Hello, friends…
I am feeling nostalgic this morning, so I will share some of the good, bad, and the ugly of farm living. My experience was good, most of the time.
My folks “bought the farm”, so to speak, when I was around 11 years old, and the smallest, skinniest kid in my class in the city of Dexter. Two years of farm living gave me an amazing growth spurt. I grew so fast that I actually had stretch marks.
Whatever you have read about education at that time, it may or may not be true. Readin’,writin’, and rithmaatic’ was different in our 2-room country schoolhouse. Each room housed four grades: kindergarten to 4th grade and 5th to 8th grade. I taught one guy that snapping a girl’s bra was a no-no! I narrowly missed his head with a dictionary. My backhanded left arm throw was not accurate, fortunately.
He tried to make our Male teacher believe I was somehow deranged and that he was innocent, but the teacher didn’t buy it. He said, “Too bad she missed, it might have knocked some sense into your head.” Our teacher was a retired Military and did not tolerate insolence from anyone. Teachers had to teach four grades in one room, and looking back, it must have been a daunting job.
Discipline was harsh, and there were no talking-to’s; it was more like you get what you deserve. Recess was softball on a dirt field, and rules were a little loose because each team consisted of a range of ages from the lower grades to the upper grades. I was surprised that more of the little guys didn’t get run over, but most of us were used to strict parental discipline. We knew better than to allow one of the little kids to get badly hurt! Whatever discipline we got at school, we got harsher at home.
Our fifteen-acre farm was situated halfway between Dexter and Corinna, in Maine. Our 100-year-old farmhouse was set close to the road, with an attached two-story structure designed to store our winter’s supply of wood and machinery. Of course, we didn’t have any machinery, so it was an elaborate playhouse. That was attached to the large barn, with an outhouse. And a large chicken house faced the house. It all made a big U-shaped arrangement.
My Dad supplied us with one or two deer each year, plus we had a cow and chickens. My mother raised a whole acre garden, and it was all canned in glass jars and stored in the cellar. Life was good.
Across the road was a long row of Maple trees, and with the owner’s permission, we tapped them all. We had real maple syrup on our pancakes and made snow candy. It’s been 100 years since, and I wouldn’t use the store-bought fake maple syrup. That’s just sugar water with coloring. Yuck! We had real churned butter at home, and I cannot abide fake butter!
This is just the beginning of life on the farm. I will be back with more fun stuff about farm living. I would love to hear your stories, too. We can compare our experiences.
As you know, I am an author, and I usually post new books as they are finished and published. I publish through Draft2Digital with distribution to the following:
Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace Marketplace, Odilo, Gardners, and Amazon.
In addition, my books are available on my website http://www.brendacolbathbooks.com and on Books.By/brendacolbath
