Road Trip 2011, part three

I've added a bunch of photos to my flickr set for this trip. While out, we stayed with my parents on the farm I grew up on. One of my brothers has his own place just up the road, a handy little walk away.

A lot of the farm shots have stories behind them, and will probably get posts of their own. Until then, here some others for you to enjoy.




This is one of several gardens my mother has. The vegetable garden has gotten smaller over the years, though it's still quite large. There are flower gardens, fruit trees and berry bushes as well. This little garden was mostly flowers when I was growing up on the farm. Now it's got more veggies in it - handy to have, closer to the house. With all the rain and cold in MB, the gardens when in a month late and the ground has often been too muddy to tend. It was just starting to dry up a bit during our visit.






There is a new addition near my parents' big garden - a couple of honey bee hives! My late uncle always kept bees, and he loved tending them. After my uncle died, one of his son in laws took over. Now my cousin in law runs Honeybee Meadows and he and his wife sell their honey as a nice little business. I made a point of picking up a big bucket of honey from them to bring home with me! :-) These are their hives, taking advantage of the many seasonal flowers my mother has, though from here, clover is all you can see. The row of trees behind the hives is mostly lilac, though there is a chokecherry tree in there as well (which my dad has used to make wine in the past). I'm sure there are others my mom has added over the years I don't know the names of! *L*






The ditch between my parents' place and my brother's was filled with flowers. Mostly Daisies and Wild Roses, but also Black Eyes Susans, creeping Buttercups, and many more I just don't know the names of.

During one of our walks back, however, we spotted this single Lady's Slipper that suddenly appeared. It wasn't blooming when we walked past the day before. It was hard to get a photo with the breeze, but I think this one worked out all right. We had found two more of a different type of Lady's Slipper in the spruce grove near my parents' house that I just wasn't able to get a good shot of.






It was a beautiful evening when we visited with my brother, so we sat outside to chat - thoroughly covered in bug spray, I might add. It was so nice to sit out there, surrounded by trees and flowers, several cats and the dog, enjoying each other's company. While there, we saw several deer passing through a clearing. They were a bit too fast for me, but I did manage to get a couple of shots.

Gotta love country living!





This is a neighbour's field we pass when driving from my parents' farm to town. When I was a kid, I loved bison, so I was pretty thrilled when people started to keep them. The babies you can just see over the tall grass are so adorable! They're such fascinating animals to look at.

Tasty, too.

In my mother's garden

Sunshine
Originally uploaded by amkb
Anna: The girls and I made the trip to Manitoba for my brother's funeral this past weekend. While there, I visited with my parents as much as possible. This flower was in one of my mother's many gardens around their yard.

More photos of the trip are here.

Myster photo solution: farm implement

Anna: So, did anyone figure out what the farm implement I'd posted about was for?




I still don't know the name of it, but it's a tool for picking up hay bales on the fly. If you look at the bar around the front of the contraption, there's a piece turned inwards. That's the piece that attached it to a fitting on the hay rack. As the tractor pulled the rack and this thing along, the guides on the bottom would put the bales into position for the opening under the tall, rectangular metal piece.



From the back, you can see the chain, which has regularly spaced teeth. These would pick the bale up, lifting it in between the chain and the metal panel. When it reached the top, the bale would tip sideways onto the platform at the top of the ladder. From there, I would take the bale and stack it onto the rack.

Before we got this thing, someone would have to walk alongside, picking up the bales and tossing them onto the rack, where someone else would take them and stack them. As you can imagine, that would get pretty tiring, not to mention difficult as the height of the stacked bales increased. As my older brothers grew up and moved on, there were fewer and fewer bodies to get the job done. With this thing, my dad and I could do the work on our own. My youngest brother had worked out a stacking system he showed me that was very efficient; like building an interlocking brick wall, with each layer anchoring the layer below. I had a method all worked out, ensuring a space around this thing had open floor as long as possible before I had to start putting bales under my feet.

