Around the Farm 1995

Ah, the trials and tribulations of a farmer – even when he’s “retired.”  John Crumly has yet to experience retirement – true, he did leave the good-paying job he had to come to the farm, but retirement (?)  No way!  In years past John had an aunt who never acknowledged that he retired from Lockheed.  She told everybody who would listen that “Tooter quit his job.”  There is a few dollars difference in quitting and retiring, you know.

Jobs at this farm are never ending.  If it’s not one thing that needs to be done, it’s another. Even though the cows have been sold and the pastures rented, John goes to check the cows daily.  He knows which one is due to calf next, etc. He knows exactly how many calves there are in each pasture and if one’s missing it has to be found. Oft times he will come in and say the calves got under the hot wire and are eating in the hay shed.  This is okay, but if the cows come through the hot wire and get in the hay shed a repair job has to be done. The owner of the cows doesn’t need to come here except at selling time because John takes care of whatever.  I told him he does everything except get the check from the sale barn.  Not so, really – he doesn’t do the hay work in the summertime and that, in itself, is a big job.

Fence repair is an on-going project – just this morning as he sat and drank his coffee he remarked that a willow needed to be cut down around the pond – “it’s leaning and if I don’t get it cut, it will damage the dam when it falls.”  Now you might imagine that the dam man doesn’t want to lose any of his dam water.  We all want him to keep his dam water.  Oh well, so much for that!

When we have a thunder storm, the fence needs to be checked to see if a tree or trees fell on it during the storm.  Many times that has happened and the chain saw put into action.

All kind of strange things take place in and around the farm.  Once before we moved back here, but had cows here – a neighbor found a cow, with horns, had her head hung in a forked tree.  Thanks goodness for neighbors who are willing to lend a helping hand.

The electric fence is a challenge all by itself.  If a blade of grass touches it, there is no electricity.  If a limb falls on it and across it, it shorts out.  So he always checks to see if he can hear that clicking of the electric fence charger.  We used to have a radio here on the sun porch – we listen religiously at 7:00 a.m. to hear the obituaries (we listen to see if we are in there) – and that radio told us the electric fence charger was doing its job.  Now the radio we use doesn’t tell us about the charger, but we still keep close tabs on the obits.  You see, we are getting old and one never knows.  We don’t buy green bananas, we’re afraid we won’t live long for them to ripen.

If you’ve been reading this column for several years you may remember that a few years ago John bought an old tractor.  Well, it wasn’t so old, but it was a lemon.  That tractor and all the parts (money) necessary to get it repaired enough to use nearly caused a divorce at the Windy Knoll.  That is not the only thing that has nearly caused a divorce here, but we’ve made it this far and on March 18 we will have been married 60 years.  We married for better or for worse and it has been worse many times, but we stayed on.  John used to say we would get a divorce, but neither would agree to take the children.  Now we’ve been together so long divorce is no longer an option.  How did this article get to this point?  Anyway to get back to the precious tractor — to begin with, what does an 80-year-old man, who has no cows or pasture, need with a tractor?  The tractor was broken down – I mean big time – it needed a clutch and pressure plate.  Now at his age, I thought that job was much too big for John to tackle, but he didn’t agree.  One man came here and “bought” the tractor; however, he never produced the greenback, so for months the tractor remained in the shed (still broken down).  It was the continual subject of conversation for John when there was a man around who knew what he was talking about and would listen.  Finally the day came when he moved the machine to a better working spot and the labor began. It’s the filthiest job in the world – our washing machine thought we had lost our minds.  If you don’t know about the work involved in doing this job – the gas tank had to come off, this had to come off and that had to come off.  I was so worried about the mechanic that I would go down just close enough to see if he was up and moving around, and without saying a word I would quietly return to the house.  Once when I got there I could see the tractor had been divided in half – the front wheel section was to the left and the back wheel section was to the right.  Finally the bank account strained just enough to pay for the parts and the repair job turned around.  We went from tearing down to putting back together.  Now the job is complete and it’s as if the little boy has a new toy.  He likes for the cows to need hay when the cow owner is not around – then he can put out the hay with HIS tractor.

It seems as we get older, we both have to move faster.  I keep being asked to speak to groups about the book and even have an appointment with a quilt group in Niceville, Florida in April to talk about quilting, then I’ve been asked to have a part in the upcoming Family Festival being planned in Rainsville for May 21 (put this date on your calendar – you’ll have to come hear).  Retirement for this couple is not sitting around and holding our hands.  So be it, this is our style of country living.