Jason closes his journal... Thanks!! I love you!!

[Frosting]

I love the barn and wish I had one like it! I would have it filled with animals in no time! One corner for chickens, one for rabbits, one for pigs, etc.

That's a huge strawberry! What did you feed it?

 

[modern_pioneer]

That's a huge strawberry! What did you feed it?

Compost and manure.

Kelle wrote

Now, I've always heard that the larger ones aren't as sweet but I'm beginning to suspect that with the hybridization of the world that may not be the case anymore.

This is a hybrid plant called King Kong, the plants grow strong, about the third year they start to produce just a few large berries instead of a bunch of smaller ones over time. Though rotted, I had one last year the size of a baseball. Their not as sweet as my other strawberrys but good flavor for making jam.

I also have a strain called Strazzallberry for jamming, its a strawberry that taste like a strawberry and a raspberry together, its sweet, makes good jam. I make Sundae jam with this berry, yum yum....

 

[freemotion]

The ones in my pasture are obviously on fertility drugs.....

Sounds like a kodak moment to me free. " I picture in my mind, join me for a second " Free sitting on a log, with one of those old western black and white dresses on, big fancy hat with a long feather sticking out, 50 caliber muzzle loader in hands, and 60 ground hogs hanging in the back ground. It would be a tin type of course,

I imagine the picture showing me standing, with one foot up on a pile of groundhogs, and 60 field-dressed 'hogs in the background. I am wearing doeskin pants and a jacket and the hat has a turkey feather.

Ticks and bugs crawl up skirts.....no skirts in the pasture....besides, I'm a bit of a rebel, so I'd have a pair or two of pants if I lived in the 1800's!

 

[Aidenbaby]

Free's going to go all Annie Oakley on us.

 

[justusnak]

Free's going to go all Annie Oakley on us.

 

[modern_pioneer]

The bad year, 1982, part one;

Thinking about my Mom today, I was thinking of the year 1982, what a tough year that was for us.

My real dad didn't pay childsupport, he said so himself. At that time he had married his 2nd out of four wives who had four kids of her own.

Bobby and my Mom had to take on Bobbys two children due to his x being sick with cancer. They had beds at our house as they came to visit with us couple times a month. But when they moved in it meant more mouths to feed. Mom and Bobby always planted more than enough to last the year, but adding two people to the family in late July was tough.

It must have been Feb. 1982 when veggies ran short, I remember the last jar of tomatoes being opened. We always had the basics, meat, eggs, potatoes, bread and milk. There is a whole menu of good eats right there. It was the lack of money coming in and money being spent on much needed items like a new coal furnace to warm the house and upstairs.

We had the wood cook stove in the kitchen, but you couldn't really bank it off, and mom wouldn't allow coal to be used in it because she baked in it, and the burners on top leaked a little. The upstairs was heated by gravity vents, whats that? Its a square hole cut in the floor from the second story and a vent placed over top of it. If you happen to be in your skibbys and walked acrossed the grate, people down below you could see your stuff. LOL...

Than the grain truck needed repairs, overhaul I believe, and Mad Jack started to break down sows. They retired him as a breeder boar, kept him till he started knocking brick walls over when he needed to scratch. He stood 54" at the front shoulder, we couldn't afford to keep feeding him or repair the damage he was causing. To old and tough to eat as normally you would harvest a hog, we ground him up into sausage and sold it to stores/markets/friends for 50 cents a pound.

Bobby believed strongly in bloodline breeding, because of the quality of meat the hogs would have. Not having any boars that we could use for breed stock from Mad Jack, we had to buy a seasoned boar. Of course meanwhile all of kids were growing like crazy and needed clothes every few months.

Grandpa came down in early May to visit us, mom was pretty nervous because if he saw the root cellar bare like it was, he would get on her like a father scolding a child. My mom was pretty tough, but I never heard her disrespect Gramdpa.

He and my mom always fought about who was going to cook which meal when we were visiting each other. Mom cooked the first night, she had already started dinner. It was egg custard pie for desert.

It was still dark out, the new coal furnace was doing its job, and I was wakened by my granpas loud voice. I didn't dare go down stairs, my sister told us to be quit and not move around so mom/grandpa wouldn't know we were up. I couldn't hear clearly to what was being said, but I had to go to the restroom. That was right over the kitchen where they were.

It got all quit, and mom yelled upstairs and told everyone to get up and get chores done, she was no less than hot.

I saw on the table two jars of spiced crab apples, nobody cared for, but I knew that was all that was left in the root cellar. Grandpa, angry, was putting on his coat when I came down, I was last the morning scared I was going to get yelled at for using the bathroom. (brothers and sisters will be the first to sell you out if they think they might get in trouble)

Grandpa was leaving to go home, I was very hurt, grandpa was my bestes bud in the world. But no time to waste I wanted to get out of the way and get my chores done before breakfast.

Mom didn't speak much about it, Bobby, out of respect didn't say a word about grandpa and his rant all day. Living four hours away, it was dark out, and down the driveway two car lights could be seen. I am sure it was after 10pm, and we weren't supposed to be up.

