Rossville farmhouse gets mired in field during move

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Randall Smith, left, and his son-in-law Nate Parks walk back to their trucks after taking another look at a farmhouse that lies mired in mud on Smith's farm Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, off Country Road 430 West just outside Rossville, Ind. Parks, began moving the house, which was originally about a mile away, last Saturday. The house, which dates to about 1900, became stuck in thick mud Wednesday afternoon about 300 yards away from its new location on Smith's farm. (AP Photo/Journal & Courier, John Terhune) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES

Updated: February 17, 2012 10:37PM

ROSSVILLE (AP) — A century-old farmhouse being moved to a new site is now stuck in a muddy north-central Indiana cornfield where it became bogged down as the frozen field began thawing out.

The two-story house became mired Wednesday about 300 yards from its destination as it was being moved across nearly 1.5 miles of frozen land, said Randall Smith, who owns the 120-acre farm where the home is now marooned.

Smith said that the home his son-in-law is moving to another portion of Smith’s property is now stuck until the ground either refreezes or dries out.

“The trek has been a nightmare,” Smith said Thursday. “We’ve used winches, tractors and bulldozers, but Mother Nature finally got the upper hand.”

Smith’s son-in-law, organic farmer Nate Parks, said he hopes he and his wife, Emily, and their 2-year-old son Jensen, can move next year into the house near Rossville, a town about 15 miles east of Lafayette.

Last weekend, he and Smith began working with Indianapolis mover Ron Thompson to move the house to a newly poured basement awaiting its arrival. The house is being moved across fields instead of roads to avoid problematic power lines.

They are using a semi-tractor to winch the 1900-era home about 150 feet at a time across the field. They were making progress until mud halted their efforts Sunday. After the ground refroze, their winching efforts resumed Monday and continued Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a bulldozer effortlessly moved the house across open farmland and a county road before the house got stuck in the mud.

A call went out to friends and neighbors for help and several tractors showed up, but that machinery also got bogged down in the field.

Parks said efforts to budge the home from the field will resume next week.

“We’ll start winching again in the middle of next week,” he said. “We’ll leapfrog plywood in front of the house.”

Parks, a former homebuilder, owns Tranquil Ridge Farm in the Darlington/Crawfordsville area where he grows organic vegetables that he sells at the Lafayette Farmers Market.

He said it will take him about five years to move his entire farm to the new site. That includes moving pole barns, greenhouses, a garage and fruit trees, along with installing irrigation and a well.

Parks estimates it will cost about $75,000 to move and fix up the house.

“It’s a well-built house,” he said. “Next winter, I can come here to work on it.”

Smith is elated that his daughter’s family will live on the property.

“My goal at first was to let the land go back to nature — or raise buffalo,” Smith said. “I’m happy my daughter will keep this land in our family.”