JACKSON TWP — Head down Tollgate School Road, past the new developments and For Sale signs, and you'll come to an old family farm.

The barn sticks out, an artifact from a time when the area featured nothing but farmland as far as the eye could see.

The George Family Farm is owned and operated by Paul and Lavada George, both 80, and was once one of many other farms on Tollgate School Road. Now it stands alone, in a sea of new neighborhood developments.

After more than a century in operation, the family still works the farm. Paul says they have no plans to stop.

Their latest project to restore the old barn shows their dedication to keeping the farm and its facilities intact.

“This was her (Lavada's) granddad's, then it was her mother's, then it came to us,” Paul said. “So we're the third generation at least, and it'll go to our kids.”

Lavada's grandfather, Andrew “Andy” Kugel, first came to the land around 130 years ago.

“History has it they moved somewhere, then they went out west and didn't like it, so they moved here,” Paul said.

“We have a deed from 1886,” said Donn George, Paul's son and owner of George Financial.

Even less is known about the origins of the barn, a rustic structure made of brown wood and stone.

“It's all crooked and twisted from many, many years. But it's well-built; you can't shake it down,” said Paul. “We don't even know if they built it here, or if it was transported here, or if it was here when they came.”

The building's only distinguishing feature is a signature the original builder cut into the side, which the family recreated in the restoration.

“They cut that in there and that tells people who built the barn, somehow,” Paul said. “So we copied it.”

The restoration began in the spring, sometime around April and May, he recalled. The family worked with a sawmill to cut lumber from their property into the materials needed for the project.

“We've had a lot of help with my grandsons and sons and some good friends,” he said. “Those oak boards are heavy and some of them are 14 inches wide. We lifted them all up by hand and nailed them in.”

In addition to the siding needing to be replaced, some of the barn's support beams also needed to be changed.

“We had to strip the old wood off, jack the barn up and put all new beams all around the bottom,” said Paul. “They were all rotten.”

“It's a lot of work and kind of scary because you're jacking the barn up and adding support,” said Donn.

All the time the barn was in use, housing pigs, cows and hay, along with tools, an old beagle and a gang of cats.

Though production has slowed in recent years, the George family is committed to working the land and maintaining the farm as a viable agricultural institution.

“At one time we farmed 140 acres, but now that they're building all these houses we're down to around 70 acres,” Paul said. “We have cattle in (the barn). We store our hay and our grain in it. We still farm here.”

The barn currently houses seven adult pigs plus some babies Paul recently bought.

The pigs, however, will not be for sale.

“We don't sell any of them; (we) keep 'em all for ourselves. Everybody in the family gets one. It's gonna be here pretty soon,” said Paul. “We usually slaughter them on a Saturday and cut 'em into pieces on Sunday ... Nothing leaves here; it all stays right here.”

Family farming operations are increasingly rare, as development stretches across the region and residential developers gobble up more and more real estate in the county.

“When I was a kid there were, I think, nine farms on this road,” Donn said. “Now there's just us.”

The changes haven't been easy on the family, with the once-sleepy Tollgate School Road now packed with commuters and residents from the developments around the area.

“It's a shame because that road splits our farm in half,” Donn said.

Despite the new challenges the family remains committed to the farm and the historic barn.

“You either fix them up, or you tear them down or you let them fall down,” Donn said.