[AT] Sad times

[Indiana Robinson]

The name of the game used to be diversity... My father took over his
parents small Central Indiana farm around 1941 when my grandfather's heart
was giving out. I was born in 1942 but my grandfather died in 1943 My
grandfather never owned a car or tractor but my father really disliked
farming with horses. He bought a new 9N Ford in very early 1942 before the
stripped down war-time 2N replaced them. He was also buying a lot of new
equipment to be used on it but new stuff was quickly becoming unavailable
and a lot of the used stuff was converted horse stuff. I remember horses
still working some of the smaller farms and a couple of the larger ones
nearby. My father had been making a career shift and was doing some smaller
scale building contracting and around 1940 he built a new house for his
parents on that farm. Then the war started and he was testing aircraft
engines in Indy 12 hrs. a day 7 days a week for the duration but was still
farming. After the war he started renting more ground and doing some
custom  work.
We bought this farm in 1951 and rented the farm across the road at that
time. I grew up with milk cows, beef cattle, hogs, sheep and of course
chickens and geese. "EVERYBODY" had chickens even if you didn't farm. A lot
of non farmers also kept a milk cow or two or maybe a freezer calf or a
couple of freezer hogs depending on space, sheds and pasture.
Most of the time through the 1950's we had about 45 milk cows, about 30
beef cattle, and maybe a dozen or so brood sows until later years when we
had a little over 60 brood sows. That was after the cows left.  Sheep
numbers ran a dozen or two depending on the stray dog pack populations. The
sheep were the first to go.
The trouble with barns... is that it cost $100 just to walk past one
carrying a hammer... Doing a minor repair properly is $1,000. Even that
allows nothing for labor. If you hire it done it's out of sight.
I love old barns but reality can be kind of cruel.
Things change... I can drive you around our county seat town (Shelbyville
IN) and show you where in the 1940's and 1950's there was a tiny
neighborhood grocery store nearly every 2 or 3 blocks in any direction.
Even out in the county every small village had at least one grocery store
and some had as many as 3. I recall several where there was just a grain
elevator and a little grocery store nearby, usually on a rail line. A few
had a bit of a coffee shop corner somewhere.
Today we have Walmart, Krogers and one smallish local independent that is
probably nearing its end. I think one other town in the county does have a
small grocery left.
Our last rental in a village in the next county was built as a store in the
1830's.
I grew up with dozens of farm machinery dealerships in the county. now
there are none...
One back field I worked as a kid (was rented ground) is now being developed
seriously. The city limits is now a mile closer to the farm, about a
quarter mile from our Northwest corner.
Things change...


.

On Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 12:17 AM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com> wrote:

> Great video.  Looked and sounded very familiar after the day I had today
> (-:
>
> Spencer Yost
>
> > On Jul 24, 2019, at 9:43 PM, Ralph Goff <alfg at sasktel.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > The new axle will go back together easier.
> >
> > https://mindlessramblings-rlg.blogspot.com/2019/07/roosty6-repairs.html
> >
> > Ralph in Sask.
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
> > https://www.avg.com
> >
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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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