Dang me

[Seascamp]

Niel,
Farm life was an exercise in self-sufficiency as I recall. I remember things that are probably long gone like butchering a hog and using everything but the oink. Canning, separating milk for cream and butter. The huge mid day harvest meals, the difference between dinner and supper and being too young to work and getting in the way a lot. Then there was the big trip to the city when the harvest was in and all the kiddos getting new clothes and that special something they wished for. Then the men going off during the winter to get jobs in the city, usually Wichita or Abilene and the Christmas bash when they came home for a few days. Then the spring land work of planting and hoping/praying some disaster wouldn?t destroy the crop.

And Neil, the diaper in the freezer was a prank, got it, a prank. If nothing else Kansas farm folks eat well and diaper contents are not on the menu. Most of my 200 odd Kansas cousins are still involved in agriculture and a few are long-term employees of Boeing in Wichita. Alas, my siblings and myself are the only ones to go west. That?s my Ma?s doing as she wasn?t raised to be a farm wife but she gave it a try before calling it a day and heading west. My Pa was welcome to come along or stay, his choice. Eventually he came west, but it took a while.

Scamp

[Boats]

Scamp,

I remember when I was little there were five of us all in a metal wash tub. That was our pool. My cloths were the cover all type with the straps. My Dad was married five times and my Mother four times - but thats another story.

I remember pulling weeds for a farmer for 50 cents an hours just to pay for some guitar lessons one summer. He made us where chinaman hats so we wouldn't get sun burned.

I also remember catch craw fish and snakes all summer and making rabbit traps to catch field rabbits. Those were the simple days of my life. Kid's need those small towns to do all those wonderful things. You had to invent things to do. If you had one good buddy that's all you needed and the summer days were long and hot but sooo rewarding. Boy that's bringing me way back I haven't thought about that stuff in a long time.

[Seascamp]

Yup Boats,
My Ma has pictures of me and all the kiddos with just ?can?t bust ems? on and sitting on a rig my older cousin Charlie built. This consisted of four old-time wagon wheels, a center plank and the original horse rig. Off we?d go with Comanche pulling about fifteen of us across the pasture. I named this rig the ?Bisicut? and the name stuck. No wonder Comanche was so damn ornery with all us cousins tormenting him all the time with the latest hair-brained idea. So of course, we made our own entertainment cause sure as heck we?d get no sympathy at all if we whined about being bored. Oh my no, as that was a good way to get smacked good and proper, you bet. And sure, I recall going up the ladder and splashing around in the windmill pump-storage tank or going down to the willow creek to see what kind of poor critter we could find to torment. Memories, memories.

Scamp

[Boats]

Scamp,

I know for a fact the best jury-rigger in the world is a farmer. They can fix more things and keep them running then anyone I know.

[reconeil]

In fact, I GOT IT right from the-git-go. It was just my chance to get-in a little shitty humor, so to speak.

Besides, if farmers don't get to eat well,...who-the-hell-does?

Neil

[Seascamp]

Sure Boats,
I remember a forge, billows, anvil, quenching tanks, gas welder and arc welder and it seemed there was always something busted and my Pa and Uncles in the barn/blacksmith shop late at night a fixin and a fixin. But my Ma suggests that they brewed their own beer and were a drinkin and a fixin more than fixin and fixin. But who knows as Ma wasn?t all that keen on that multi-family farm anyway.
OK Neil, no big deal as I figured I had failed to communicate, again, one more time. I?m really good at that ya know, LOL.

Scamp

Oh, I forgot. The tractors were three huge John Deere two cylinder rigs with the huge side flywheels that went ca chunka-ca chunka-ca chunka all day long. I?ll never forget that sound.

[Keith_Hixson]

We called them baling wire mechanics.

You'd be surprise what a farmer can do with baling wire. The new nylon string doesn't work as well.

Keith