When we speak of The Farm it's heavy with the stigma of delinquency but when sun kisses and winds tickle it's easy to forget the truth of this place.  There is peace and pride on the air as troubled pasts give tours of the cow barn.  A place of healing, solace from chaos and broken families - where therapy happens behind the wheel of a tractor, or in the stacking of fresh hay.  Lives changed.  Futures saved.  Not always - but enough to make it worthwhile.

We have come for the open house.  The boys are thrilled to know where their daddy works - to play on the sports pad, to swing on the giant tire, to feed the cows, to ride the wagon behind a coughing tractor, to eat treats and drink lemonade.  There is no hint of midnight tantrums or mess house riots.  Only the peace of the country and the aura of manure and the hot breath of summer through undulating fields of grain.