Return to the Land

at the house where a water cooler preserved the milk. I helped milk by hand for about one year before the milking parlor was completed. The dairy business was good. There was a cash flow every two weeks and the cost of materials and food were relatively low as compared to the prices we were receiving for Grade A milk. I was a freshman in high school by now and was the primary farm hand. Mother ran the dairy and I worked in the fields and helped her when I could. Ilene Wright, our cousin and neighbor, worked in the dairy for years and was a trusted and efficient helper. Working the horses was a slow and inefficient way to farm. I mowed hay and put it up in haystacks and the barn with the help of my nearby cousins. Bob and Mack were western horses brought east and broken for workhorses. They had a wild temperament and it did not take much to spook them. When startled they would run uncontrollably often destroying machinery and fencing in the process. They ran away once with Pa and me in the wagon. That day I heard all the profanity that was known to man. I was unable to control the horses and once they ran away with a brand new horse-drawn rake and damaged it severely. This finally convinced Dad that the horses were too dangerous for me and we bought our first tractor, a used 1941 Farmall A. This had to be the ultimate in farming as far as I was concerned. I kept it spit-shined and immaculate. Betty Anderson, my first cousin, Aunt Kathleen ’s daughter, spent the summers with us and she rode old Bob daily. It became my responsibility to get the horses from the pasture and bridle them and set Betty on Bob. This irritated me because I wanted to farm and run the tractor but Mother insisted I look after Betty. I really never had a fondness for the horses because they were outdated for farming, they could not be trusted, and could be particularly dangerous. After we had our tractor, Dad sold the team for logging in the mountains and I never saw them again.

David stacking hay from the wagon with Bob and Mack team and some young relatives assisting

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