A well deserved tribute! This appeared in the Post Register, October 31, 2012 . Mom goes to the nursing home at least 3 times a week to visit her Hospice Clients. She has also been to many homes, and other care facilities. She tries her hardest to lighten their days. This is just one of the things she does to help people during each day. Many lives have been touched by her love and generosity!
That first summer was really busy. There wasn’t a spud cellar on th
e place and Jess had planted the entire farm into spuds. Jess and Lillis went up above Kelly to get the logs. Lillis had a truck to haul the logs down. I don’t remember what we used for sheeting but we covered the top with willows, cut from the canal banks and then covered the willows with straw and then dirt. I cooked for the men who came to help build the cellar. By this time it didn’t bother me to cook. We wouldn’t have been able to build the cellar if we hadn’t received a refund from the income tax withheld from our wages in Portland. This was the first time that taxes were withheld from your pay check. The amount of the refund wasn’t enormous, but if we hadn’t received it, we wouldn’t have been able to build the cellar. We had enough money saved to buy our spud seed. Fertilizer wasn’t used in those days. You just hauled out barnyard manure.
That fall when the spuds were dug we had an excellent harvest. They were a good price and we sold part of them to pay harvest expense and saved the rest until spring. They brought us enough to pay for the ground before expenses. Mrs.Johansen, who we bought the farm from, came and said that since we had made so much money we ought to pay them more for the ground. We had good farming years and bad years but that was a turning point. Now Jess had money to buy a tractor and some machinery. He was the youngest farmer in Archer, at that time and had the biggest tractor. The first thing he did was sell the milk cows.
We had enough money saved to buy our spud seed. Fertilizer wasn't used in those days. You just hauled out the barnyard manure. We had to buy hay that spring for the cows. Jess hated to milk cows. There was a milker that came with the farm but when Jess bent over to hook the milker on the cow, it shut off the flow through his faulty heart valve and he felt that he was smothering. After he had irrigated all day and ate supper, he hated to go out and milk the cows. I hated to walk up the ditch bank, after dark, to get the cows but when I saw how tired Jess was I would go and get them. It wasn't long before I was milking them all the time. Jess hated to get up in the mornings. I was a morning person and could hardly wait to get up and get going. I didn't realize it at the time, that it was because he was tired all the time with his bad heart. You need to remember that most of the farming was done with horses.
Jess's Dad bought a small Ford tractor the first year we farmed but it was mostly used for plowing. We didn't have equipment to use it for much more. The other farmers marveled at how much that small tractor could plow in a day. Soon neighbors would hire us to plow for them. We would plow all night. It was good money if the fa
rmer paid you, after you did the work.
The milk check was enough to pay for the telephone and electricity and what we needed for the farm but not much else. One day some of our friends wanted to go to a show. We didn't have any money. Jess offered to borrow from his parents so we could go.with the group. We decided not to and never went any place that entire summer. We could stand on our own too feet. I am the same today. I hate to ask for help.
