they had never seen flooding like we experienced in the last sixty years.
14" inches of water in a building even for a short period of time is very destructive.
We hauled furniture, mattresses, beds, and lower cabinetry out. A few days later we started on clean-up. We cut the drywall 48" up from the floor and removed it along with the cellulose wall insulation. We had ServePro come and bring some commercial dehumidifiers to dry everything out. Almost the entire first floor had hardwood glued down and it had to be pulled up and discarded. Fortunately, we had many volunteers helping us.
February 5th, 2008. The drywall was rehung and taped, but before we progressed any further, we incredibly suffered another flood. This time we had only a few inches of water in the building, but it still left a muddy residue and soaked the bottom of the drywall. The building had to be cleaned and dried out again before we could start putting everything back together. Eventually we finished, the furniture was brought back in, the outside was cleaned up, the landscaping remulched, and we opened for business.
February 2012. Cats can usually be found at TimberCreek. Not inside of course, but sitting under the covered porch in the rocking chairs or trying to sneak in the office when people go in and out. Once a year we usually have kittens. We had five in the last litter. Lucy was the Mom and we think it was her fourth litter. Connie, Brooke, and Jordan give each kitten a name and the guests usually fall in love with them. We only have two cats left from the last litter. A couple of guests asked to take the first two. Moe left in February 2012 with a guest who came back six hours from Northern Wisconsin to pick him up. She had been in the area several weeks before to visit her Dad who lives in Paxton. She has two cats already but fell in love with Moe. Connie was sad to see him go, but knows he will have a good home and will be warm in the Winter. She says that Socks and Zoe are hers to keep.
Lucy Socks
An earlier litter Socks and Moe
After the first two floods, the year was progressing normally. The first half of the wedding season was past and the second half was underway. Off and on we had been thinking about doing something to protect the B&B from future flooding, but we really hadn't gotten serious about it since we needed to get through the wedding season first. We hosted a wedding in early September 2008. That night it rained and rained. On Sunday morning it rained and rained. Torrential rain. We were asked in Church if we were worried about flooding at the Bed & Breakfast. We said that we weren't. After all it was the beginning of Fall, it had been relatively dry, and bad flooding like earlier in the year didn't happen very often according to the neighbors.
Well, we found at that we were wrong...by seven inches. That afternoon we ended up with 7" of water inside the building. It was such a helpless feeling when dirty brown water kept rising and rising, creeping closer and closer, threatening everything in its way. In addition to the building, the tent, tables, chairs, linens, and garbage bins were still in the meadow from the wedding reception the night before. One end of the tent collapsed and some of items floated away.
Since it was daylight, we had a little more warning. We took all of the first floor doors off their hinges and hauled them upstairs. We set the furniture up on blocks to keep it dry. We shut the power off. We used a wetvac on the wood floors as soon as the water receded to try and save it. We dried off the cabinetry and trim as soon as we could. And we cried--this was the third flood in 10 months. We didn't think we had the strength to rebuild again. We were able to minimize some of the damage, but it was still a horrendous mess to deal with. The drywall had to be removed, the insulation taken out of all of the stud spaces, and everything resprayed with anti-bacterial spray. This time we had the pressure of rebuilding as soon as possible to accommodate the remaining two weddings that were scheduled in October. With lots of help, we were able to open back up within a month.
We had to figure out a way to resolve the flooding issue so that when the next 100 year flood rolled in, we would be safe. We decided yet that Fall of 2008 to tear out more trees and excavate dirt to build a levee/berm around the entire back meadow. The lane to the B&B comes down a hill into the back meadow. We tied the levee into this hill on both sides of the lane. This kept the lane from going over the berm. The southwest corner of the B&B sits right beside the stream. We could get an earthmover through this point, but there wasn't enough space to construct a levee and it would have been unsightly anyway. We decided to build a concrete wall with pilasters in this area and tie both ends into the berm. This would leave enough room for another patio since we had to remove the two that we had. We saved our landscaping plants by digging them up and temporarily replanting them in a safe spot until it was time to landscape again. The stake and flag in the photo below marked the center of the wall. We hid the two middle pilasters inside of the outdoor stone fireplace.
Our very first fire in the new fireplace.
GAY COUPLE FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST CHRISTIAN B&B OWNERS FOR REFUSING CIVIL UNION CEREMONY
Chicago Sun Times St. Louis Post Dispatch Huffington Post WCIA Channel 3 Mark Reardon Show KSDK Paxton Record Christian Post Chicago Tribune
Perhaps the greatest challenge lies ahead. On February 15, 2010, a Tuesday, we received an innocent-looking email asking if we were intending to host civil union ceremonies. A month before, the Illinois legislature had passed "The Religious Freedom and Civil Unions Act" which was to go into effect on June 1, 2011. We replied that we would only be hosting weddings at TimberCreek. On Friday, only three days later, a sexual orientation discrimination complaint was filed with the Illinois Dept. of Human Rights. The ACLU has joined the complainants' legal defense team. The complainants are alleging that they have suffered substantial mental and emotional distress, a stigmatizing injury, and deprivation of personal dignity. They are requesting damages for the injury, interest, attorney fees, and an order to cease from violating the Act in the future.
America was built upon a foundation of religious liberty and Judeo Christian principles. This heritage is engraved in federal buildings all over our Nation's Capitol. It is printed on our money. It is enshrined in the United States Constitution which guarantees the freedom of religious expression. But now it is under assault by well-funded homosexual activists who demand we surrender religious liberty to their new definition of marriage. President Obama has been deceived into embracing this far-left agenda. Even IL Governor Quinn is marching down this same path of perversion. As Christians, we should absolutely love individuals ensnared in homosexuality, but we should not and cannot condone any part of it because the Bible condemns it. The Creator of the Universe is no one to defy.
Homosexuality is a behavioral choice which has been historically viewed as immoral, sinful, and an abomination to God in Judeo Christian belief for over 6,000 years. This lifestyle can be adopted and abandoned. Yet it is being championed as equal to immutable human characteristics such as race, color, gender, creed, age, and national origin. It uses anti-discrimination laws as a bully club when dissenting Americans disagree with men trying to marry men, women marrying women, men changing to women, and women changing to men. It basically says that God is confused by marriage, family, and sexuality and that we need to correct his mistakes.
______________
We politely disagree. We believe that God is the ultimate authority, infallible, and unchanging. Morality cannot be changed by a vote of the Illinois General Assembly as when it passed the Civil Unions Act or now that it is considering the latest gay marriage bill. Morality stays consistent regardless of relativistic postmodern thought that says men are wiser than the Almighty. God's Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christians should love individuals trapped in this behavior. We should pray for homosexuals' extended families who must personally deal with poor choices their loved ones have made. But, as Christians, we should never accept the behavior as normal because the Bible clearly labels homosexuality as an abominable sin throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Consequently, we cannot host civil unions of any kind at TimberCreek Bed & Breakfast, nor gay mariage should it become legal. It is not an issue of fairness and equality, but an issue of right and wrong. Be assured that we are not lawless, hateful, bigoted, or activists by any definition. We did not initiate the present controversy. When asked, we have merely stood up for our biblically-based religious convictions. And we are not alone. Click on the links below for similar stories of LGBT intimidation.
Yahoo News Life Site News ABC News WSYR Channel 9 Yahoo Voices One News Now George Will Kentucky.com NAACP WPSD Channel 6 Think Progress Georgetown University Macy's Chick-Fil-A PayPal NBC News Washington Post Miss Universe Just Q Me Paul Ryan Indy Channel 6 Bloomberg Vermont B&B
"In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -George Orwell
