Old Time Hay Equipment

It sits in the corner of my shed, it’s been there for fifty years. My kids sometimes ask what it is. My son-in-law asked once about it. My grandkids don’t even ask because Grandpa has a shed full of mysterious “old stuff that he likes to talk about,” and they don’t want to get me started.

So what is it? As any old time farmer will know, it’s a harpoon hayfork, the kind that lifted loose hay from a hay wagon with a series of heavy ropes and pulleys so the hay could be distributed in the barn’s hay mow. This was before the days of hay balers, choppers and other fancy equipment used in haymaking these days.
I grew up using a harpoon fork just like this. Being the oldest of three sons, after our team of horses pulled a load of loose hay into the upper part of our barn, it was my job to set the hay fork. My dad always worked the hay mows, making sure the hay was stuffed into every corner. My younger twin brothers had the task of driving one of the horses that was hitched to the end of the hayfork rope. I rammed the harpoon hay fork into the loose hay.

After I set the fork, I yelled to my brothers, “ Okay.” The horse tightened the rope and a huge load of loose hay left the wagon for the upper reaches of our barn. If I had set the fork correctly.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The work was hard, but haymaking provided many good memories.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

--Sept 14, 7:00 p.m. The Local Store, Eau Claire. Simple Things and Old Farm Country Cookbook

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--September 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregni’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.


--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Antique Dairy Equipment

When visitors to our home see this little contraption, they wonder what it is. No one has yet to correctly identify it. Like so many antique farm items I have collected over the years, this one is most unusual. It originated with my grandfather, William Witt, who had given it to my mother and she, in turn, gave it to me. It has a story to tell, a story much bigger than the item itself.

Most Wisconsinites know that in the early days of the state’s settlement, wheat farming was king. There were but a handful of dairy cows, which were tended to by the farm women who fed them, milked them and, in their kitchens, churned butter and made cheese.

Wheat continued as the primary agricultural pursuit in Wisconsin into the 1870s as dairying slowly took over after the failure of the wheat crop. The transition to dairying was hindered by the macho wheat farmers who believed anything having to do with cows was women’s work.

Some farmers continued to churn butter in their homes well into the early 1900s—my grandfather was one of them. Grandpa Witt used this little wooden box along with the design block to prepare butter for sale. This was before milk trucks began making the rounds picking up milk from farmers for the cheese factories.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It’s important to know where we’ve been, as we try to figure out where we are going.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

--Sept 14, 7:00 p.m. The Local Store, Eau Claire.

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--September 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregni’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.




Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)

Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Antique Barb Wire

Shortly after we bought our farm, I found a rusty roll of barb wire leaning against a nearly rotted off fence post. Looking more closely, I quickly saw that this barb wire was different from any I had seen before. (See photo.)

I grew up with barb wire, the kind with sharp spikes designed to keep livestock where they were supposed to be. “Making fence,” we called the activity that took place on days when it had rained too much for other field work. It seems there was always a stretch of fence that needed fixing or even replacing. Our fences, they were everywhere on the home farm, consisted of four strands of barb wire stapled to red cedar fence posts that marched around each of our several fields.

The rusty old wire fence I found had no spikes of the kind I remembered. Rather it had little metal triangles woven into two twisted wires. I did some checking and discovered this strange barb wire had been patented by Edward M. Crandall of Chicago in 1879. My guess is Tom Stewart, who had homesteaded my farm in 1867, or another early owner bought this wire to enclose a cow pasture—now the prairie that I am restoring.

The very first popular barb wire had been patented by an Illinois farmer, Joseph Glidden, in 1873. A few others had come up with barb wire designs, but Glidden took the lead, and by 1880, he had sold more than 80 million pounds of this replacement for wooden rail fences.

I am pleased to have a piece of historical barb wire—to go along with the many other antiques I have uncovered on my farm over the years.

The Old Timer Remembers: Good fences make good neighbors.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--September 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregni’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square. Time to be announced.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.




Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)

Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Lead Plant in the Prairie

A rather strange looking plant grows near the northwest corner of my prairie. It is too big for a wildflower, and too little to be a shrub. So I did a little research and discovered it is a leadplant. Scientific name: Amorpha canescens.

It gets its name from its lead-colored silver-gray leaves. Its flowers are purplish-orange and it blooms in July and August. It is one of our many native plants. The growing range for leadplant stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, right down the middle of the U.S., Canada to the north and Texas to the south. It will grow three feet tall on soil ranging from acidic, what I have, to soils somewhat alkaline. It is drought resistant and is a legume, which means it fixes nitrogen in the soil.

The early pioneers called this plant “ The Devil’s Shoestring” because of its tough root system which tangled their breaking plows. Of course the deep and tangled roots of the leadplant allow it to survive on droughty, sandy soils, which make up much of my farm.

Native Americans in the region knew about the leadplant and used it in many ways. They made tea from the leaves. Sometimes they drank the tea as a medicine to treat such health challenges as rheumatism and pinworms. They also put the leaves on open wounds. Some Native Americans believed that the smoke from burning leadplant leaves would attract buffalo to the person who had the smell of the smoke on their clothing.

Today, I enjoy looking at it and appreciate that I have this special plant growing in my prairie.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is always something interesting to see in nature.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.
Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)

Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.







A rather strange looking plant grows near the northwest corner of my prairie. It is too big for a wildflower, and too little to be a shrub. So I did a little research and discovered that it is a leadplant. Scientific name: Amorpha canescens.

It gets its name from its lead-colored silver-gray leaves. Its flowers are purplish-orange and it blooms in July and August. It is one of our many native plants. The growing range for leadplant stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, right down the middle of the U.S., Canada to the north and Texas to the south. It will grow three feet tall on soil ranging from acidic, what I have, to soils somewhat alkaline. It is drought resistant and is a legume, which means it fixes nitrogen in the soil.

The early pioneers called this plant “ The Devil’s Shoestring” because of its tough root system which tangled their breaking plows. Of course, the deep and tangled roots of the leadplant allow it to survive on droughty, sandy soils, which make up much of my farm.

Native Americans in the region knew about the leadplant and used it in many ways. They made tea from the leaves. Sometimes they drank the tea as a medicine to treat such health challenges as rheumatism and pinworms. They also put the leaves on open wounds. Some Native Americans believed that the smoke from burning leadplant leaves would attract buffalo to the person who had the smell of the smoke on their clothing.

Today, I enjoy looking at it and appreciate that I have this special plant growing in my prairie.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is always something interesting to see in nature.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)

Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Beauty in a Vegetable Garden

There are many benefits to vegetable gardening. Growing your own food is one good reason for digging in the dirt and becoming friends with a garden hoe. But there are other benefits as well.

I became acquainted with vegetable gardening when I was maybe two or three years old. I remember walking around in the big vegetable garden dad and mother always grew on the home farm. Pa especially and Ma too, would often stop their work in the garden and just stand and look at it. I thought they were just resting, but now I know they saw beauty in these rows of vegetables. They saw beauty in watching things grow.

As I got older and left home, I always had a vegetable garden, except for my college years and when I was in the Army. Sometimes my garden was only a few square feet. At one time, when our kids were growing up, we grew nearly a half-acre of vegetables.

In addition to the vegetables and their inherent beauty my dad always planted a few flowers. He especially liked dahlias. Big colorful ones. During the summer and autumn months that my mother was in a nursing home, Pa always took her a big beautiful dahlia. To help brighten her day, and help her remember earlier days when they gardened together. They were both in their 90s at the time.

Today, I usually plant a few zinnia seeds and a row of sunflowers in our garden. I like sunflowers. They are beautiful, easy to grow, and the birds like the seeds.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Grow a few flowers in your vegetable garden. They also add a spot of beauty.

UPCOMING EVENTS:


--August 7, 5:30 p.m. Downtown Madison Historical Museum. With Sue. Old Farm County Cookbook.

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)

Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.