By DEBORAH BEHRENDS
Illinois Correspondent

HAMSPHIRE, Ill. — Even with land in the area selling for about $35,000 an acre, Lane and Carol Burnidge have made the conscious decision to maintain a farm life for their son, Martin, and for visitors who have never been to a farm.
“People hardly remember their farm backgrounds.
We decided not to sell out to speculators even though property in this area is going for $36,000 an acre,” Lane Burnidge said.
The family opens their Enjoy Pioneer Farm to visitors in March. During a trip to the 10.5-acre Big Timber Road farm, visitors can watch Lane shear the registered Dorset sheep of their year-long growth, hold a lamb and even take home a handful of the raw wool.
Lane said they have about 35 head of sheep, with several lambs born in February and March.
Lane’s family has owned farmland in rural Kane County since the 1830s when they paid $3.50 an acre for it. They raised pigs, beef cattle and dairy cattle.
“This is just the best place for a boy to grow up,” Lane said.
It seems son Martin, 11, agrees. He has named every animal on the farm, sheep and cats alike. In his second year of participation in 4-H, he shows sheep at the Kane County Fair. He said his favorite event is one in which he can dress himself and one sheep in costume. The farm website shows a picture of Martin and a sheep dressed as pirates.
“Training them to lead around the ring is kinda like training a dog,” Martin said. “Some are easier to train than others.”
No stranger to farm life herself, Carol Burnidge’s family started farming when her great-grandfather arrived in his wooden shoes in the 1870s from Holland.
He farmed and worked as the town lamplighter. The family then moved to Broadview and finally settled in Lisle. All those communities are now part of the Chicago suburbs.
Carol still has her great-grandfather’s wooden shoes.
Obviously history is important to the family as they attempt to keep it alive. Even the road the farm is on has a long history. Big Timber Road was the main road between Chicago and Galena before the area was surveyed. The main route changed with the paving of U.S. 20.
The 1930s saw a Youth Conservation Corp camp near the farm and the 1950s saw a camper town just 100 feet west of the farm for the construction workers building I-90.
Along with opening the farm to visitors in March to see the shearing and new lambs, other times of the year the Burnidge family sells fresh produce, perennials and holiday wreaths.
They also open their farm to school groups. The wool they harvest is sold to a wholesaler in Forreston, Ill., Lane said.
Enjoy Pioneer Farm can be reached at 847-683-2863 or online at www.enjoypioneerfarm.com