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Lyn Widmyer's years of living on the farm provided the fodder for her recently self-published autobiography, "Chasing Cows," a 95-page book subtitled "I'm Not in the Suburbs Anymore." (Photo by Richard Belisle / August 12, 2012) |
After 31 years of marriage, Widmyer said she still can’t “tell a Guernsey from a Hereford.”
Her husband, Ron Widmyer, his brother, Todd, and Todd’s wife, Coleen, run Federal Hill Farm, a three-generation, 500-acre family farm on Marlowe Road.
Lyn Widmyer said her responsibility to the farm and her husband was making the three-hour round-trip daily commute to keep her Montgomery County planner’s job for 31 years.
“My contribution was health insurance, a steady income and vacation pay,” she said.
Her aversion to farming is evident in that not a single photograph shows Widmyer with a cow or a tractor.
Her “vegetable garden” is a weed-entangled, 4-by-4-foot plot surrounded by what resembles a fence.
But her years of living on the farm provided the fodder for her recently self-published autobiography, “Chasing Cows,” a 95-page book subtitled “I’m Not in the Suburbs Anymore.”
Family history runs deep at Federal Hill Farm. Ron and Lynn Widmyer were married in 1981 under the same magnolia tree where his parents, Leo and Virginia Widmyer, were married in 1939.
The couple met at a farmland preservation conference in Carlisle, Pa., in 1979. Then a community planner in Montgomery County, Lyn attended the event to learn more about farmland preservation.
One day when they were dating, Ron invited Lyn to the farm. It was her first visit to West Virginia.
She relates the experience in her book.
“My images of West Virginia were typical of my fellow urbanites. I accepted Ron’s invitation, but I told my friends, if he lives in a trailer with stacks of old tires, I am going to keep on driving.”
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said in a recent interview. “I had never been to a farm before.”
She describes in the book her impressions as she drove up the driveway: “Whoa! I muttered in astonishment as I caught my first glimpse of the house. Before me was a beautiful 150-year-old three story, painted brick country federal home. The front porch provided a majestic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”
Widmyer’s book is a compilation of monthly columns about life as a wife and mother on a farm and community life in Jefferson County that she wrote for The Herald-Mail from 2003-08. That was the year she was elected to a six-year term as a Jefferson County commissioner.
Her book also contains columns she wrote for other area publications.
The couple’s two children, Nick and Molly, grew up on the farm and are featured in several chapters.
One “Off the Farm” chapter tells how Widmyer and her friend Carol Vogler decided to welcome Martha Stewart to West Virginia with a cake made from scratch.
Stewart was convicted and sentenced to serve five months in the federal women’s prison in Alderson, W.Va., for lying about a stock deal.
“I don’t condone Martha’s actions,” Widmyer wrote, “but at least she was doing time while her male counterparts in financial skullduggery were free.”
She and Vogler drove to Alderson early one Saturday morning, cake in hand.
“We knew we would never actually get to see Martha, but that was not the point of our visit. We merely wanted to welcome Martha to the Mountaineer state.”
She and Vogler declined to take a friend’s suggestion and put a glue gun in the cake.
“Chasing Cows” is available for $10 at Four Seasons Book Store in Shepherdstown, W.Va., and at Beasley’s Books and Eccentricities at 725 W. Washington St. in Charles Town. It’s also available at www.amazon.com and by calling Widmyer at 304-725-4326.
