Problems of a Farmer 1989
The day started off as just another ordinary day with the usual happenings. Lunch was the common, summertime meal – consisting in part of fried okra, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and “roas-sneers.” How did roasting ears ever get to be called “roas-sneers?” Albeit, good.
The day progressed with a pop-in visit of two friends – one local and one from Birmingham. What a delight the Birmingham friend is – always up, smiling, talkative and full of life. She is a good cook, a seamstress, she tats, she knows about plants and birds – a real Southern Lady and definitely my kind of person. I told them they had made my day; however, I did not know what was just ahead.
John was not yet through with his job of running the bush hog on the lower property and his episode made the day special. As I was catching up on a new quilt magazine, John came to the porch and said, “I need you to drive the truck – I have the tractor hung up on a stump.” Now our southern most acreage is a long way from the house and I was delighted to get to ride. We have always called this property Lower Sobobia – LS. On the way we meandered along and enjoyed looking at the herd and talking about which cow would be calving next and which calf belonged to which mama — a pretty sight to a farmer and his wife.
When we arrived in LS we had to ford a little stream – a tributary to nearby Skirum Creek – and it was slick. With all the spinning and whatever my first thought was that here we are stuck and the tractor is at the top of the hill hung on a stump. After some twisting and spinning, John got the truck across and up the hill. With chain, cable and wench he managed to free the tractor and all the while I was looking at the wonderful late summer wildflowers.
The Sweet Joe Pye Weed must be six feet tall; it’s purple and covered with yellow butterflies. We parked in a patch of Goldenrod – not the common variety – it’s about a waist high and blooms all the way up the stem. Boneset along with Helianthus looked like a flower arrangement one might see on a dining table or even in a church urn– a delightful sight, indeed. With the tractor freed, I asked John to drive the truck back across the stream which he did, but it was spinning and would not pull up the steep hill – so I was called back to drive the truck while he pushed with the tractor!! It was something else!
As I drove home past the house-site at the Cook Place, I stopped to enjoy the old field-stone chimney now capped with Virginia Creeper. What a way to end the day. Nothing like it — its country living.