Boon Lake – Part 4
We are farmers in Boon Lake Township! I am not sure, but looking back we must have had more than 24 hours in each day!
There was a bit of a pasture across the driveway to the southeast. It had fencing around it with a bit of a hut. Maybe calves were summered over in that area. The fence was taken down just enough to get the Oliver 70 and the plow in that area and we had us a garden spot. Man oh man it took work to get the sod broken up with a piece of a drag pulled behind. When a farm is bought out and those owners move to town, lots of goodies are left behind.
Can the scent of newly turned soil carry to lengths? Most be! Orlin’s brother and his family from Wilmer arrived shortly and the plan was to make the garden bigger so Elroy could have a potato patch. Elroy’s had four children and everyone kicked in and that soil became mellow, just right for planting a garden. For our part, we were in mind for several tomato plants, cucumbers, radishes, etc. It went from plan A to plan Z in a heartbeat. For the most part it all worked out. Elroy’s residential lot in Wilmer was small and who doesn’t want to see a family enjoy fresh produce from the gardens. I was home all week and I made sure our pantry and my canning jars were filled before a weekend came along. First come . . . first served.
It was quite often that a meal during the weekend went from Orlin and I to a sit-down of six . . . can’t forget number seven . . . infant Carrie. It would be quite the jumble to work in our usual farm chores whether there were extras around to have a meal or not. Livestock gets on a schedule that has nothing to do with meal times and the livestock won out as that is where the cash came from to run the farm.
It was amazing how a routine settles in on a farm. Dad was still needed for advice but the day-to-day labor was on Orlin and I and . . . we handled it. When the sows farrowed, our bed times were adjusted to be out in the pig barn to make sure all the little piglets were shuffled out of the way of restless sows. Orlin had done a great job of making wooden farrowing crates out of used lumber. The sow had enough room to turn around for water and feed, while the wee ones were protected by scooting under the partitions until nursing time for them. Heat lamps hanging over those protected areas . . . how could they not snuggle up under them.
We may have missed out on some social things with the Schafer families as most of them were W2 form workers. Their evening weekend hours were quite different from our’s. The Holsteins came first. Orlin’s folks . . . Art and Esther enjoyed coming out on a weekend . . . sitting under the shade trees on the west side of the house and taking everything in. Art would cross this palms across his broad chest and may catch a snooze. Esther would have her little plastic ice cream bucket filled with crochet thread and crank out the stitches row by row. Sweet.
——- to be continued.
Today is April 1, 2020, and I am making good headway on a quilt top. About three this afternoon, I shut down the sewing studio to ride shotgun as Dennis and I took care of a few errands around town. Most of them being done at drive-up windows at the utility drop box, the bank’s drive-up and the Lewis Drug drive-up. It is the new routine. The lights are on but no one has doors open. I couldn’t wait to take my walk. I usually do it in the morning, but I am trying to put in a goodly amount of stitching. The wind was strong from the south and southeast.
I have had one great day! I look forward to another one tomorrow.