I was reminiscing today about my childhood and going to my uncles farm about 1/4 mile down the road from my parents who was like a second father to me. My favorite time to visit was chore time as I got to hold the hose to fill water buckets for the hogs and tank for the cattle while my uncle carried in the buckets to the hogs, although I always wanted to go in with the hogs but was told I couldn't because I didn't have a hat to differentiate me from the hogs. Just thought I would share this story. My uncle has been gone 2 years now.
- Thread starter Philt
- Start date
your story reminds me of growing up with my grandfather...i was rolling 35 gallon drums of slop along troughs by the age of 6...he was always gettin on me to stay out of pens...had a old brood sow that was meanest critter on the place...i was the only one she let near her piglets...almost like she adopted me.
as far as the water buckets go...my family didnt believe in hoses...my knuckles drag the ground today from carryin them damm buckets.
lost PoPo 44 years ago this past saturday...still miss him.
as far as the water buckets go...my family didnt believe in hoses...my knuckles drag the ground today from carryin them damm buckets.
lost PoPo 44 years ago this past saturday...still miss him.
ShadetreeRet
Well-known Member
Guess we all do that from time to time. We lived at three different places while I was growing up. Dad was a "sharecropper" for years. The first place I remember with fond memories, the second I would as soon forget, (although that is where I learned to drive a 9N Ford at the age of 9.) Then when I had just turned 12 Dad bought a small farm where spent the rest of my childhood. The first place has a modern dwelling where the old two story farmhouse once stood, the second place, the house we lived in is gone and a goodly portion of the place has been divided into tracts which sprouted manufactured housing. Dad and Mon sold the little farm in late seventies and the folks who bought it tore the old house down and built about $150,000 house. Mom and Dad bought a mobile home on two acres on which they were able to keep busy growing a garden, but I never could really get used to going over there. I guess the old saying is true, "You can't go home again."
37chief
Well-known Member
- Location
- California
Lots of memories all right. Dad had the farm where I grew up until I was a senior in school. Then he sold the home place, He bought a place down the road about 1/2 mile. My Grand Mothers both lived where I grew up. If my Mom didn't have treat for me I would make the rounds to one of my grand mothers, and make a score. That is why I was always on the plump side growing up. Things were so much simpler back then. Now everyone's gone. Just my brother and myself of our family. Now making memories for my Daughters, and grand kids. Stan
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Yup! Still doing it. I drive by my grandparents' farm at least twice a day. Lots of good memories. Grandpa taught me to drive his Ford 2N when I was 9 years old. Still remember driving it out across the pasture to bring in the cows at milking time.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I got started on writing a book of my memories 2 years ago and have over 60 thousand words so far. This winter I am going to try and finish it.Hopefully there is more memories floating around in this noggin of mine.If one pops in I write it down and put it by the computer. I printed most of it off and let some of my elderly friend read it and they insist I publish it. I will have to do some research on that matter.
A million memories! At least. One of my uncles worked for the county highway department from age 17 until he retired at age 65. He would stop with a big FWD snowplow truck and pick me up and take me to my grandparents house some three miles away. Plowing snow all the way. I would stand up between him and his copilot who was adjusting the right wing as we went along. Big V plow on the front with wings on each side. Big single wheels on each end with chains and a load of gravel on the back. Fans blowing on the windshield to keep it from fogging up. When we got to grandma's house we'd all go in for cookies. Coffee for them and hot chocolate for me.
When I was 8 or so my mother was sick with cancer(survived it and all is well now) I stayed with my grandfather on his farm for a couple of weeks.
He had an older style farm and ours was a little more modern. We cut grandpas wood with a buck saw and I helped carry in wood after splitting it. We had a fuel oil furnace at home.
When doing his chores at grandpas we started with grabbing 12 ears of corn or so, and running them through the crank sheller to feed the hens. And I GOT TO CRANK IT. Then to the hand grinder mounted on a stump. I got to crank again. He milked a herford cow for milk. We had a Jersey. We also had a pto grinder and stored our corn, after shelling it with a tractor, in a bin.
So all that hand stuff impressed me. And that maybe why grandpa survived on 80 acres and we had to 340 to survive.
Gary
He had an older style farm and ours was a little more modern. We cut grandpas wood with a buck saw and I helped carry in wood after splitting it. We had a fuel oil furnace at home.
When doing his chores at grandpas we started with grabbing 12 ears of corn or so, and running them through the crank sheller to feed the hens. And I GOT TO CRANK IT. Then to the hand grinder mounted on a stump. I got to crank again. He milked a herford cow for milk. We had a Jersey. We also had a pto grinder and stored our corn, after shelling it with a tractor, in a bin.
So all that hand stuff impressed me. And that maybe why grandpa survived on 80 acres and we had to 340 to survive.
Gary
randallinMo
Member
Gary, you pretty much "said it all" with that last sentence! Wow, so true.
I remember getting to "help" grandpa pick up rocks, dig potatoes, cut corn by hand and shock it and churn butter with a hand held churn. We also sharpened his mower sections by hand with a hand turn grinder wheel. I too "got" to turn the grinder! BUT...my absolute favorite chore to help him do was walk the pastures spreading out cow piles with a pitch fork. He even let me carry my own fork. I thought I was BIG stuff. Some of those cow piles were HEAVY! 'Must have made an impression on me because I enjoy spreading cow piles to this day......but I do it with a manure spreader. Gosh, I miss him!
