Memories of October

 

The beauty of fall.  Photo by Jerry Apps

October brings back many memories for this old farm boy.  It is the month when we dug potatoes on the home farm. We usually grew about 20 acres each year, as did most of our neighbors. Planted by hand, cultivated with a one-horse cultivator, hoed by hand, dug with a six-tine fork, and picked by hand.  Our one-room country school had two weeks of “potato vacation,” when the kids in the neighborhood were home picking potatoes. Some vacation.  Different from some of my fellow students, I was paid for picking potatoes.  One penny a bushel.  Some days I might pick a hundred bushels and earn a dollar.  But that was rare.

October was also the month for cutting corn, the ears headed for the slated corn crib where they would dry. Our trusty team of draft horses pulled a one-row corn binder that cut the corn, and formed it into bundles that spilled out on the ground.   We stood the bundles into corn shocks that marched across the cornfield like teepees. In a couple weeks, similar to oat threshing season, a corn shredder arrived at the farm.  The neighbors came to help.  The corn shocks were taken down, hauled to the farmstead and shoved into the corn shredder, which separated the ears from the corn stalks, and sliced up the stalks.  The corn stalks were used as bedding for our dairy cows during the winter. The ears, stored in the corn crib, were feed for cows..

With all the work going on, we still took time to look at the beauty of the trees in fall.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take time to enjoy October’s beauty.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

My newest books are WHEN THE WHITE PINE WAS KING: A HISTORY OF LUMBERJACKS, LOG DRIVES, AND SAWDUST CITIES IN WISCONSIN and CHEESE THE MAKING OF A WISCONSIN TRADITION (2^nd Edition).

My books are available at your local bookstore, online from bookshop.org, or from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. Say hello to Jana and look at their great selection of my books or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.

 

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