[AT] Sad times

[Kenneth Gene Waugh]

For sure, things change, and I accept that! Still miss the old memories !!

Gene

On Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 8:05 AM Indiana Robinson <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ---
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>> > https://www.avg.com
>> >
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>
>
> --
> --
>
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson46176 at gmail.com
>
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-- 
Gene
Kenneth Gene Waugh
Elgin, Illinois
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