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First Job of Bob - Dairy Farm - Part IV - Binary; Weather; Woods; Creek; Rocks; Kids; Sandy the Dog
This entry was posted on 4/21/2010 5:49 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
At times, in moments of reflection and retrospect, I think of the nuances of the dairy farm. This is the part that I believe tends to draw people into romanticizing the whole affair. Make no mistake, it was classic binary. The good; the bad. The rewarding; the heartbreaks. The struggles; the victories. The happy; the sad. And on and on. There was the marvelous sunrises over the woods to the east. There was a space over the barnyard to the right of the barn the sun rose up in perfect view from the back porch of the house. And as well, there was the beautiful sun sets to the west. Our front yard was the last bit of our property next to Lima Center Road. You could sit on the outside front porch of the house, or walk out to the road and sit on the ditch slope and watch the sun set over the neighbor's fields. A one engine plane crash landed over there one day. It seemed so odd a thing to be pulling out of the field. A plane looked so out of place in the corn field.
There was a dark side to the weather. A tornado came through back in the mid-1960s and reeked havoc on the row of giant maple trees lining the north end of the farm along Lima Center Road. Luckily, the storm followed the little creek on that end of the farm and did not hit the buildings. To me as a kid, it was like something out of a movie. It blew in; barn and shed doors were quickly closed; a couple important documents were grabbed; we all headed for the basement. The County boys worked on those trees for a month in the aftermath. You could always tell after that storm, that those trees had been beat up in the storm. It took years for some of the crooked limbs to be covered again by new growth on the trees that survived the wind.
Years ago, someone had planted a row of pines around the homestead perimeter; the area around the buildings. Good thing. The wind whipped off the north fields relentlessly. I know the trees were old. Not sure if it was the idea the the man that owned the farm before my grand father, or my grand father's scheme. Grand father bought the place in 1913. My dad was born in the house.
There was a hickory woods down by the Lima Marsh. That marsh intruded on the east side of our farm. A rock pile announced the woods entrance. There was another rock pile in the back of the barn. Nowadays, people pay a king's ransom for the glaciated granite rocks that we once struggled to pull out of fields. You have not lived on a farm if you never picked rocks out of the plowed fields in the spring. We often used what was called a stone boat; a large wood platform dragged behind a tractor. We used the old Case DC tractor. Its engine would idle at low speeds for ever in a day and you could slowly pull the boat across a field while a couple of hardy souls plucked new risen rocks from the fields and threw them on the boat. Some times the rocks had to be dug out; often with an iceberg result. Some rocks turned out to be huge. Every spring they worked their way to the surface.
There was a little creek turned into a drainage ditch that ran east to west in the middle of our farm; the same one the storm had followed. On the map it will be called Otter Creek. The farmer down stream did not maintain his end so well so the water backed up at times. But the farm had marsh areas and limestone deposits anyway. Point being, it was just another hurdle to working the temperamental land. In the spring when the water was high, us kids used to build rafts out of old doors and tractor inner-tubes and transport them down there on a coaster wagon. Then we would raft the creek. Lucky we did not all drown.
For years there was an old cement bridge across Lima Center Road. The giant maples on its edge created a canopy to play under along the creek. We used to build toy boats out of old lath wood and then shoot at them with our BB-guns. Some times we would set them on fire and watch them flame like a burning mini pirate ship. Once a neighbor came down to see why all the smoke was coming from under the bridge. Make no mistake. Had we started a grass fire in the dry spring weeds left over from fall, it could have been a problem. Many a field would get burned in the dry windy spring by a cigarette tossed out a window. Buildings could be put at risk. It was nothing to play with. A field could be consumed in minutes on a windy day. We were lucky. Bridge, trees, and kids are all gone from that spot now - no one would ever know it ever existed.
There was a dandy pine woods my dad planted in the northeast corner of the farm on what would be our hill. It butted up against the neighbor's large woods. After I got out of the Army, I would camp up there now and then. It was great hiking with all its nooks and crannies. The neighbor let his cows forage his woods so the beasts always cleaned out the small foliage. You can always tell a woods occupied by cattle - the little brush is beat down. It makes good hiking woods. I used to bring my last dog Sandy up there and let her run. First she insisted on taking a dip in the creek. After an afternoon of hiking, on the way home to supper, she would hit the creek again. Great memories.
Note: This Blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan
Army National Guard Specialist Michael Jacob Wendling, 20, of Mayville, Wisconsin died on Monday, September 26, 2005 in Shaibah, a city near Basra, Iraq. Specialist Wendling was killed when when an improvised explosive device (roadside bomb) detonated near the vehicle he was driving while in convoy. Army National Guard Sergeant Andrew Peter Wallace, 25, of Oshkosh was also killed in the incident. They were also attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire. Specialist Wendling was assigned to the Wisconsin Army National Guard's Company C, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Brigade. Charlie Company is Fond du Lac, Wisconsin based. Part of the greater unit has Appleton connections. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Wendling signed up for the National Guard together while still in high school. Michael was a student on the Dean's List at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee when his unit was activated. The Journal Sentinel went on to say the 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry is based in Appleton and spent a couple of months training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi prior to deployment overseas. The unit began assignment in Kuwait in mid-August, 2005. Part of their mission was to be based in northern Kuwait and provide security to convoys traveling from Kuwait into Iraq. Information read into Wisconsin State Senate 2005 Joint Resolution 62 indicated Micheal graduated from Mayville High School in May 2003 and played football, basketball, baseball and golf. At the time of his death, Michael was survived by father, Randall, mom Carrie, sisters Jennifer and Anglela, and brother, Mark. Army Specialist Michael Jacob Wendling was the 47th Wisconsin Military Service person to be killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
95,911 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,448 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,395 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1037 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
683 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,778 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
5,629 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
18 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
140 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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