Snow Forts & Starry Nights by Scott

I remember one winter day on the farm when all of us kids with our cousin Shawn built snow forts for a snow ball fight. Brad and I being very young, were separated and put on different teams. We used five gallon buckets to create a snow wall of defense like unto a castle wall. Under this wall we created a four or six foot tunnel that went towards the other fort so I could be protected. The other team built a fort and a tunnel as well. There was even talk of connecting the tunnels so we attack from below. We spent hours building and a little time in actual snow ball fights. That was a great day on the farm.

I remember having to go down to the barn from the house on dark winter nights around 8pm to kick silage to the cows to let them eat. I was always grateful of the street light that stood half way between the house and barn on those dark nights. By this time, the cows would have most of the silage that we feed them out of their reach while they were locked into the stanches in their stalls. The Cows always made there mooings when I started kicking. The radio was always left on to keep the cows calm. This job only took ten to fifteen minutes of actual work. This walk was always lonely from barn to the house but I remember looking up many of those nights being amazed at the depths of the stars that filled the sky.

Ben the Monster of Bent Trout Lake

For years the rumor of a huge “Rainbow Trout” lurked in the Bent Trout Lake. No one actually ever saw Ben but huge swirls made by Ben’s tail sent ripples clear across the lake. Some estimated Ben to weigh over 50 lbs.
One beautiful day in May we went to Bent Trout Lake for a day of fishing. We rented a little aluminum boat with an electric motor and a canoe. Some how in a conversation we were going to have a contest to see who would catch the most fish and the Biggest one, girls against the bigboys. Kayleen, Brad and Mom got in the canoe and Blaine, Scott and I were in the boat.
I had the feeling that Monster Ben would be mine. As we trolled across the lake with our lines out I felt an enormous pull on my line. I screamed in excitement, “It’s Ben”. I turned side ways to get a better position to reel my line. At the very moment I turned sideways another enormous pull on my line, losing my balance I fell into the lake. My trusty old pole with a Zebco 202 reel was gone. The boat filled part way with water. Scott quickly slid into my seat and took control of the motor. Mom, Kayleen and Brad were laughing at me until their sides hurt. I had my big winter coat on. With the weight of all my wet clothes on, the boys were unable to pull me back into the boat, so I told Scott to head to the nearest shore. In the excitement Scott puts the motor into reverse. I was hanging onto the side of the boat as he was taking me out into the center of the Lake. Hypothermia was setting in, I pleaded with Scott to take me to shore. Only after promising Scott I would be good did he find forward and slowly so very slowly did we head for shore.
Now mind you, during all this time in my death-threatening situation, Kayleen, Brad and Mom were still laughing at my plight. No fish caught that day, our trip was cut short as the family loaded me into the Pick up and took me home to a hot shower and dry clothes. To the best of my knowledge Old Ben the Monster still lurks in the bottom of Bent Trout Lake chuckling to himself about the time he caught old dad and added another fine rod and reel to his collection.

The Brave Big Brother.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we had just returned from fishing. Kayleen and Jim were the only ones that caught fish worth keeping and Kayleen’s was the biggest. She always seems to catch the biggest showing us boys up. Well, Jim was a little miffed because Kayleen’s was bigger than his. So he came up with the idea that they had to clean their own fish. Kayleen was not keen on the idea in fact refused because she was scared! Plus, girls have to go first. Jim goated and coax for sometime to no avail. Finely Jim push Kayleen aside saying here I will show how easy it is. Now all this time that the conversation was going on Kayleen’s fish was laying on the kitchen sink draining board appearing to dead. Jim with knife in hand grabbed a hold of the fish ready to show Kayleen how to cut the fish’s head off. The fish flipped his tail. Jim lets out a blood-curdling scream, jumped toward the ceiling. Kayleen and her little brothers screaming hit the floor. After time and regaining composure, terror changes to laughter. Mom steps forward and calmly shows all the kids how to clean fish.
From Dad

