Old Farm Memories

[RonL]

When I was a youngster my grandparents had a sizeable chunk of land in the city. My grandfather had two chicken coops. He sold eggs to all the neighbors. He had a sizeable garden also and always had fresh vegetables in the summertime. He had apple trees and a number of currant and gooseberry bushes. My grandmother made preserves.
That property is all new houses now.

RonL

[Lasgambler]

Fiftysomething years ago growing up "down south". (Southern Mississippi) We had 80 acres on a river with nice white "sand bars" and a large "dead lake" on the property that had great fishing. Sundays after church we would load in the two wheel horse drawn cart with water melons and head for the river to swim.

I mowed the yards with a Farmall cub with a belly mower. (red) Daddy had a Farmall Super A with a sickle mower, plows, disc, and a old square baler. Those old tractors are probaly still running somewhere.

We had cows, horses, chickens, dogs and cats. Had a Pear orchard that mother made Great Preserves from.

Large gardens consisting of mostly corn, okra, blackeyed peas and watermelons. I can remember selling melons out of the back of the truck on the side of the road for "a quarter a round". Great Memories! Times have Changed. I miss the simpler life, No cell, No Internet, No Pay TV etc. GAS 29 CENTS A GALLON.

[buckeyefarmer]

Putting in loose hay, using a triprake, gathering with a buckrake and having to pitch it in the barn with pitchforks.
hoeing acres of strawberries, which we would pick and deliver to customers. wasn't no self pick operations then around where I lived.
And then there was the acre or more of garden. We canned everything. I love home canned beef, not too many do that anymore. Oh, and when someone gave us something in a mason jar, we always made sure to return the jars to the person.
Taking pumpkins to town and selling them to the town folks.
Picking field corn by HAND, we didn't have a combine or even a tractor corn picker.
Learning to drive a tractor before age 10, and a truck by age 12. All standards of course.
Running trap lines in the winter, and hunting. Still don't know how I missed that fox with a shotgun from 3 ft away
And also the Rhubarb. A homemade Rhubarb pie is about as good as it gets.
And then there is the cabin we built as kids back in the woods. Almost every night in the summer we would ride our bikes back and sleep in our cabin. We built a fence around it to keep the cows out, would keep it mowed, and we would have family picnics there.

[Timber]

I use to love to be with my Dad when he put 100 pound burlap feed bags into 3 wooden storage bins in the feed room and then poor in molasses and mix it with the feed scoop. I can remember the smell as I post this thread

[rox]

I use to love to be with my Dad when he put 100 pound burlap feed bags into 3 wooden storage bins in the feed room and then poor in molasses and mix it with the feed scoop. I can remember the smell as I post this thread

I enjoyed reading every post, thanks to all. But this one caught my eye. Why would you pour molasses in wiht the animal feed?

[Timber]

I know the cows loved it but it had to do with nutrition

[billbill1]

My Grandfather lived one mile out of the town that I grew up in. He lost his wife and had 3 children 13, 8, and 4 that he raised the best he could-alone. He had electricity but no running water my entire life. The farm had 3 windmills to pump the water and they all functioned as they were designed. Gramps in later years added an electric pump to the windmill closest to the house. He ran probably 30 head of cows and worked them by himself (with the help of the grandsons). He watched very little TV but wouldn't miss Bonanza or Wagontrain. He moved into town in 1972, without any animals to care for, he didn't have much to live for. He lived a couple of miserable years after he moved to town. He was truly a country man.

[Timber]

animals give you something that you can't get from people, They have pure soul uncorrupted by the life of men. You can only know this by spending your life with them. It is a great loss for for the people in the world the recognize and understand the pureness of heart that you can only find in our 4 legged friends

[rox]

animals give you something that you can't get from people, They have pure soul uncorrupted by the life of men. You can only know this by spending your life with them. It is a great loss for for the people in the world the recognize and understand the pureness of heart that you can only find in our 4 legged friends

I always admire people who look afer animals. It is day in and day out like a baby who never grows up. I jsut don't hae the dedicaion to have animals, we ahve 1 cat that came with the house and that is all. we really don't even liek the cat that much but treat him very nice none the less. You talk about the purness of heart in the animals I see the purness of heart int he umans who love and care for them You are better than me for sure.

[JRobyn]

Weird how my FIL is right in the middle of several of these! Like Buckeye, he built his little cabin in the woods beside the pasture, then filled the pasture up with donkeys and goats to tend, and now the inverse of BillBill's g'pa, he's moved out of the town and into the cabin full-time, and taking Timber's philosophy to the extreme, his life now revolves totally around tending them all (and his dogs)! But in his mid-70s, he's more content and in much better condition than most of his peers.

- Jay