Grandpa pulled up, a short conversation between adults took place outside. Mom came in yelled upstairs for us to get some clothes on and come down to help. I don't have to tell you that grandpa drove home, loaded a bunch of canned stuff of his own, drove all the way back. By this time, you might ask why not just go buy stuff and stay? Well let me tell you how much stuff he brought, tons.... ALong the way he had stopped and bought some fresh veggies to.

The following day, I remember mom and grandpa talking, he told her if she ever needed anything he was a phone call away. That evening grandpa took me and my sister aside and told us if we ever needed anything to give him a call when mom wasn't home.

 

[Dace]

What a touching story...that is what family is (or should be ) about.

 

[Aidenbaby]

Pioneer, I wanted to let you know that story really touched me. You see, I'm really embarrassed to admit this, I had an "intervention" myself two weekends ago. While it was not about the amount of food we have, it was about how dirty the house was. My mother had come up from Salida to stay the night with us. Her story had been that she went to visit my brother and ended up staying the night at my dad's because she was leaving early in the morning to head back home. Her staying with my dad and stepmom or even just visiting is something I never thought I'd live to see. What happened was that she was so disgusted and scared for her grandkids that she went to my dad's to talk to them about what was going on up here. They ended up surprising us the next day (I was still in my jammies at 10 am) by having my mother, father, stepmom, brother and his fiance (and her 2yo son) come to help us. My brothers fiance watched the kids while the rest of us tackled the house. At first, I was so ANGRY with everyone but then I realized that if they didn't love and care for me, they wouldn't have been there. I had the same chat with my parents that your mom probably had with her dad. I'm usually one of the first to offer to help anyone that needs anything even to my own detriment. It is/was hard for me to admit that I needed help (and still do) and I was/am ashamed that I didn't ask for it sooner now. I am gaining confidence that my laziness and procrastination streaks are being worked on. No more of the thinking that I'll get around to it later. Anyway, I'm really glad that you chose to share this memory with us.

ETA: Sorry I jacked your journal... again.

 

[modern_pioneer]

The bad year, 1982, part two

Bobby had placed 4x4 on the pedals of the tractor using adjustable stainless steel hose clamps. I was nervous, that was a pretty big tractor to me, 18hp ford. I drove around in low gear as Bobby walked telling me what to do. That evening at the dinner table he told mom how well I did and felt I was ready to start working the fields with him, it was a proud moment for me, and I did before my older step brother was allowed to.

Tho we weren't church goers, every Sunday morning we would listen to church hour on the radio as we sat and ate breakfast together. Often there was small talk, a few jokes and giggles. It was like a right of passage, Sunday morning brunch. The animals would be feed late as we sat every Sunday morning together, almost never were problems talked about, it was like highlighting last weeks events, all the good ones.

Excited about school ending, work on the farm always felt good that time of year. Now, if you think that my chores were split because Bobbys son moved in, they were lessoned, but he took on some of Bobbys chores. I was able to sleep in 30 minutes later.

The following weekend after grandpa left, Bobby, myself and his son Joey went to the country store to get seed for planting. The store ran lines of credit, and I guess ours was maxed out because we left without seed. Those were adult affairs, so I don't know why. When we returned home, mom was straight on the phone. Us children were taught that we needed to leave the room when they were on the phone dealing with business affairs. So Joey and I went out to play with our cherrywood bows made with fly string. We would use golden rod dried staulks for arrows, sometimes you could find a good straight balanced one that would shoot really far, and if you were lucky you could find it again and use it over and over.

Mom and Bobby had left to go into town, we were told to check the oil and gas up all the tractors and stick around the house. When they returned, the truck was full of corn, oat, barley, treefoil, timothy and alfalfa seed. If for a moment you think I was happy because we had seed, your wrong. I was happy that we had it because I was going to drive the tractor and show off my driving skills to my mom. I think that was the first day I felt like a little man, even tho my work on the farm mattered, this was easy work.

It was my job to plant the corn field, so off I went, humming along, it took me about 4 hours to plant the large field. That evening the whole family road on the trailor pulled by Bobbys big tractor to the field I had planted. Mom agreed with Bobby that I had done a good job, but later when the sprouts came up, LOL... it was a little bit of a mess, but the corn grew anyway.

That evening as I laid in bed, thinking of my days adventures, I was a different little boy as when I woke up that morning. Now that I think about it today, 27 years later, thats the day that country life would be seared to the soul of my being.

You know, there were a lot of life lessons taught in that field of corn.

Courage- It was the first time using a big tractor to plant a field and I was scared, but I pushed forward.

Trust- I never worried about the tractor breaking down, I had given her a pat when I first climbed on that moring.

Pride- I was doing something that really mattered on a big scale, it was an adult job.

Responsibility- I was trusted with a big tractor on my own and I was given a job to do.

 

[TanksHill]

Courage, trust, pride and responsibility...... Those are all things that as a parent I struggle daily to teach my children.

Thank you for sharing your story with us.