August 25, 2010

Since we left Indiana many years ago, I have wanted to go back and visit the farm where my Grandparents on my Dad’s side of the family lived. Today I had that opportunity. My Grandparents had four boys and the yonngest,Uncle Russ, still lives on the farm. He was happy to show my brother Bob, Char and I around. He told us several family stories about growing up on the farm. He even told us some of the names of the horses that they owned and showed us the area where their stalls were in the barn. They used to milk cows but that ended when Uncle Russ went to the Army in the1950s. After he came home from military service they started raising beef cattle and continued this for a number of years. Like many farms in the area, they also raised hogs. There is no livestock on the farm anymore. Since he retired, my Uncle has someone else planting and harvesting the crops.

Here are a few farm pictures.

The barn, built in 1936, is still in great shape and now my uncle plants a small vegetable garden in front.

This is one section of the hayloft. Although no longer used, the original hay fork and track is still in the top of the barn.

Charred boards are still visible from a small fire. One day when Grandpa and Grandma went to town, the two middle brothers decided to go into the barn, hide in a buggy and play with matches. Something happened and a fire started. The oldest brother came to their rescue and put out the fire and saved the barn. I think they learned a valuable lesson and never played with matches again.

This is the area where the cows were milked. Now the stanchions have been removed. But it still feels the same when you walk down the passageway in front of the feed bunk.

The brown building is the granary and was moved here in the 1930s from a farm about four miles away. They raised it, put wheels under it and pulled it here by horses. Once it was put in place, additions were added to each side. The red building is the milk house. It still has part of the old windmill attached that pumped , as I remember, the coldest water in the county.

Here Uncle Russ is telling us about the changes he has made.

The wood shed is on the left and the shop/garage is on the right. I remembered the wood shed as being much larger.

This is a horse drawn one-row cultivator they once used. Notice the tree growing through and around it. I’m guessing it hasn’t been used or moved for many years.

We learned about using hickory shear pins in the hole shown above. This shear pin broke when a big stone or root was hit. This was an inexpensive way to protect the cultivator from being ruined. Hickory was plentiful and strong. If they needed more pins, they stopped and went to the woods surrounding most fields and cut more.

Uncle Russ expanded the lawn around the out buildings. Everything is very neat and clean with easy access to the crops. With all the rain they experienced earlier this year, mowing was almost a fulltime job. In normal weather, it still takes about three days to mow everything.

After an enjoyable morning we headed to town for a nice lunch and more conversation. It was a great day and we look forward to doing this again sometime with Uncle Russ.