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[william]

For an accurate picture I would have to tell about some of the not so nice sides of farming.

Cleaning the barn and cattle pens. Pig pens can be kinda, well, "gross" I guess is the word most folks would use.

Chicken coops not so smelly and are usually dry. But they can be very dusty.

And then there are always a few animals that get sick and perhaps will die. Some of these are very valuble, worth thousands of dollars in fact! I have seen cattlemen who broke down and cried when a heifer, (Very young female cow), became sick and nothing could be done to save her.

There is a continual birthing process always taking place on a farm. New calves, new piglets or maybe new baby rabbits. Most of the births are without problems. But it is very prudent to check regularly on the progress regardless of what specie it might be. New mother rabbits will sometimes eat their own newly born offspring.

Some farmers still do their own butchering of animals for their own food supply. A generation or two ago every farmer had the ability to do this job. I still recall the very first cow that I saw hanging after it was killed for meat. I have butchered cows and pigs and deer myself several times. In fact in a couple of weeks I have about 24 chickens to butcher out for our freezer.

It is something that I do not enjoy doing. But I have to toughen my mind to do the job at hand.

This should give a clearer picture of the average farm of a few years ago.

Bummy74

[Amber Rigby Grosjean]

I'm sure some farmers still live this way. If you think about it, its probably cheaper.

I remember my grandmother's garden. It wasn't big but it did offer a few things that saved her money from buying it like green beans, corn, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes. There was more but that's just an idea.

Even in the city, anyone can have a garden. Just buy the seeds which you can get on food stamps, I may add lol.

As far as the meat goes, buying the animal versus going to the store would be expensive but if you're able to get that animal through birthing, it would be a lot cheaper plus you get more for the money lol.

Amber

[Barbara]

Amber you probably didn't know this but I live on the edge of my husband's family farm. While they pretty much farm the same as Bill is describing things are very different today. We do not have a huge modern farm compared to some I have visited in the Lancaster area, but modern compared to many years ago.

It's not often a cow is butchered on the farm any longer, it is sent out for that. They no longer have nuscent animals (ducks, chicken, goats, etc.) I cannot not tell you how many head of cattle as last week was the first I've been to the barn in years.
Husband's nephew attended Cornell University (he's a large animal vet) and with that great many changes came to the farm.
We no longer do our own planting of the crops, haying or picking of corn. It's actually cheaper to hire this job done. Cows are no longer pastured. We are lucky enough though to have enough land to grown our own feed for the cows. Must admit there are some years we fall short and have to purchase. Most of the time if not all the calves are sent to auction not long after birth. I'm not sure if they are a few days old or weeks, as like I said I don't get involved with the farming. Then there are the cats. At one time they had over 40 cats. Last year along 25 kittens were dropped off to the barn. This spring a virus went through and most of the cats died off. Surprisingly as the above nephew's wife is a small animal vet and she vaccinates all she can catch.
Won't be long now and when they head to the barn in the morning there will be some new comers who arrived in the night.

[william]

Barb is right about todays farm. cattle are fed from concrete bunkers or feed troughs. The hay is chopped up and mixed with supplements. Calves are kept in pens and grain is in front of them all the time. Later on they might be pastured on good grass but still receive a grain mix.

Many changes have been made since I have kept cattle. Huge stainless steel tanks that are refridgerated are used for storage until an 18 wheeler tanker truck comes to haul it to a processing plant.


Bummy74

[Barbara]

You will laugh at this Bill. We have the only "paved" barnyard that I know of. Yes, I said "paved". Much easier to clean. BIL had forgotten what I told him about why he didn't want to pave the barnyard. It makes the cows feet sore. So we did have to add on some extra pasture so the cows could walk on ground. At the farm I visited in Lancaster the cows walked on rubber matting, but this is a big bucks farm, over 6000 acres. I'll look for the link sometime and send to you once I figure out how to spell there name. The one thing I remember is they have one million chickens.

[william]

The farm where I get my milk from has a concrete barnyard too Barb. And lots of sore feet too. They milk in the neighborhood of about 320 cows three times a day. They try to keep the milking area and barnyard clean but it is a losing battle. They have about 10 workers, all except 1 or 2 are family members.

To be honest I do not see how they stay afloat. They usually raise a piggy or two for meat. The kids have their own projects for the local fair. Lu and I support the kids all that we can. In fact a couple of days ago they came over for a little social gathering.