I remember one day my dad and I decided to see just how many bales we could stack on the rack with the help of this thing. We'd never pushed the limit before. In the end, I had to get him to stop, not because I couldn't add any more bales, but because it was so high, the swaying back and forth at the top was causing motion sickness. Normally, when heading back to unload the rack, I'd ride at the top. This time, I had to climb down and ride on the tractor because I was ready to hurl up there!

We calculated it out afterwards, and it worked out to be about 500 bales in that one load. Each of those bales ranged from 55 to 75 pounds (the setting on our baler was broken, so the weight would change on its own, and my dad would have to stop and re-set it every now and then). We never tried to do it again, but were really impressed with how many we were able to get on there.

I used to really love throwing bales!

Mystery photo - with a difference

Anna: A slightly different mystery photo this time. Nothing is hidden or cropped. Also, I don't actually know what this thing is called. If you happen to know the name of it, please tell me. Otherwise...


Farm implement - front view
Originally uploaded by amkb

Can you figure out what it's for or how it's used? Click on the picture for access to a larger image, as well as a back and top views. I'll give it about a week before I explain it, unless someone figures it out before then.

The pump shack

pumpshack0236
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Another photo from the family farm.

When I was quite little, we didn't have running water or indoor plumbing in the house. What we had was this pump shack. It was located outside the fence around the house, as we used it to water our cattle, too. The unpainted area used to have an opening on the side with a water trough by the wall. A special metal pipe could be hung from the pump's spout, redirecting the water through the hole and into the trough. There was also a long handle that could be attached to the pump to get water manually, in case there was ever a power failure. We had quite a few of those back then. From here, we hauled water for use in the house, the chicken coop and the barn, as needed.

Inside the shed, on the side the pump was at, was an old wood cookstove we used to heat up water for baths. There was a claw-foot tub we'd take turns using, filling with more heated water as needed. There was a drain in the concrete floor, so when we were done, we'd just pull the plug and let the water drain onto the floor and into the drain. We always made sure to take baths on Saturday night, so that we'd all be clean and shiny for church in the morning. Being as little as I was at the time, my sister would carry me from the pump shack to the house, so I wouldn't get my feet dirty. I still remember one very dark night, looking over her shoulder as she carried me, and seeing a lightning strike somewhere off in the distance.

The shack was also a workshop. The other half of the shed held all sorts of tools and work spaces. There was even an old fridge were we kept the cream we collected for sale to the local creamery, which has long since been closed.

Then one day, someone flicked the switch to run the pump, and no water came out. We had to attach the handle and manually pump and pump and pump until we finally got some water going, but it was the end of our well. I don't know exactly why, but it had gone dry and we needed to dig a new one. My father chose to have a well dug near the house. He also had an addition added to the original part of the house, which was made of logs, building an indoor bathroom in the original part of the house and having running water installed in the new kitchen. My mother got an electric stove out of the deal, too - I don't think the wood cookstove we'd been using could be moved anymore. My dad even had trenches dug for pipes to a couple of fountains installed for the cows that would automatically maintain water levels, and even added a pump right in the barn.

Ain't technology grand? ;-D

Time

car0202-50%
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Another shot taken while visiting the family farm. I have no idea where this old car came from, but it's obviously been there a while!

Teeth

Teeth
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Another photo from the family farm.

When I came upon this contraption, I didn't recognize what it was at first. Then I realized it was upside down. These are the teeth from an old binder - the machine that would cut the wheat stalks, tie them into sheaves, then drop them on the ground behind. My dad would pull it with the tractor while one of my brothers operated it. The rest of us would follow behind, picking up the sheaves and stacking them into stooks. I was so small, my youngest brother and I could both fit into the middle of a stook together! I don't imagine I was much help with the work, but I still have fond memories of it.

Barbed wire and lichen

wire0197
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: During our visit to my family farm, I had a chance to wander around a bit. There's an area that's a sort of graveyard of old cars and farm equipment. I found this roll of barbed wire there. Interesting to see it's been there long enough for lichen to start growing on it.