Its The Little Things

Its the little things...

 Speaking in pig latin,

    the Old Farmer was quite proficient.

Playing games around the table after dinner,

    guessing state capitals and national capitals.

Jigsaw puzzles and bedtime stories.

Board games on Saturday night.

 Homemade popcorn.

Homemade milkshakes!

 Sitting on the porch 

watching a storm.

Riding on the tractor.

Learning to drive the tractor!


Blowing out the birthday candles.

Hanging tinsel on the Christmas tree.

Learning to ride a bicycle.

 


Climbing trees, 

picking blackberries,

 apples, and pears

 Making snowmen.

Throwing snowballs.

Piggy back rides (a bucking bronco!)

A hidey hole, (a blanket over a card table)

Hide and seek, outdoors at night!

Tag and move up baseball and croquet.

 Spur of the moment ride in the country.

Hiking on the railroad tracks.

Niagara falls and Watkins Glen.

Olcott Beach 
and amusement park.

Welland Canal, the Erie Canal.

Finding a bird's nest

 or some baby rabbits.

 Catching frogs and crawdads at the pond.

And then letting them go.

 Nightmares and fire sirens 
and hearing ghosts at night.

Hiding under the covers.

Playing with a flashlight at night,
 can you see through your hand.

What is this shadow animal, 
duck, dog, bird flying!

The things a child will remember all of their lives.

What are some of yours?

Fireman's Field Days

Farmers worked hard in the summer.
We also played hard!

Those were the days of volunteer fire departments.
The siren would go off and could be heard for a couple miles away.
The first ones to the department would get the location
and head out with the trucks.
Volunteer firemen farmers would converge on the site.

Volunteer firemen also had a band at each department.
All were recruited if they could play an instrument.
The old farmer's oldest daughter played a glockenspiel.
Then every weekend over the summer a different department hosted
a field days event and parade.
They all marched in each others parade.

 

The field days involved many booth of games.
Dart throwing, ping pong balls tossed into ivy bowls.
(With a gold fish in each!),  hammering a nail into a 2x4
(who could drive a nail with one blow?), knocking down the weighted critters,
target shooting, and on and on. 

Guess who always came home
with a 50s ruby or green glass ivy bowl and a goldfish!

So this was actually a lot of work too, building the booths,
volunteering to run them, barbecuing the chicken, parading.
But the work was on the host department,
you got to enjoy everyone elses!

What do you remember about field days? 

Did you ever run a booth or march in the parade?

Time to Plant the Garden

Well here it is towards the end of  May.
We started thinking garden at the Old Farmer's House at the first of the month.

And we had weather cold enough to snow in Western NY.
This is why safe planting time there was mid May.

"If you plant peas on St. Patrick's Day, 
and then it snows on them; you will have a bumper crop."
Perhaps the peas and onion sets are in early, they will survive. 

Soon the carrots, beets, swiss chard, kohlrabi etc will be planted

We would eagerly go out each morning to see if any had sprouted.

Then the squashes, tomatoes,
 and the corn at the north end of the garden. 

After the tomatoes are planted we would go out the next

morning and see how they were doing.
The Old Farmer would point out where one
was chopped down like a little tree
The damage was from the "cut worm".
It would eat through the stem just above the ground level.
You would loose a few each year and if you had extra
plants you could fill in. This only happened the first few
days before they "hardened" up.

The Old Farmer had nice straight rows in his garden. 

It was a big garden, he kept a line rolled up on two sticks in the barn.

Each spring it came out and started the first row, the line must have been

100 feet long! Then each row after he moved the line over 2 feet, more
or less depending on what was being planted. 

After the line was set he would go down along it with the hoe
and make the furrow in which to plant the seeds.  

I will never forget The Old Farmer taking me out to the new garden

after a heavy shower. It had been very dry.
He said that he supposed I thought we had a good rain now
and the garden was well watered. I agreed. 

The he bent over and flicked over a bit of dirt with his finger.

Only the thinnest bit on top was set, underneath was still dry dusty soil.  

The Old Farmer's Wife

The Old Farmer's wife was a good mother.
She cooked and cleaned and canned the produce of the garden.

The Old Farmer's children learned cooking
by helping prepare vegetables and observing.
They were sent to the basement to bring up potatoes
or the back room to get canned goods.

 

They learned cleaning with weekly chores.
Each was responsible for their bedroom and a living room
or dining room or bathroom as assigned.
These became daily chores when school was out for the summer.
Beds were made and sinks scoured daily.

