Local farm family continues to grow

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Ed and Mary Filhart know a little bit about raising everything, from horses to crops to children.

On a back country road in Shepherd, their white house sits adjacent to a green pasture where their horses graze.

Ed raises and trains Belgian colts and horses and he has two colts and four Belgian horses, which he broke to ride in teams and pull wagons for yard work.

“The horses used to do everything on the farm,” Ed said. “Now we use tractors.”

Ed has trained all of his work horses from birth, never purchasing a horse already broken.

A swing set, sandbox, small garden and an old apple tree lay behind the home that used to house the Filhart’s 12 children. Now the children are all grown, but most of them have stayed near the Shepherd farm to be close to their siblings, nieces, nephews and in-laws.

In the early morning, the farm is quiet except for the two dogs, Louie and Willie, who loyally follow Ed around the yard.

Late afternoon is when the farm comes to life.

Members of this large family are always coming by the farm to help and bring the 24 grandchildren together to play in the yard.

Ed’s sons and son-in-laws come to help him with the heavy labor of farm work. They use corn stacked in the walls of a small barn to mix-up feed for the horses. The family comes to the farm to help pick raspberries, apples and tomatoes from the garden. The Filharts also grow large soy beans and corn crops.

When it comes to the fun tasks around the farm, the whole family lends a hand. On a warm, sunny September afternoon, Ed spent time with his daughters and grandchildren picking raspberries from the patch behind their house.

“Don’t eat too many,” Ed said to his family. “You’ll get a stomach ache.”

When the family leaves to go back to their respectful homes, Ed and Mary are left in their front yard waving goodbye as their grandchildren shout farewells from the car windows all the way down the long, dirt drive.

“And then it gets quiet again,” Ed said.

It is hard to get the family together for events and holidays, so this year Christmas will be celebrated mid-November instead of December.

It’s the only time the entire extended family can come together.

“The kids are all very close and supportive of each other,” Mary said.

Their closeness can be attributed to their once close quarters. Before they added an addition to their home, the Filharts only had one bathroom and said there would be a line in front of the bathroom door before school.

Although only Ed and Mary reside in the house now, they said it is still home to the whole family.