220108 Sentinel, Thankful

Thanks for the memories.
Memories, I have many, most are good, some not so much, but I’m focusing on the good times today.
Some of the memories I recall with Joyce and I were tough times in the early years, but those harsh events cemented our love for each other. If you can make it through the bad times, they make the good times even better. The times of separation in my navy years were tough on both of us, but they made our reunions wonderful.

Our early years on the farm were very happy. Our home was often filled with new friends and family. Joyce and I worked like slaves trying to clear the land that had been left go to its old, natural state for over 20 years. It was loaded with black Locust trees with 3 inch long and sharp thorns. They and their sister trees the Osage Orange made life miserable for us slaves to the land. The Osage Orange had ½ inch needle like thorns that sliced me on the way to the ground and then the thorns broke off in my boots that had to be removed regularly. We spent all that first summer cutting those undesirable trees and hauling them over near the barn to pile them up and wait for a snowy day that winter so we could safely burn them, which we did on a snowy day in 20 degree weather. We sat nearby drinking beer and admiring all the work accomplished last summer and the debris was gone in one long day. All of those trees re-grew over the years, giving me a permanent job during winter and summer, until I started using some nasty stump-killer chemical to destroy the roots.

In the spring following that winter we started bedding plants for our soon to be garden. I bought a tiller and went crazy tilling up an acre and a half for our garden, minus some pathways for tending to the vegetables. That summer I hired an old man with a bulldozer to finish up what I could not finish for our pasture. I spent a small fortune on Fescue seeds for spreading over my pasture. Our garden was plentiful that summer. We had planted our tomato plants too early and they were frozen. That day both of us got an idea to buy more tomato plants. Both of us came home with several flats of tomato plants. We replanted them a few days later and were surprised that the ones we had earlier came up with all of the others we replanted. Joyce canned 84 quarts of tomatoes that summer after we had all we could eat. We both had day jobs and then came home and worked until dark in the garden. Some nights we were exhausted, had a bowl of popcorn and then went to bed.

The next year I bought some calves and some sheep, making even more work. I don’t know how we had the energy to handle all the work, but we did it, only because we were young enough back then.

We eventually ran out of steam and cut back on everything and just enjoyed life for several more years. Eventually we had to sell the farm and move into town, ending our years on the farm. We just got too old to take care of things there. We had to do what we did.