continuing from novice

[Dnderhead]

dad used to put his "stuff" in milk cans and was placed right along with the milk, It whould be all picked up together . what happen to
it don't know, I remember old "Molly and Dick" the horses, walked a few miles in back of them with a "side hill" plow. not to bad unless
you hit a rock that whould not move. mowing hay was hot and dusty. then raking with a "dump rake" pitching hay on to the wagon .
going back to the barn and pitching it off. harvesting the grain (needed enough for the horses and whatever else you made) used a reaper
and binder. (that cut the stalks off and tide them in bundles)then you pitched them on a wagon. brought it back to the barn. ran that threw the
thrashing machine .he had a traction motor to run it. (looked like a cross between a tractor and a locomotive went about 2 miles a hour
on the road) the grain whould be put in bags and the straw was put threw a "jump press" (a big ass stationary baler that you had
to feed by hand, and remove blocks of wood as you fed it. of course you had wood to cut for winter and cooking and "cooking"
winter was easy not much to do but feed the horses ,feed and milk the cows, clean the barn. feed and clean the chickens (5000 of them)and pick up the eggs and of course run the still. so as you can see I was busy when I came home from school and not much time for home work.
when the old man died he had a grand total life saving of 10,000$ and that was with raising all are own food.a cupple of lights and no phone.
fishing and hunting was the entertainment and for something different to eat.

[Ayay]

Your ol man did good.

Folks today have no idea what living really means. The fall of Rome is a lesson forgotten.

[blind drunk]

Hey Dnder, great story. Did you learn just by looking and seeing or were you taught to run the still?

[Dnderhead]

Watched then was "assigned" jobs to do.as I got older had more to do. after a while dad whould disappear for longer and longer times.
where he went I have no idea. he Just had something to do. running the still was sort of boring. feed the fire, change containers,and just watch
to make sure everything was all right. found things to do as make wood whistles,carved walking sticks, spoons, I thank I wore out a knife once making a nice yoke .

[st00ge]

Certainly sounds like a whole different world back then, us young lads are pretty spoilt these days ( im 26)
So many different skills peolple used to have to know just to survive...

[smokerscully1]

I seen a lot of what you were talking about Dunder. My dad was the local feed salesman and butcher. We used to go from farm to farm in the fall to butcher beef and hogs. I saw a lot of stills in operation but never had to tend any of them. My dad got paid in 'shine on many occasions. I could skin beef cattle by myself before I was 10. I used to hate having to scrape hair off the hogs head after scalding--I was always stuck with the head.
A farmer paid me once $3 for sitting on a mules back all day. Had the mule tied to a rope at the back of the barn. Rope ran thru a deadman and a series of pullies overhead to the front of the barn. Forks ran down to hay wagon and would lift the bales up into hay mow in the barn. Older fellas would stack the bales. Back and forward--back and forward--all day long. Fellas in the barn stacking made the big bucks--40 cents an hour if I remeber correctly.
When Dad died he left $2100 in the bank--but he put 12 kids thru high school.
Coon huntin at night was major recreation--guess it still is.
Long ago and far away--thanks for the memories Dunder.