Lu Ann actually booted the butt of the one boy because he failed to pass his grade. I am sure he was embarrased because his girlfriend came too. Lu and I talk to them every chance we get and point out just how hard their parents are working on the farm, not only that but the mother spends much more of her time helping the kids with their projects, like training their lambs and steers to be top winners at the county fair.

Not only her kids but other kids too.

When they were ready to leave our home, I was surprised to receive a hug from the daughter. She is sixteen. I offered to give all the other young ladies, including the mother, a hug too but there were no takers

[william]

My life on the farm is much like a working vacation Amber. I can almost always take a few minutes to stop what I am doing to watch a deer or squirrel or maybe just lay on my back and watch the clouds float by overhead.

When the weather promised to be good one summer I would mow the grass down in the morning. Right after the mowing was finished I raked up the previous day's mowing then after letting it cure out a little more, I would start baling it.

Many days started at 6:00 Am and finished at 9:30 at night. The next door neighbor kids and their mother would help haul the hay. After the haying was finished we took them on a little vacation trip to upstate New York fingerlakes area. We camped overnight at three different state park camp grounds and spent a couple other days at two more state parks. I guess we were gone for about 7 or 8 days.

A different year and a different set of kids we went to the Buffalo Zoo and Niagra falls. This time we were gone for 3 days as I recall.

Bummy74

[william]

About 1965 or 1966 we started raising a few rabbits. A man put an ad in the paper looking to buy rabbits. He wanted to start up a meat rabbit business. In fact he had a rabbit butchering area almost set up. In the mean time he trucked rabbits to New York City to a terminal where small meat animals were bought and sold. Chickens, ducks, turkeys and rabbits were sold to restaurants and meat markets there.

As time went by his business grew. One day he approached us and explained that some doctor from the National Institute of Health had talked to him. This doctor wanted to set up a series of individual rabbitries for the purpose of medical research.

They would supply all the feed and medication and buy suitable rabbits that were raised. The rabbitry owner provided the housing, pens and care. We said yes! we would give it a try. The first pens I made from old refridgerator inside tubs. Once I got them out of the outside shell I put the open side down with wire mesh covering it. Then I cut a hole in the side to accommadate a door large enough to put a nest box inside. I took the wire shelfing from a cook stove and fitted a makeshift door from it to close that opening. I had to cut another opening for a feeder.

These homemade pens worked very well. They were easy to keep clean. The wire mesh on the bottom allowed the rabbit manure to simply drop to the ground. We put a wooden board just large enough for that rabbit to sit on, otherwise they could get sore feet from being constantly on the wire mesh. We fed them pellets. We watered them with a gravity fed water bottle. Sometimes we had to medicate the water to control diarhea and other problems.

At one time we had over 1000 rabbits. Eventually the individual rabbities were done away with and a central rabbitry was built. The company bought our rabbits for breeding stock for the new building.

I drove to the various rabbitries to collect the rabbits and took them to a central point. The bunnies were sorted out and orders were taken from various pharmicuetical houses for research. Rejected rabbits went to NYC meat markets.

My Ex wife worked for about 25 years at this company. A weekly Drive to NYC was a long and tiresome trip for me. and I had other interests to take care of.


Bill aka Bummy74

[Amber Rigby Grosjean]

ok. Tthat's cool that you share your experiences. I wish I could've lived on a real farm lol.

Amber

[william]

Farms in my area almost always have wooded areas nearby or even on the farm itself. And of course there are the wilderness creatures living there.

Hardly a day goes by but what we see a deer or wild turkey somewhere nearby. Sometimes even in the yard. Deer have become so used to seeing us that they do not run away unless you approach too close. They are not even afraid of the dogs. Dogs are tied and can only bark.

Once in awhile a bear will make an appearance in our hayfield. We had one spend most of one day in our yard tree. He managed to sneak past 9 sleeping dogs before they discovered him. In fact there was a dog tied at the base of the tree that he climbed.

I came upon a couple of newborn fawns one day. I was just out walking thru the woods. I had seen their mother at a spring getting a drink. She turned and went back into the woods. I continued to walk along an old logging road. I heard a rustling in the brush beside of the road. I stopped and all of a sudden these two very tiny spotted deer came out to greet me. Their umbilical cords were not even dry yet. I sat down with them. They nuzzled me and I scratched their ears. Pretty soon mamma deer came cautiously back. She was looking for me. But she was looking down the road where I had walked up from.

She knew I was in the area but not exactly where. I let her approach to about 100 yards and I whistled. She paid no attention. I made several noises but it was not until I stood up that she spotted me. She snorted and bounded away. I soon left.

