Celebrate Farming

Spent the weekend at a farming celebration and had such a great time. Draft horse pull, lots of old horse-drawn equipment, and good friends. There was plenty to look at and lots of things to do. We hated to see it end.
Nancy

Farm Stuff

There is more than one way to mow the grass! Above top is our crew hard at work.
The second picture is of a friend's wood cook stove. Isn't it great? It belonged to her husband's grandmother.
We enjoyed the broccoli from our garden night before last. It was a big first for us to have grown our own. There is something about growing your own food that is very satisfying. And when you eat it that fresh right from the garden it so healthy and delicious. Then you add in the fact that it was grown without chemicals and it is a huge thing indeed!

I want to share something with you that I read the other day in a book that I bought at a garage sale. The title is "Recollections of a Pioneer" and it was written by a man that moved to Missouri in 1839 by covered wagon when he was ten years old. In 1849 he, and other boys and men that lived in the area, set out for Califonia to try to find gold. There were many hazards along the way and when they reached California he became ill. Here are his words: " When we got down to Weaver Creek, three emigrants were at work panning out the gold. We stopped and camped and watched them for a long time. That night I was taken sick with the flux. It was a bad place to be sick and I was dreadfully sick, too. They fixed me a sort of pallet under the shade of a big tree, and I lay there night and day for a week and they didn't know whether I would live or die. Trains were constantly arriving and in one of them there was a doctor. He came down to see me and told the boys they must hunt up a cow and give me fresh warm milk. They told me afterwards they found a train in which somebody had foresight enough to bring a cow along, and they got the milk and brought it to me. I drank it and soon recovered."

How about that for REAL milk?! (The flux was also called the "bloody flux". It was dysentery.)

The book was written by J.W. (Watt) Gibson in 1912.

I'll let you know if I find any other gems in it.

Nancy

Chicken Killer

Jack went into the "big" coop the other night and found a long black snake in the cage with the chicks and it was killing them. I had taken them out of the brooder and put them in the cage so that they would get used to calling the coop home. The snake had killed some the night before, also, but we didn't know what had happened. Jack thought that they had gotten stuck in the sides of the cage. Apparently, the snake was trying to pull them through the sides of the cage. I have always thought that snakes ate only live things so I was very surprised by this. (And, also very sad!) It got away, unfortunately, but we haven't seen it again and the egg production went back up to where it had been. Seems that snake has been having himself some mighty good meals!
I talked to two different families, in as many days, that are wanting to move to the farm. They believe that it might be the best place for a family to be; and I couldn't agree more.
Nancy