How Living As a Farmer's Daughter
affects the younger Generations

My Grandparents

My paternalgrandparents were farmers in Illinois. They raised Hereford Cattle,Sheep,and chickens. Plus Grandpa tilled the soil with a horse or a Team of horses. Plowing, disking, and planting. They raised, corn, oats, wheat, and hay for the animals to eat. Plus Grandma had her garden for the family food. All kinds of vegetables, which she canned. They also had fruit trees, Peaches Apples, etc. and the fruit was canned for use during the winter.

Grandpa used the horse to work up the garden area for Grandma.Then she hand planted her seeds, and covered them. As they grew, she had to pull the weeds out, and sometimes used a hoe to loosen the dirt and take out some of the weed that she could not pull.

This being in the middle of tornado land, they also had a basement where Grandma stored her canned foods. They also had a root cellar underground for when a tornado came thru, but it also served to store some fresh vegetables, such as potatoes, turnips, cabbage, and squash, for winter food.

Below is a picture of my Honary Grandfather. What I can remember of him, he raised chickens for meat and eggs to sell. He also grew hay for the local people. As for other animals I think he also had cattle, and fed them the hay he grew.

Grandpa did all his farm work by hand. He used a sickle to cut the hay, and a rake (in his hands) to rake the hay into rows, and then turn it every day until it was dry enough to stack up and put into the barn.