Farming grain

Farming was an adventure. I would like to give a few insights and stories of things that happened during these years. Much more could be said but that would take a whole book.

For the first number of years George farmed with his 2 brothers. Each had their own yard and the farm was spread out around these yards. That meant that often he would be gone all day when they were working the fields farther from home. This arrangement worked until some of the boys were old enough to be involved, so they decided to divide up the farm and machinery and each would farm on their own.

Our portion was six quarter of land. There was some bush for pasture and we also rented 2 quarters just north of the yard for pasture.

Now we as a family, the boys being old enough to help, worked at building our farm.

We had to buy some more machinery as well. It was a blessing to work together as a family. Ours was a mixed farm including grain, cattle, milk cows, other animals and a bee operation. George having his lunch on the field.

(I'll write about each one later)

The hilly terrain added some challenges, but George had grown up here and enjoyed it. He said that you can't fall asleep for you don't know what's over the next hill

From spring to fall life on the farm was always busy. From seeding in spring to harvesting and field work in fall we had to be on the ball when the weather was favourable or we might not get the work done. We were really dependent on the Lord.

Even though we were this busy, Sunday was a day of rest and family time. We felt this was the Lord's day and believed He would look after us. We always got the work done and never suffered because of it. We felt this was a blessing from the Lord and come Monday morning we were ready and refreshed to face another week.

Baling hay for the cattle was also part of the work in summer.

A few stories of interest while farming. Always thankful that no one was ever hurt.

The hills were always a challenge and for me when I first came there even more so. One day taking lunch to George, I saw he was coming down the hill with rear end of the combine a couple of feet of the ground. It scared me but George and his brothers took it all in stride. This was just part of farming in the hills.

Then there's the time George was taking a three ton truck loaded with grain through a hilly road south of the yard. He was going to shift gears going up the hill and pulled the gear shift out in neutral. Now he started rolling backwards and had no brakes on the truck either. He thought he would veer off and roll into the bank of the hill next to him but instead the truck tipped on its side. He had some pails of water in the cab with him but now he wasn't sure if there was fuel in them so he kicked out the windshield and crawled out. He had to walk almost a mile to get help.

After we were farming on our own I hauled a lot of grain during harvest so the boys could stay in school. At time it was tiring but I did enjoy most of it. After it was all done our schedule could slow down somewhat.

Living on the farm was such a good place to raise our family and I'm thankful we were able to do that here.