June 5

It's June fifth and the time is flying. Did you like the blog yesterday? That is one of my best pieces. Some days the the ideas just flow and the pictures turn into words that make sense.



Click on the house picture and tell me what era you think that picture was taken in. The dress of the family, the unusual corn crib wire and wood fence and the metal mailbox just don't fit any one era in my mind. 1920? That would be my guess without more information.

The sad thing is on the barn story the main barn on each of these three farms on the hill was burned by a man gone mad in the Great Depression. We restored the horse barn that became a dairy barn then a hog barn and now it is just a barn to look at. It is around the age of this house.

We went to an auction at the fairgrounds today. I bought 6 books out of thousands. Modern Corn Production, Modern Soybean Production which I taught out of, the 1957-59 USDA books of agriculture and a special book they did in 1976 for our country's Bicentennial. I need them like I need "another hole in my head."

They had tons of old saved articles. The farmers name was Theobald and they even found a brand new front tractor tire under his bed! They had a red Ih 184 Cub Lowboy like the one I had. It looked in excellent condition. Some people just love those old mowing tractors. I don't miss mine one bit when I use our IH DX-24E. Ten grand for an overblown lawn mower is a little outrageous.

The little Gleaner F combine toy brought $140 so Eric yours is worth some money. We mainly just talked to people and looked around. Auctions are fun. So is garage saling so we did that too.

Then we tackled the garden. What a mess. I got the tiller beater running and chopped down a lot of weeds and sadly three nice corn plants. Those front end tillers run wild. They try to dig to China or drag you around, mostly the latter. It does look much better though.

I got the nicest compliment on Facebook. One of our friend families drove to Illinois and back to Hillsboro yesterday and they said I had the nicest field of beans on the whole trip! That made my day like editor friend who called yesterday's blog magnificent. I must be doing something write.



Uncle Bob passed away at 88 years old yesterday. Just like Uncle Charles a few weeks ago. I have one aunt and one uncle left and mom of that whole generation. The last ten years went by so quickly but there have been so many funerals the past few years.

So I will get to see my cousins on a sad but good note this week. Funerals aren't fun but when the person lives to be 88 in a good life I call it a joyous occasion. We all have to face it anyhow, why not make it a tribute to their life? We all did something good no matter how rotten we acted.



That's my take on June 5, what's yours?



Ed