What Was Work is Now Fun
The Goose’s Blue Rock
I challenge any farm kid to look back on picking rocks out of the fields in the early spring to call it fun. It never failed to amaze me that the 80 acres we had walked the year before to the satisfaction of my Dad had an entire new crop of rocks in the next year. In the depths of the groves that surrounded farm yards would be this huge pile of rocks that had been harvested over the course of the crop years.
If we ever wondered if the job was appreciated, the proof of the pudding was when one of the elusive rocks was picked up by the snout of the corn picker in the fall of the year during harvest. Harvest was always extremely busy as we would also have milk cows freshening. Why was the birth of new calves called freshening? I have no idea. During the hot summer days the amount of milk that the dairy cows would give was so diminished that they were allowed to “dry up.”
The Little Kids Love the Green Rock
Back to the elusive rock in the corn picker. The rock would be carried into the depth of the corn picker and either cause a chain to break or become so wedged that there was metal that needed to be hammered out. The last thing Dad needed was to have harvest stalled due to a rock.
Fast forward to Stauffer Avenue and I am always on the lookout for rocks that complete my gardens. Who would have thought? It used to be that when we traveled I would point — Dennis would load the rock and away we went. Now when I see a really good one — I mark it — and I seek and search someone much younger and stronger to come back with me later to get it home. I recently scored two really good rocks this summer from the building site that Dennis’ son had lived on. Young and strong neighbor Matt rides shotgun as Dennis mans his little red pickup. It’s a good thing.