Monday, October 25, 2010

The Thrill of Halloween on the Farm

Getting ready for Halloween was an exciting time at our farmhouse.  Mother helped us children make costumes for school parties.  One year, she cut and sewed a multitude of orange and black crepe paper into a witch costume for me.  Another year, she made my sister a pumpkin headed ghost costume, using one of the large pumpkins from the garden for a head.  (I used this as inspiration for my story, "Mama's Prize Pumpkin" in my children's anthology, Tales of Adventure & Discovery.

Mother also made pumpkin cookies for a treat.  She baked pumpkin pies, too. 

We also carved funny faces on pumpkins, then put candles inside for lights.  The hired man told us scary tales as he sat on the kitchen couch waiting for meals.

Sometimes there was a community party at the local town hall, the gathering place for young and old.  Since our farmhouse wasn't located near others, we started from my friend's home in a more populated area for our "trick or treating."

These are just a few of the memories of our Halloween fun on the farm.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Books About Your Farming Heritage & Memories

Many people write about their childhoods on the farm or their current farming experiences.  Those I've seen are written for more than family memories.  However, start with recording for your farming heritage for your family and then find if others might be interested, too.

If, like in my husband's family, there are a number of children (eight boys), then there will be an extended number of family members who would like a copy of these memoirs.  In fact, my mother-in-law wrote a six-part series for the local newspaper about living on the farm as the boys were growing up.  A friend compiled these articles into a booklet for Mum to give as Christmas gifts to each of the eight.  It's something we treasure and which I think of reissuing, with photos, because the grandchildren and great grandchildren have expressed interest.

Some published books about farm life:


Next Year Country by Lorney Faber
Remembering the Farm by Allan Anderson
Down on the Farm: Childhood Memories of Farming in Canada by Jean Cochrane
Pictures from the Farm: An Album of Family Farm Memories by John Allen
This Old Farm: A Treasury of Family Farm Memories by Roger Welsch

Are you writing your family memories?  If you live on a farm, do you keep a journal?  After I married and lived half way across the country from the family farm, my mom wrote me letters about their activities.  Some were very humorous and others simply a daily accounting.  But I've kept those letters and should compile the anecdotes into a booklet for family members.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Farming Heritage Memory Book

As I reminisce and compile my memories of a childhood on the farm, I consider how I'll put this together for future generations of my family.  Since I come from a farming heritage of parents, grandparents and great grandparents who grew up on farms and eeked a living from the land, I want my daugthter, grandchildren and future generations to know from whence they came.  This is their heritage, too.

Eventually I'd like to compile these blog posts and other memories, along with photos, into a Farming Heritage Memory Book for my descendants and those of my sister and brothers.  Perhaps others will enjoy reading about them, too....to reminisce about their heritage or just to learn about earlier life in our country.

Are you starting to write down your farming memories?  Or keep a journal or blog if you're currently farming?

Thursday, October 14, 2010

As Autumn Winds Down on the Farm

As autumn winds down and farmers prepare for winter, there were always a multitude of tasks on the farm.  Some were tedious, while others enjoyable.  I guess it all depended on how one looked at it.

  • Stashing bales of hay (and before the days of baling) against the back side of the house to keep the frost and cold from invading the cellar so much and causing pipes to freeze.  We also had to do this with the north side of the barn.
  • Making sure water pipes were insulated and covered, too.
  • Putting up the last vegetables in jars.
  • Digging the potatoes and store them in the large bin in the cellar.  There might be some carrots there, too.
  • Shelling corn, in the hand turned machine, to bag for the chickens.  Sometimes we stored the corn in the corn house and then shelled as needed.
  • Making sure everyone had boots and mittens to ward off the coming winter cold.
  • Stacking firewood and splitting kindling.  We had a wood fired cookstove and furnace, which took a lot of wood.
What winter preparation tasks do you undertake as autumn winds down.  Do you have specific ones you remember from childhood?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Rainy Days on the Farm

Rainy days meant different things, depending on the time of year and the work to be done.  Farmers are at the mercy of the weather.  They can't change it, so have to try to plan around it.  That's not always successful, but to a farmer, the weather is important.  Nowadays, we have more accurate weather reports that help.  When I was growing up, farmers used some of the old folk tale methods of trying to predict, as well as listening to the weather man on the radio.  (No TV and weather maps when I was a youngster.)

During haying season, we had to work around the showers and hope the hay had time to dry.

If we had a long season without rain, the spring that provided drinking and cooking water got low and we had to haul by hand and pail what we used.  Fortunately Father connected up to the brook for other household needs.

We needed rain in spring and summer for the garden and crops, but not too much and not at the wrong time.  We learned techniques for working around the weather and salvaging crops.

There always was lots of inside work saved for rainy days.  So when rain was prolonged, some of these tasks were caught up. 

And....we children enjoyed splashing through the puddles!