When I came back down that road I saw only one of those little ones. The other one must have been asleep in the underbrush.



Another welcomed surprised was while I was cutting firewood. I picked a tree that was dying and somewhat hollow to take down that day.

I had cut thru an outside shell and discovered an area that was simply rotten wood. After it came down I was surprised to see two huge and very dark black eyes staring out at me. It was a flying squirrel. She looked about for a few seconds and then disappeared. A couple seconds she reappeared with a tiny baby in her mouth. She scampered about 20 feet to another tree and hurriedly ran about 50 feet straight up. She then launched herself into space and glided many yards to another tall tree. And jumped off in a little different direction. And then she started up a third tree. I lost sight of her then.

But soon she was back. Again she claimed another tiny baby and repeated her path "up up and away" again. She took 4 babies out of the tree I had cut down. But she came back one more time to make sure she had not left anyone behind.

Most folks have not had the privilage to see a flying squirrel. They are nocturnal in nature. My saw cut the tree just inches beneath her nest.

Bummy74

[Amber Rigby Grosjean]

That was close. I'm glad the family got away unharmed. Same with the deer. The only deer I've been up close to were the ones in the zoo. It was nice but even that's been a while. I need to get out more often lol.

Amber

[william]

We always pastured our cattle. And of course fences needed to be built or repaired. Our fence posts were cut from small trees here on the farm. Locust trees were the best and lasted the longest of anything. But we just did not have many locust trees back then. Locust also has short and very sharp thorns on the limbs. Posts made from cherry trees were pretty good but they were not very easy to split. Ash trees split very easy but they did not last more then three or four years. Dad said that the native chestnut trees were good posts too. But the blight killed off nearly all of them. Steel posts lasted a long time but they were very expensive.

And then there was the wire fencing. We used three or four strands of barbed wire. The barbs would prick the animal and hopefully she would move away from the fence. We used electric fences too. But grass would grow up and short the fence out til it would not work. The cattle always seemed to know when the fence was not working properly. Some individual animals would jump or just push thru any kind of fence. The easiest way to keep these animals in was putting them in a freezer.

If your ground was stoney, trying to set a post could be a major task. We usually made a hole in the ground with a crow bar. Our posts were sharpened to a point on one end. That pointed end was placed in the ground and then we would pound the top end as hard as possible until that post was tightly set in that hole.

I did buy a post hole digger for the tractor. It did not work very good because of the stones. Sometimes deer would run into the fence and break it down or pull the staples out.

One sad sight that I saw was a deer had tried to jump the fence. Its hind legs went thru between the top strand and the next strand down. That deer was hanging by his hind legs. There was no way for him to get his legs loose. It was several weeks before I found him, still on the fence. A horrible way to die!

Bummy74

[Amber Rigby Grosjean]

I wouldn't want to go that way. I always say, in my sleep is how I wanna go. Like I even have a choice lol.

I heard just recently another farmer had to sell his cattle and get rid of his farm because milk is becoming so hard to profit from and he was losing money. More and more farmers are closing their "doors" because of the cost of keeping things going is rising and the money flow is lowering. Its really sad.

Amber

[barb12]

I have encouraged Bummy since the day I met him to get his stories wrote down for his family. I think some he has, but he's got lots more to tell.

What has always amazed me about cows is, how a cow pregnant with twins can jump over a four foot fence going up hill, then travel up the hill, drink all the water out of the bird bath, have a few blades of grass, then go back down hill, jump over the fence once again. This happened several times a few years ago and I kept telling everyone and they all laughed at me. Then one Sunday morning my hubby happened to be around at the right time and witness this himself. I kept telling BIL he needed to place a bucket down in the pasture for this cow. There is a brook a ways away, but she preferred bird bath water.

[Amber Rigby Grosjean]

Everything in this world from humans down to the smallest organism have their own preferences lol. I guess we learned from a cow. I would've loved to see it too but I do believe you without seeing it. I've seen animals do some strange things and with my imagination, I know anything is possible anyway.

Even if you don't write to be published, writing our stories down to pass down to our children and their children is always a great way to cherish our memories. And with Lulu you can put those stories in a nice book where it can be cherished even more. This company makes it really affordable and you can choose to keep it private where only you can order the book or sell it on their site for anyone to buy which is a nice option. That way, five generations down the line, a person in the family can still get a fresh copy if needed which means it would make an awsome gift.


Amber