What you can’t see in this picture is that this tree is on the bank of a swimming hole. If you stand on top of the tire you can swing out and jump in. I wish I could hear the laughter that has been generated by this old-fashioned style of fun.
Stephen and Daniel are terrific uncles to their extended family. Stephen has a booming laugh that is infectious and he laughs a lot. A big man with powerful arms from the forge he sports a handlebar mustache and long curly blond hair.
The Olssons have always been pretty self-sufficient. Very little of what they eat doesn’t come from the farm. Sugar and coffee are two notable exceptions. Vegetables come from the garden, fruits from the orchard. Flour is milled from the wheat they grow. This way of life was paramount to Lars and Ebba. They passed the conviction to their children who in turn have instilled it in their children.
She hired a concrete guy to come and pour a pad for it. After that, a carpenter came and did the framing. At that point, she announced at Sunday dinner, “Alright everybody, don’t make any plans for next weekend. Next weekend we are going to finish my shed.”
Since she got her garden tractor she doesn’t use the pitchfork much nor does she use the leaf rake. Dad bought her a leaf mulcher attachment last year. And of course, she has a rototiller-type attachment to handle turning the garden.
This is the pile outside the barn that every farmhand is familiar with. When you muck out a stall it goes in a pile that can look a lot like this. Fresh straw goes in and soiled bedding comes out. That’s where the pitch fork comes in.
Looks like Sacks of grain to feed the stock. Probably oats or sweet mix for the horses, corn for the sheep and blends for the pigs. Our little friend here is the last thing anyone wants to see in their granary. Mice can eat a lot of grain.
At my house, there is always a block at the bottom of the post where the gate closes to set the gate on so it doesn’t sag. This looks like a sturdy gate and one I would have liked to swing on when I was a girl until I got caught and scolded for “trying to make that gate sag!”
At the time my bedroom wasn’t finished and I admit to a little jealousy when the barn was finished better than the bedroom. We had just started raising sheep with a very small flock of ewes and a ram. Oh, we were excited.
When my children were small I had a few additional children that spent their days with me. We had to go grocery shopping once a week. I would line everybody up and tell them they were baby ducks and I was a mama duck. It worked.