They learned canning by picking the produce and washing the jars.
And watching the loading of the canner
and hearing the lids pop when the jars came out.

 

When the old farmer's back was out she got the heating pad
and made him comfortable.
When the children had the mumps and measles and chicken pox
they were babied and loved back to health.

And she had lots of favorite sayings. Mostly was "it takes two to tango".
We could not get away with saying it was the other persons fault!

The Old Farmer's wife was a good mother.

Easter Egg Hunt

   If you have been reading my blog, The Old Farmer's Daughter

you know the Old Farmer was a big kid at heart! 

Every year the night before Easter the whole family

gathered around the big round table in the kitchen
and we colored the hard boiled eggs in colored dyes. 

 Overnight the magic happened courtesy of 

The Old Farmer hiding the eggs and a basket for each child. 

Usually it was still winter in our neck of the woods so

the big hunt was held in the large dining room. 

There was a basket in the corner of the bay window. 

A blue egg in the middle of the snake plant! 

One under the radiator! 

One egg was missing...the Old Farmer hinted,

warmer, warmer, oops cooler, warmer, warmer, HOT ! 

Where was it? Aha! Climbing on a chair it was found

overhead in a flower wall pocket!

Then off to church in our new Easter clothes and hats.  

Back home to a breakfast of hard boiled eggs and coffee cake. 

Dinner of ham and deviled eggs. 
And chocolate bunnies for desert. 

HAPPY EASTER from THE OLD FARMER"S DAUGHTER! 

New schedule for the Old Farmer's Daughter

The Old Farmer's Daughter 

Is going to start posting periodically

As seasonal posts come up.

This is an effort to avoid repeating myself.

I thank all my followers and if you are not

following on my blogg or via blogger

I hope you will consider doing so

so that you don't miss any of my great upcoming stories !

Snow Days

Snow Days.

Didn't we all love them! 

A play day, a fun day, a romping in the snow day. 

Unfortunately they were few and far between.
If the side road was impassable The Old Farmer's children

had to hike to the top of the hill on the main road to catch the bus! 

When we had one we made the most of it.
One of this Old Farmer's daughter favorite memories of a day at home

would be when The Old Farmer's wife covered a card table with
a blanket to make a tent, a cave, an igloo! 

We would use a dining room chair as a doorway
to crawl into the cozy space. 

When getting outdoors in our snowsuits

we would play fox and goose, making concentric circle paths

in the snow with a cross through them to a safe space in the center. 

When the fox caught a goose (one of the other players)

they became the fox until they could catch a "goose". 

There was a lot of slipping and falling down in the 

bulky suits which were hard to move in! 

Hot Potato

It was really cold out and The Old Farmer 

decided it was time to take us out into the wild

for a cookout. The old fashioned way.
None of these civilized picnics with the grill and charcoal stuff. 

We trekked through the snow to the field at the far side of the garden

from the farmhouse. There The Old Farmer lit a wood fire

and got it going good. We picked up any sticks and limbs we

found around to help stoke it. 

When there was a good bed of coals he put foil wrapped potatoes

deep back under them, pushing with a stick.
Then we had to wait, and wait, "how much longer!" 

Sitting in the snow around the fire we shivered and chatted for an hour,

until the taters would be ready. 

When the Old Farmer deemed it had been long enough
he raked the foil packages out with another stick,
digging until he found them all. Hot potato, hot potato!
Tossing from hand to hand to unwrap them hot potatoes

which were charred on the outside and did not look to appetizing! 

Ah, but inside they were light and fluffy
and so good to have something hot to eat on that cold day outside. 

Skating on the Pond

Cold Cold Cold

Like we are having now. 

It is time to check the pond and go ICE SKATING! 

Before we were allowed on the ice the old farmer would

sweep snow off the edge to see how thick it was.

If 3" or more he would edge out farther into the ice

and check again. 

And he would show us how to check. 4-5" was good to go.
It was amazing how clear the ice might

be so you could see how thick it was. 

Then let the fun begin! 

Someone would start with the snow shovel

and make paths until there was a large clear area. 

We were warned to stay away from the left side

along which there were muskrat holes and thinner places in the ice. 

At the far end a spring ran into the pond so that was thinner too. 

So when deemed safe we spent many a winter day
down on the pond. Just skating back and forth.
The neighbor boys would play hockey. 

Occassionally the top of the ice would get wet with snow on it

then the ice would refreeze all tiny bumpy and be unusuable,
pretty much for the rest of the winter :   ( 

Play safe everyone!~ 

Happy New Year 2018