Andy Tullis / The BulletinThe Klann family — parents Sarah and Eric and kids Emmett and Eleanor — inherited their Prineville home from Eric’s parents.

Walking onto the Klann’s Prineville Farm is like stepping back into history. Indeed, it is family history for Eric Klann — his family originally came over the Oregon Trail to homestead land in Central Oregon.

On this sunny summer day, the old farm is buzzing with activity, with a small herd of cattle grazing in the pasture, a horse braying in the barn, chickens clucking in their coop, bees making honey in their hives and children laughing.

Klann’s children — 4-year-old Emmett and 6-year-old Eleanor — are growing up much like he did decades ago.

“My children are eighth-generation Oregonians,” Eric says proudly as he watches his daughter, clad in red cowboy boots, leading the family horse with his son atop, riding bareback. “At times it seems so surreal to me. They’re doing what me and my brothers and sisters used to do on this farm.”

Revamp and refresh

With any farm and farmhouse come the chores. Eric inherited the 7-acre property and white clapboard home from his father, who built the entire 4,350-square-foot abode.

“I have always loved Eric’s family home. We were actually married here in the backyard,” said Eric’s wife, Sarah, pointing to the lush green lawn near the vegetable garden and barn. “But when we inherited this home a few years ago, some things weren’t exactly up to today’s codes. I needed it to be completely safe for the children. We’ve been doing updates and remodeling for years now.”

Sarah and Eric both wanted to modernize the home and make it durable, carefree and livable for the entire family. The Klanns also wanted to keep the home’s vintage charm and warmth.

Polished to perfection

With almost all of the indoor action happening in the kitchen, Sarah wanted this family gathering area to be the great room where she could clearly see the children playing in the living room or in the dinning room while she cooked meals.

Doing that required removing parts of walls to open up the kitchen and living room spaces to give the entire area an airy look and feel.

“I love my kitchen,” Sarah said. A large window over the farm kitchen sink is her favorite feature. It opens up, which allows her to hand out special snacks to her kids on the porch without going outside. “From this window, I can also watch the kids playing.”

The distressed white kitchen cabinets have an aged feeling despite being brand new. Sarah also points to a dishwasher with glee: “Can you believe Eric’s mom never had a dishwasher in all those years with all those kids?”

A large walk-in pantry has also been added. It’s closed off with a distressed black wooden pocket door. Inside the pantry are her many canned goods, from dilly beans to jams, all preserved for the winter.

Though it’s now an ultimate kitchen, Sarah respected the original farmhouse design and kept it looking granny chic with its warm touches.

The original sauerkraut ceramic crockpots used by Eric’s mother still grace the kitchen, perfect for the plump cabbage being plucked from the garden.

“We’re obviously going to have to make a lot of sauerkraut this year,” Sarah mused.

Antiques that still work

The Klann farmhouse came with many antiques. But for the Klanns, they aren’t just decor — they’re utilitarian.

The green 1948 John Deere tractor used by Eric’s grandfather is still used on the farm. So is the 1940s Ford pickup truck.

“Oh yeah, it definitely works. Elly and I just used it to bring hay out to the cows,” Eric said. “I remember hauling hay with my dad too.”

Those fond memories are never very far away from Eric when he’s on the family farm.

“He’s really in his element whether it’s on the tractor or doing irrigation work. He’s a country boy that was in the city (Redmond) for a while,” Sarah said. “And now we’re raising a proper cowboy and cowgirl too.”

On the wraparound porch surrounding the clapboard farmhouse stands an old wringer washing machine that Eric’s grandmother used, and yes, it still works. Sarah said they use it for farm clothes that get especially soiled and dirty. “We rinse it in this old washer first, before dumping it into the modern washer.”

Another antique Sarah salvaged came from her first teaching job at Highland Elementary School in Bend.

“I saw the janitor there hauling off these old windows to the trash, so I asked if I could have one,” Sarah recalled. “He gave me one and we installed it in that corner section between the living room and dining room. The wall that was there blocked the light out, but this (interior) window between these spaces lets the light flow in.”

Decorating with passion

Antiques are definitely a passion for the Klanns. The couple restored a historic home in downtown Redmond where Eric’s mother now resides.

Walking up the staircase, Emmett is excited to show us his bedroom, which belonged to his father as a child. Eric’s Redmond High School varsity letterman jacket still hangs on the wall. So does his old Boy Scout uniform.

Eleanor’s room is pretty in pink, with an antique white carved round baby crib that’s been converted into an exceptional seating area made just for her.

There’s a spacious loft play area at the top of the stairs. A Jack and Jill bathroom between the kids’ bedrooms is equipped with his and her sink and toilet areas as well as different entryways into the shower stall.

The other bedroom upstairs is a guest bedroom, which the Klanns have turned into an office decorated with antiques that were left by Eric’s family.

Downstairs is the master bedroom and bathroom, which the couple renovated and added an extra window for more natural light.

The house that Stan built

Walking down another staircase leads us into the basement of the house. The Klanns converted the space into a classroom on one side and a gym on the other.

When Eric’s dad, Stan Klann, was laying the concrete foundation, he had all his children put in their handprints for posterity. The old family horse got in the action too. Eleanor and Emmett get a kick out seeing their father’s and uncle’s and aunt’s childhood handprints.

Sarah, an elementary school teacher by training, homeschools her kids in the basement classroom, which looks like a genuine, modern classroom — with the exception of the antique wooden desks.

Bees and butterflies

Sarah has created a colorful bee and butterfly garden on a quarter-acre of the farm. The garden is bursting with flowers in every shade of the rainbow.

This part of the farm is a point of pride for Sarah. She’s hoping to teach children and adults alike the importance of having year-round gardens for the health of the bees.

Emmett and Eleanor, unafraid of the bees, look into the hives and watch the busy bees make honey.

All of a sudden Emmett notices a bee on the ground. He asks his mom if it’s a drone (male) bee. Sarah walks over and identifies it as a drone. The kids happily, but gently, play with the large bee, knowing that the males won’t sting.

“We’ve already had some small groups from the community come out and learn about the bees and what they do,” says Sarah, who used a community grant to build the garden and buy child-sized bee suits. “We need the bees so we can pollinate our gardens. There used to be a time everyone had victory gardens, but not as many people garden anymore. The bees are dying off from diseases and other environmental issues.”

Sarah said as soon as they were done building their beehives a wild swarm came to the farm. “Happy bees” now fill the hives.

To book a tour of the bee garden, visit www.prinevillehoneybeehaven.com.

‘This is the life …’

Farm life requires getting up at the crack of dawn to start what seems like endless farm chores, but the Klanns say they wouldn’t trade it for the world. In their words: “This is the life.”

Eleanor feeds and mucks in her pony’s barn. The reward is taking the horse into the pasture. Emmett and Sarah collect eggs every morning that the chickens have laid. Eric does whatever farm chores need to be done before he heads off to his day job with the city of Redmond.

“We love raising our children here. They are able to use their imaginations and play with grasshoppers, frogs and bees,” says Sarah. “They can now identify every single plant in the gardens. There’s some freedom for them here. They aren’t inside on computers playing video games.”

— halpen1@aol.com