At the age of sixteen, I felt the need to tell of my childhood. As I entered a rough relationship that ended with lost of trust, I decided the need to have it published, a need not as an excuse for my actions of getting rid of a sore that’s trying to take my family away. So over the years in its completion, I felt tears, love, and the need to do this story of just how great a large family worked the earth. They had parents and seventeen children to care for, hard but fair. They were taught to use everything they could—fairness, love, and need. Over the time they had before death, we all tried to practice what they preached, and some still do until now. The house is old, and the property changed a bit. I, as owner now of the true homestead, have replaced what I could. Like my dad, I hope my pockets go from pennies to dimes to survive a much harder world.