Farming
Category:
Just Stuff | Posted:
Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:38 am
My youngest sister sent me an email and told me her son joined Future Farmers of America and would I send him some information about our family and farming. I had to go back to 1943 or 44, the first I remember farming. I wasn't even in school. The first I remember wasn't farming but of having goats. We lived in a house on a ravine and Mom had to tie my middle brother to a tree or he would roll down the hill into the ravine. Next we moved to a farm near my Dad's brother, in "the sand". My dad had a mule Jenny that he pulled the plow with until my Uncle finished planting and then he borrowed his tractor. We raised mostly corn there. A couple years later we moved to another farm about three mile away. Before Dad worked in a factory at night and farmed in the day. When we moved here we just farmed. We planted corn, alfalfa, wheat or oats and soybeans. We also had cows, hogs, chickens,and turkeys. We had a big garden and several fruit trees. We had a tractor, disc, and harrow to prepare the ground for planting but nothing to help harvest. One farmer had the machinery and came to each farm to help. I remember one year we kids helped pick corn. The horses pulled the wagon and we walked along and pulled off the ears of corn and threw them in the wagon. We only had to do that one year. We planted watermelon and cantaloupe one year but they were labor intensive and didn't sell well. We moved to another farm up by Peoria but I can only remember having animals, gardens and grape vines. And Dooley broke her elbow and later the measles. The measles she passed to the other of us. Until I was in high school we always lived in the country but after that we always lived in town. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents all farmed in central Illinois. Farming sure has changed since we grew up and no one in the family farms anymore or even has animals. I am not sure I want to say those were the good ole days but I am not sure they were, it was a lot of hard work. Wannabe
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