I remember getting to "help" grandpa pick up rocks, dig potatoes, cut corn by hand and shock it and churn butter with a hand held churn. We also sharpened his mower sections by hand with a hand turn grinder wheel. I too "got" to turn the grinder! BUT...my absolute favorite chore to help him do was walk the pastures spreading out cow piles with a pitch fork. He even let me carry my own fork. I thought I was BIG stuff. Some of those cow piles were HEAVY! 'Must have made an impression on me because I enjoy spreading cow piles to this day......but I do it with a manure spreader. Gosh, I miss him!
Depends on how you look at it I guess. Working like that,you couldn't afford more modern equipment or more land.
I understand the mentality though. I've got no ambition to have any more than I do now and sure don't want any more work.
It's kinda like were were talking at a family reunion one time. A cousin was telling about a big new 4 wheel drive Deere that a guy over east of town bought. I said I didn't know why anybody needed something like that. Another cousin said "to work all that land". I asked why he needed to work all that land. He said "to pay for that new tractor".
I understand the mentality though. I've got no ambition to have any more than I do now and sure don't want any more work.
It's kinda like were were talking at a family reunion one time. A cousin was telling about a big new 4 wheel drive Deere that a guy over east of town bought. I said I didn't know why anybody needed something like that. Another cousin said "to work all that land". I asked why he needed to work all that land. He said "to pay for that new tractor".
RamblinMan
Member
I often reminisce about my young years on my uncles farm. The hogs were free range within several large fenced acreages. Rode on the tractor with feed wagon in tow. We both counted heads and bet who got it right. If he won I would get some small chore to do (which was fine by me), if I won I"d get candy and pop at the general store, which I did regardless of who won anyway. My first experience cutting pigs. Lessons learned about which animals to stay clear of. Riding a cow that my uncle often rode. Filling the trucks and tractors with fuel. Waking up on spring mornings to the sound of the 4020 or M plowing in a distant field. My uncle"s cigars in his shirt pocket and how good they smelled, unlike the cigarettes my parents smoked. Watching out the window anxiously awaiting for whatever the day would bring. Fall harvest watching my uncle mount the corn picker on the M and riding in the wagon behind it. Sitting in the general store at the liars table listening to the latest stories.
Eldon (WA)
Well-known Member
Did anyone else make machine sheds out of cardboard boxes and make sure all their "equipment" was under cover (for something to do in the winter). I also used to make "farms" out in the windbreak between the trees in the summer. All of this before I was old enough for the real thing. Also, going out to the field to catch a ride with my father while he was cultivating corn with the WD45 diesel and 4 row cultivator. Cudos to whoever came up with the idea to put the toolbox on the fender. I'll bet they never realized how many kids would make that their favorite place to sit!
The comment on hoses sparked a memory for me. My sister and I were in charge of feeding the calves- usually about 20 at any given time. Dad didn't believe in hoses, either, and we carried the water in buckets from the big cow trough, and it was a lot of carryin'. So sis and I pooled our money, measured carefully to get one long enough, and bought a hose. Dad didn't say anything, but when mom caught wind of it, she shamed dad into reimbursing us.
I didn't have any farmer grandfathers, but neighbor Pete Henry was from Nebraska, and we used to help him with his chores. Pigs, chickens, cow to milk, all the usual stuff. His wife Lizzie cooked everything on a wood range. Their son bought them an electric range, and she had to hurry and take all the stuff off of it when he drove in, so it would look like she was using it. But she never did.
I didn't have any farmer grandfathers, but neighbor Pete Henry was from Nebraska, and we used to help him with his chores. Pigs, chickens, cow to milk, all the usual stuff. His wife Lizzie cooked everything on a wood range. Their son bought them an electric range, and she had to hurry and take all the stuff off of it when he drove in, so it would look like she was using it. But she never did.
I'd make barns and sheds out of ANYTHING. Dad made a real nice wooden barn for me for Christmas when I was just a little guy. I'd make them outside out of slab wood nailed together,quansets out of scrap pieces of barn steel. I'd drive stakes in the ground and use scrap pieces of steel to make cattle feedlot barns.
One winter I had a whole dealership set up under my brothers pool table upstairs.
One winter I had a whole dealership set up under my brothers pool table upstairs.
SweetFeet
Well-known Member
I was a "tomboy". Would rather help in the hogbarn than mom in the house. Begged for (and got) a toy John Deere tractor, plow and disk when I turned 6. Promptly orked up my land (a.k.a. sandbox) and planted corn and oats fields...I was SO PROUD! Soon as my crops came up, my dad made me pull them all out. 
...thought I have to believe he must have gotten a chuckle out of it.
Grandpa and uncles were great fun to hang around with. Always picking on you in a fun kind of way. I loved to go for extended visits and help my cousins bottle feed calves - I thought they were the luckiest kids on earth as we only had hogs.
...thought I have to believe he must have gotten a chuckle out of it.Grandpa and uncles were great fun to hang around with. Always picking on you in a fun kind of way. I loved to go for extended visits and help my cousins bottle feed calves - I thought they were the luckiest kids on earth as we only had hogs.
flying belgian
Well-known Member
Kinda like keeping the horse to haul the horse manure.
omahagreg
Well-known Member
Dad tells of a neighbor farmer when he was growing up. He was a full blooded native american, single, and thrifty. He also did not believe in banks! He would buy his clothes multiple sizes too big, as he thought he got a better deal that way-just never looked well kept! He was not known for being friendly, but he liked my grandpa. He made a deal with grandpa that if he helped him with his cattle, grandpa could keep each years calves. He had cattle from that day forward, with a liitle help from an 'unfriendly' neighbor.
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