Thursday, January 13, 2011

Spinning round and round

I was 10 in 1968. What started like any other spring morning turned into a crazy day. I loved spring. My father had gotten 200 baby chicks. I so loved to spend time watching them. We kept them in a brooder house that was just a small 12 ft. by 12 ft building. The chicks arrived through the mail and we started them out in a cardboard circle in the center of the room. They had a heat lamp they kept them warm in the cool spring. I would dig small worms and put them in their pen. I would tap the floor and the chick would think I was their mother and come running. they would grab the worm and go running. Before they had gotten far another chick would grab it away from the runner and take off in a different direction. they would spin and run through the crowd. It was a real bonus when two chick would grab opposite ends of a worm and play tug of war. I could spend a hour watching chicken football. Earlier that spring a farmer has two new born lambs that the mother would not take care of. He offered them to my dad and of course I thought it was Christmas. We got to bottle feed the little guys and I named them Mike and Mary Ann. I milked a cow twice a day which I didn't mind. We got about a gallon of milk twice a day and we used the milk for our family use. Mom often made cottage cheese and at times butter. Most was just used for cooking. It was my responsibility to care for the cow and I enjoyed having another pet.

So that spring day I got off the bus, quickly changed into my play clothes left my shoes next to my bed and headed out to the farm yard bare footed. I got to the barn and hallared for the cow. Sick cow I would yell at the top of my lungs. It didn't mean the cow was sick. It was just what we yelled. It was long before the cow came from the pasture. Usually after a yell or two she would answer me with a bawl. I let her in the barn and she walk to her stantion and put her head in the stall. I grabbed a scoop and grain for her and threw in down. Then grabbed my T shaped stool that was made out of 2 X 4's and got to milking. That spring the cow had given birth a large black calf and I milked what milk I need then let the calf have it's share. I have to muscle the calf back into it pen and then let the cow out.

Mike and Mary Ann had gotten big enough to that they were exciled from the house. Their new home was in the temporaily abandoned hog shed. As I ran across the hog lot. The lamb heard me and baaaa 'd I gave them some of my milk mixed with grain and headed for the house. The rest of the milk by put though a strainer and then put in the fridge. I headed out to the brooder house checked on the chicks then headed for the house. I didn't really think must of the calm that had come over the farm until a few days later. When I got in the house a storm was coming up which wasn't unheard of in the spring. This storm was nasty. My sister had us sit in the middle of the living room in a circle. My mother was out wall papering for a neighbor a few miles away. My father wasn't home either. He hadn't returned form town yet. As we sat in the circle the house shook. I screamed and ran for the basement. My sibling followed me. The basement was an unfinshed dug out basement. our world now was two small windows that turned green. I screamed with fear and my sisters comforted me. When it was over we younger kids were told to stay in the basement as they check out the farm. My 16 year old brother Dale who was an awful kidder told me that Mike and Mary Ann were up a tree. I screamed again. but they were fine. The brooder house was moved several feet and my brother s brought wet little chicks to the basement to dry off. Only about a third of them survived but I spent the night trying to do what I could. Those chickens grew up to be the tamest chicken we had ever had. I had a couple that would sit on my shoulder. I think they were grateful for our efforts. We did finally get out of the basement. The living room windows were blown out. Our farm actually faired well. We didn't go back to school that spring and we had church in the highschool until the church could be repaired. We spent the summer getting paid to pick up twisted metal and other objects out of fields. That to me just seemed like another adventure.

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