Collaborating with a Sister on Farm Memories

Collaborating with my sister on farm memories is proving to be delightful.  She is writing poetry and making sketches as well as paintings of life on the farm as we recall it.

Although we live in different states, we do a great deal of mailing of thoughts, sketches, photos and family history back and forth.  I feel it's important that we compile this information for our families and future generations.

I write about some of this on my blogs, as well as including some of these thoughts in my "Country Kitchen" column for the McKenzie River Reflections newspaper in Oregon.

Currently we're working on:

• A history booklet of our farm
• Seasonal memories
• Poetry and paintings about the family farm
• People important to our youth on the farm

You need not be writing about a farm, simply about your childhood home or homes, the village where you grew up, the school you attended, friends you remember.

Developing a Family Farm History Booklet

I've developed a farm history booklet for my husband's home where he grew up.  I got the idea from some articles my mother-in-law wrote about life on the farm as the eight boys were growing up.  She wrote them just for memories.  However, a friend suggested she send them to the local newspaper which had a memories section.  The paper published the articles in eight segments.

Her friend Ginny cut the articles out, made photocopies, then put them into a booklet for Mum to give each family for Christmas.  Over the years, all the families except my husband and me (I'm a packrat when it comes to family memorabilia!) had lost or mislaid the booklets.

So I decided to make copies, add a history of the farm given to Mum by former owners,  and include photos of the farm.  I discovered they were very popular among Mum's children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and friends.  So I need to make more in which I'll also include copies of two paintings I've done of the farm.

My Own Childhood Farm

"Why don't you make a booklet of the farm where you grew up?" a distant cousin asked.   "I'd like a copy."

So now I'm digging out from my files my parents' reminiscences (I got them to write down some of their memories before they passed away) and old deeds which record my dad's purchase of the farm and deeds of former owners.   I'll include some articles and poems I've written about the farm, along with photos and the copy of a painting I've done.  My sister also has made sketches of the family farm.

Record Your Memories

Record your memories of growing up on a farm or your current experiences there for children, grandchildren and their descendants.  It's an enjoyable project.

Baby Chicks in the Mail

Baby chicks in the mail!  These fluffy yellow peeps came in a sturdy cardboard box separated into 4 sections.  Father picked them up at the local post office, where they arrived from the chick supplier.

This was an exciting time as we placed them in a larger containment in the brooder house, under a hood with heating lights.  However, if it was too cold outside, my parents might place them in a large container in our farmhouse kitchen untill the weather changer.

I didn't realize this practice (baby chicks in the mail) still existed.  However, on a stop at our local post office in spring, I heard a peeping sound.  I inquired and discovered, YES, baby chick still arrived in the mail.

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.

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!

Harvest Time

Harvest time on the farm extended from the first haying in June throughout the summer until corn silage time in the fall.  Often the farmers would help one another and go from farm to farm for oats and corn gathering.  They would set up the equipment and bring the grains in from the field to bag and store and, with silage, put into the silo.

This was a time, too, when the women prepared noon meals for the larger crew.  Perhaps two or three of the neighbor ladies would gather at the home where harvesting was being done and do the cooking.  Mother often had a neighbor lady help her, one who often babysat for us children, too.  As Sister and I grew older, we helped with the cooking and serving.

Even though this was hard work in summer and fall, it was a good time as well.  Stories were told, reminiscenses shared, and neighborhood news spread. 

I've even found some photos my mom took in the 1930s of the men harvesting the oats and straw, with the threshing machine set up before the building we called the "straw barn." 

I've realized I need to record these memories for my children and grandchildren, as part of their heritage.  Are you doing this with yours?