For several generations, the Myers
family has been aware of the need to care about our Earth and her
inhabitants, along with the diversity of plants and animals. Carl and
Ruth Myers raised their 11 children within the
Hocking Hills, along
Bremen
Road in Logan, Ohio during and after the
Great
Depression with an understanding of sustainability. With the exception
of a few items, most of their food was grown and raised on the family
farm. This large family shared a relatively small farmhouse growing up
with the surrounding outdoors as an extension of their home.
Myers family
draft horse with wagon in front of
Bremen Rd homestead
Carl and Ruth Myers & Family
One of their sons, Bud, a young
Lutheran Minister, went on to share his love of agriculture in the
underdeveloped country of the
Philippines. Bud, along with his wife
Marcia, a native Nebraskan farm girl, raised their 3 children in this
third world country. With an emphasis in swine production, Bud's main
goal was to get the outlying villages to be able to provide themselves
with a self sustainable food source. This included making feed
with dried fish from the ocean as opposed to purchasing expensive feed
additives from larger cities and building pig pens out of scrap metal
from the salvage yards of the American military bases. All that he asked
from each village was for them to provide offspring to the next village
in order that the sustainability continue.
Bud
carrying steel doors salvaged from US military bases in the Philippines.
Construction of swine pens. Notice the salvaged steel doors in the
corners.
Although Bud thoroughly enjoyed
sharing his knowledge of agriculture to the local inhabitants, this
Myers family was given something very special in return; the gift
of learning to not be wasteful. In a country of
extreme poverty, we were surrounded daily of examples of ingenuity,
re-purposing, and recycling of almost anything imaginable. Although this
might not be foreign to Bud, who grew up as a country boy in a large
family with meager income, his children certainly were impressionable
and returned back to the United States with a better understanding of
themselves and of the entire world.
Today, we as a family attempt to do
our part in preserving a piece of the natural world around us. We
spend a substantial portion of our lodging revenues on mortgage payments
for property which now reaches 600 contiguous acres. Our family's lives
are inseparable from our business lives as they both operate
simultaneously. As a 21st century business, we strive to
find a workable balance along with low volume development, to provide a great place for guests to stay and
enjoy, to provide employment, and to preserve nature for the future.
The Bear Run Inn, was
"recycled" from an
old dilapidated farm house, part of which was a hand hewn log cabin
built in the mid 1800's. In
addition, all
but one of our cabins were built on sites that already had
home structures upon them at one time.
For family farmers in rural America,
recycling has been more than taking cans and plastic to the recycle
center. For years, we have reused countless items in countless ways.
Some of the biggest examples have been reusing construction materials
such as lumber. Throughout the years, after demolishing a structure, we often would salvage lumber and reuse
it on the farm.
Although we have offered
horse drawn
hay and buggy rides for several years, we find ourselves using our
horses for more day to day operations, which help reduce carbon
emissions and use less oil, not to mention feed is cheaper than
$4.00/gallon gasoline. The horses also get more opportunities
for exercise.
Phil using a team of
Belgium's to
harrow the
family garden
As we look to the future, we always
have several projects in the works, whether repairs of buildings and
structures to our remodeling of an old farmhouse for our new gift shop,
registration, office and housekeeping facility. This project started by
reusing an original 1800's log cabin surrounded with room additions
throughout the years. We began restoration with an all new foundation.
Although we have kept most of the original framework, where we did have
to use additional framing lumber, including siding, we harvested our own
white pine logs often using draft horses. Furthermore, most of the logs
harvested were either dying trees or wind/iced damaged. Stonework used
on of the foundation and chimney were all collected on site from the
original homestead. Modern insulation and new windows offer tremendous
energy savings. Although the main heat source is gas operated, an
efficient wood burning stove will be used as often as possible, fueled
by an endless supply of firewood found from dead wood on the ground
throughout the property.
Phil and his 8 year old Tristan putting up
siding cut from our own pine logs.
The team taking a break at the sawmill staging
area
In addition to the green commitment to
ourselves, we are committed to protecting the natural and built
environment in the Hocking Hills region for the enjoyment of the
citizens and guests of the region through education, communication,
resource management and stewardship as set forth in the
Hocking Hills Green
Certification criteria. Furthermore, we invite all of our guests to
join us in this effort. Thank you.
A forestry expert speaking to a group under a
White Oak tree believed to be older than 200 years old.
