Early history of our farm

Cecilia  in our driveway   1921

Wife  in our driveway last night  2011

 Monday afternoon  Kathy (our  neighbor) dropped off some pictures .  

She said they were old photo’s taken on our property  from  many moons ago.

I can tell you exactly where most of them were taken.

There was a young girl in several of them.  Her name was Cecilia.  

 She was the former owner of our property and lived here, as far as we  know  her whole life.   Her dad built the house we’re living in as well as the 100 yr old red barn we host music festivals in.

 She  passed away in 1994.

Cecilia sitting on our front steps

 

 

 

Giving the  dog a bath

Holding a chicken

Cecilia is buried just about a mile from us  in one of those small  pioneer cemeteries.  

Last night as  I was trying to calculate the date of these pictures, I suggested we jump  in the car and head over to the cemetery. 

 Cecilia was buried next to her brother Henry.

 

Cecilia, her brothers Fred,  Henry, and her mom  1911. 

 Henry is the little guy in front.

Fred and Henry standing on an old Steam engine.   

(One of those old metal tires is still in the barn)

Cecilia and Henry …late 1950′s

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 What do you see when you look at these pictures? 

I see a young girl who loves animals….and her little brother Henry

They lived  in a house that didn’t  have electricity. (see first picture)

Their  mother had a hard life.  You can see it on her face.  

 (see picture of older woman with three kids)

We were told she lost  first husband to a farming accident in the late 1800′s. 

 Eventually she  married the hired man (Cecilia’s and Henry’s  dad)

 Cecilia’s  mother   had 6  daughters by her first husband,  lost two of them  to the flu epidemic in 1918. 

I can’t begin to imagine…

A verse of scripture kept  coming to mind as I looked at these pictures

“Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom”

Listening to the radio this morning as I headed into town I caught the words on a current pop hit by Katy Perry… she sang about  living forever and shacking up for the night.  I thought to myself, what a bunch of lies.  Packaged in a beautiful song. 

The truth is (and there is such a thing as absolute truth)

 We don’t live forever, my days are numbered  and the choices I make do have a way of coming home to roost.

 (both good and bad) 

Put that to music Katie Perry  and keep on  rock’n.  DM

I don’t feel comfortable up there

      I started working for my dad when I turned 14.

  He and my uncle owned a construction company. 

 One of the questions they asked potential employees was, “Can you climb?”

They never asked me   

 I will be the first to tell you I am not comfortable 20 ft in the air, sitting on top of an  inch and 1/2  truss installing 2 by 6′s

  Heights in and of themselves, don’t bother me.., it’s having to climb around, trying to keep my balance  that gives me stress.  And it gets worse the older I get.  My balance, and  upper arm strength are  not what it was 25 years ago.  

 I think it’s called aging.

Work was getting slow last October so when a local farmer  asked me if I would be interested in helping  him build a machine shed over the Winter I didn’t think twice.  I knew there might be some climbing involved, but since  I can draw upon half a dozen  people locally who can climb,  I got the cement wall poured late last Fall with the understanding we could build the building whenever we had time.

       That time was this past week.

    And my labor pool suddenly evaporated.

Mitchell is in Las Vegas.

Randy and his crew are in the middle of building a restaurant that burnt down this past January.

and yours truly found himself 25  feet in the air over frozen rock.

    I have not had the energy the past few weeks to do much of anything when I got home from work.

   Tuesday we had the crane on the job site to swing in the rafters.   

 I was up and down  the 25 ft extension ladder 100 times. 

50% of the day, the fear was palatable.

  I went home exhausted.

Wednesday we picked up where we left off from Tuesday,   installing additional 2 by 6′s.

   On at least three occassions  Wednesday I felt like I was loosing my balance  and had to literally talk myself  into staying calm and figuring out where to put my hands next.  

 Nobody was going to be able to climb  up and “unstick” me. 

I miss all of you who take the time to stop by the blog, which is why I  thought I better post something to let you know what I’ve been “ up to.”   

  I haven’t been ruminating on anything profound, just trying to keep my balance.

Several years ago now,when I was still employed by my dad and uncle, we were building a large dairy loafing shed.  The concrete was already poured and we were working  20 ft in the air. 

 I said these words to my Uncle John “I don’t feel comfortable up there.”

      I’ve heard those words spoken behind my back on numerous occassions since. 

 And you know what?  I could care less.

         If you’re not comfortable in a  certain situation,then you have no business being there.  That’s when things happen.

      So what about you? 

 Talk to me.

 What have you been up to the past few weeks?  DM

Goodbye Oscar

Oscar 

 

If it should be that I grow frail and weak
And pain should keep me from my sleep
Then you must do what must be done
For this, the last battle, can’t be won.
You will be sad- I understand
Don’t let your grief then stay your hand
For this day, more than all the rest
Your love and friendship stand the test.
We’ve had so many happy years
What is to come can hold no fears
You’d not want me to suffer, so
When the time comes, please let me go.
I know in time you too will see
It is a kindness you do to me
Although my tail, it’s last has waved
From pain and suffering I’ve been saved.
Don’t grieve that it should be you
Who has decided this thing to do
We’ve been so close, we two these years
Don’t let your heart hold any tears.
Author Unknown

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  We got  Oscar when he was just a year.  Smallest of 3  farm dogs, we were told he was always getting picked on by the other two.   Gangwishes were  moving to Nebraska, and  asked if  we would  take their daughter  beagle.

  That was 14 years ago. 

   I”m sure I’ve probably had 15 to 20  pets  by this point in my life, but for some reason Oscar  found a special place in my heart.

Last July he looked like he was going to die.  On a long shot, the vet gave him some steroids, and he pulled out of whatever it was that was ailing him.

Two weeks ago I was home working in the barn when my phone rang-  It was my wife.

“Oscar just collapsed again on the floor…I heard him yelping  then a big thump ….”

The day before the same thing had happened, I had taken  him in to the Vet, thinking it was going to be a one way trip to town.  The vet had left the decision up to me.  There was no way we were in a position financially to spend hundreds of dollars trying to diagnosis his problem…it could be one of several things, so   we decided to give Oscar  some steroids one more time…they weren’t going to cure him of anything,  he said, but might help with the pain.

       But now twenty-four hours later, he had collapsed again..so I knew it was finally time to say good-by.  I called the clinic, let them know what we were thinking. they said to bring him in.  I gently loaded Oscar up into the little pet pillow he’d been sleeping on this Winter.   He was quiet on the trip to town.    I put my hand on him to comfort him.  He never did like riding in the truck.   When we got to the clinic, the Vet motioned me back to one of the examination rooms. He asked if I wanted to stay or go.  I told him I would stay.  He gave Oscar a sedative, which really relaxed him.  A minute later, he gave him the shot that put him to sleep.  He was gone within 10 minutes of us walking through the doors of the clinic.

I discovered a group of people this week that I never knew existed….

Fellow pet lovers who are still grieving.

They don’t broadcast this to the world.  

 I suspect it is because  they are  tired of hearing things like “It’s only an animal.”    

Why do certain pets become especially dear and others  are “just pets?” 

Here’s another pet I had to say goodbye to last year about this time:

Winston the Pig  March 2010

She was a 650 pound regular pig…nothing fancy, just a pig.  

She loved to have her belly rubbed, eat apples and free range behind the barn in a little pasture.  We  took this picture  shortly before I had to send her down the road.