Our farm rests on 80 acres nestled on the corner for 450 acres of the Mark Twain National Forest, and there's a lot of history in these hills.

We're just up the road from Taneyville, which was bigger than Branson at one time. It was, in fact, a whistlestop for presidential campaigns.

And we're here right in the heart of Baldknobber country.

Our driveway was actually the main county road up until the 1930s. If you followed the original trace, it went down to the mill (Kissee Mills) where everybody took their grain in those days.

The house and barn were built by Dolphus and Rachel Daltonthough the location was homesteaded previously. We've found old wall foundations that nobody knows anything about.

The house and barn were built in the traditional Irish style — the house small and spartan; the barn of native oak milled on the property and left unpainted.

We acquired the farm in 1998 and have done some interior work to the house but not much on the outside, leaving it in the true fashion of the old farmstead.

Mike's great-great-great grandfather bought a ticket for America in 1812 — sailing from Downpatrick, Ireland.

We have had the opportunity to visit Ireland four times, finding the original ticket house (see photo at right) as well as the countryside and the farms. And while our farm is not all stonework, it is truly Irish in heritage and a step back in time.