Life Lessons I Learned Working on Farms 75 Years Ago
It seems like yesterday
Ø Take a packet of table salt with you when you wade or swim in the local creek, since a pinch of salt removes the leeches that will adorn your feet and legs.
Ø Mosquitoes are a nuisance, but deer flies can drill a painful hole in you.
Ø When bringing the cows into the barn, walk far enough behind them so you can stay clear of the products of their tendency to relieve themselves en route.
Ø When the hay in the mow is damp, spread plenty of salt on it to prevent its spontaneous combustion.
Ø There are no ugly farm girls. This is why farmers with daughters keep a loaded shotgun in the house.
Ø A cow-pie used as a Frisbee must be at least two months old in the summer and one month old in the winter. Best to test its suitability with a stick before picking it up.
Ø It takes a month of going barefoot in the Spring on gravel roads to renew protective plantar calluses.
Ø A kerosene lamp will attract moths and June bugs within ten minutes of being lit. June bugs are erratic pilots and will bang into your forehead while they try to negotiate a closer look at the flame. Moths are more skillful flyers.
Ø Most wounds and scrapes can be healed with pine pitch. Under no circumstances should it be taken internally, nor used as a treatment for cold sores on the lips.
Ø Sears catalogues were still a staple in outhouses when I was a kid, and not just for reading. Dried corn cobs were never used, contrary to rumors by city dwellers.
Ø Wear long sleeves and long pants when working with hay, oats, or corn to protect yourself from bull thistles and “death from a thousand cuts”. Shoes are absolutely required in fields where grain has been cut.
Ø Cows must be milked twice a day, no matter what. All livestock must have access to feed and water at all times.
Ø Large draft horses can be used to pull tractors stuck in muddy fields. The power of these horses is plain awesome, and their work ethic is exemplary.
Ø Everything, if properly cooked, is edible. Besides a plethora of fresh vegetables, I have eaten deer, fish of every stripe, squirrels, beavers, raccoons, bears, opossums, turtles, and rabbits while on the farm. Those dishes are in addition to those commonly prepared from chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigs, and cows for the farm table. For full disclosure, I have never eaten snake, skunk, or wolverine.
Ø A final word of caution learned at a young age. Never walk behind a horse to whom you are a stranger.
I love how you're exercising other artistic talents with Canva. You're a natural. My memories of country life are primarily around horseback riding and caring for our horses at a local stable. I loved the smells and sounds of the place. It was not far from our Madison home but it was a world away in my mind. Lovely memories, Tom.
I, too, have fond memories of visits to my grandparent’s farm(s) near Portage, in the 1940s and 1950s. The two huge draft horses, Dan and Chief, were awesome and both pulled a plow in the field and the hay wagon on the county road. The house(s) never had electricity or indoor plumbing and only an outhouse with daddy long legs and flies, and there were ceramic pots to use at night if you didn’t want to trek outside in the dark. Kerosine lamps provided light inside and outside. Television was not available, only one radio. Chickens ran free, eggs came from the henhouse, and fresh milk by hand twice a day. Never go in the pasture with the bull. Rattle snake skins were hung on barbed wire fences, the windmill provided target practice with a BB gun, and water was hand pumped. The only tangible remnants I have of that time and place are a few photos and, of greatest value, the arrowheads collected by my father and which had been uncovered in plowed fields; some of these points are thousands of years old and are now family heirlooms for my children. I have forgotten much in my 82 years but never my times on the farm as a very young boy.