Keeping the Old Farm House Warm During Minnesota Winters

One of the many things we had to do was learn to survive Minnesota winters in that Old Farm House. It seemed that every year there was a new idea as to what we should do to keep it warmer for the next winter. Some years we would bank hay bales (because we had plenty of them around the farm) around the base of the house to act as an extra layer of insulation. One year we even nailed inch thick 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide Styrofoam sheets to the old white slate siding around the house. We even placed plastic film over each of the windows to act as an additional pane of window to insulate further. I even have early memories of the boys room upstairs having its own stove in it.
As far back as my memory serves me the main sources of heat were from the wood furnace that was plumbed right into the house's old chimney or the propane heater that would kick in at night when the fire went out. This wood furnace was in the basement and the only way to stoke it was to go down into the basement to light the fire. Easy right? Wrong. The only way to get into the basement were the steps that were outside (see the picture of the steps above)! So you get a little cold having to quickly run outside and run down the concrete stairs. Add to that that the stairs steps were typically iced over from the snow falling on them and the foot traffic packing the snow down. It seemed that every trip down those stairs you were slipping on those steps and landing on your back side resulting in a sore bum.
Being in such an Old Farm House, that chimney certainly got used. I can remember feeling that some times more smoke made it into the house then was being ventilated all the way up the chimney and out of the house. With that in mind the sound of the fire alarm going off was quite common to us and typically no one panicked when they heard it. One year, in the middle of the night, a chimney fire had started from the creosote being built up on the sides of the chimney over all the years. The neighbors were returning home from their trip to town that night and pulled in to tell us that the chimney was spewing flames several feet up into the air. Dad went down to the basement with the fire extinguisher to put the flames out. That caused the fire alarm to go off and I can remember Kayleen hysterically running into my bedroom in middle of the night telling me to get out of bed. I remember not getting out of bed because it was just more smoke and telling her I was going back to sleep...
Over all the experiences I believe Dad recognized it was time to stop heating the house using the chimney of the house. He devised a plan to build an exterior wood shed that would house a "water buffalo" insulated with yellow Styrofoam. The "water buffalo" had a tank of water surrounding the wood furnace chamber. The fire was to warm the water which would be circulated back to the house where it would radiate its heat up through the floor boards. Unfortunately, the "water buffalo" didn't seem to be able to keep the house as warm as what we used to have with the wood furnace in the basement. In fact I remember Mom commonly voicing her opinions of the "water buffalo."
I recall one night being told to stoke the fire very well before bed as it was to be an extremely cold night. We always had wood inside the newly constructed wood shed. You typically had your choice of poplar or red oak. I knew that poplar was better to start and burned hotter so I stoked the wood furnace chamber full of poplar. I saw to it that the fire was burning sufficiently well and left the fire to do its course through the night. Come morning - the fire certainly did its course. The fire got so hot through the night that the flames escaped the sides of the furnace chamber door and ignited the yellow Styrofoam that wrapped the "water buffalo." All that was left was a black charred "water buffalo" that stunk horribly from the burnt Styrofoam. I also believe that the temperature of the water got so hot through the night that it weakened the water chamber wall surrounding the fire chamber making the "water buffalo" inoperable. Many questions were asked of me as to what I did - and my response was, "I did exactly as you told me to!" I had stoked up the fire for an extremely cold night! The rest of that winter was fueled by propane and I don't think Mom had any complaints about the "water buffalo" meeting its death.

Scott and Brad’s fastest boats in the stock pond

The year that Scott was taking Physics from Mr. Lien, one of their class projects was to build self propelled boats to go across the pond at the High School (the pond was on the West side of the Football Fields). As part of the assignment Scott used his engineering intuition to develop a prototype stealth hydro boat that would be propelled by model rocket engines. Scott recognized the need to keep these boats light in design so that they would "jet" quickly across the pond. To do this he used Styrofoam laying around the farm from some of the many different "winterizing" projects we had made over the years. If you know anything about "Ober engineering" it is typically trial an error. To test out the design we took it to the "stock pond" by the gravel pit. The attached video clip will illustrate how Scott's design truly did "jet".
On the next prototype Scott made some alterations to the keel design and placement of the model rocket engines and balancing of weight.
By this point I could see that this homework stuff he was doing for Mr. Lien was a lot more fun than the English homework I had to do, so I too made my own prototype. My prototype was designed from a 2 liter Caffeine Free Diet Coke bottle (I have to thank Dad for contributing that to the cause), a few pebbles I threw into the bottle to create ballast and a duck taped model rocket engine to the mouth of the bottle. Unfortunately, in the attached video clip you can only see the aftermath of my prototypes maiden voyage. In essence my pebbles for ballast were at the front of the bottle and put it into to a "submarine dive" which only took it 1-2 yards from shore.
Scott's second prototype was quite eventful in another "jet" experience. I guess it just goes to show that Scott really was intended to be in the Air Force!

Jim's Memories on the Farm

Well I am not the best at story telling but here it goes.

First of all let me tell the rest of the story. When the silo unloader incident happened, I remember Mom was doing dishes in the house. She could hear my blood curdling scream from the Barn where I had just had my Arm ripped open by the Hand crank on the winch used to lower the Silo unloader. I remember vividly jumping to my feet running for the house. To my dismay Mom met me half way under the Light pole and tackled me to the ground, there was nothing nice about it, needless to say from that day forward I would never mess with MOM. Then I remember being put into the station wagon and dad speeding as fast as it would go to the hospital in Moose Lake, Kayleen was stroking my face and trying to keep me calm the whole way. I remember while at the Hospital one of our relatives was in as well I think from the Gordon McVey clan. I guess he had gotten attacked by the bull. Needless to say I remember that he came in to see me and gave me some peanut brittle. That was awesome!

Now for the Dad loosing his Toe incident. What they didn’t tell you was that When I was on the tractor. Dad immediately put the cultivator back down, I am horrified looking at Dads Cowboy boot with a big hole in it. He managed to take his boot off and then I just remember him starting to laugh. Needless to say, he laughed all the way back to the house as I drove him on the tractor. I think that was the last time I have ever seen Dad where Cowboy boots.
A story I still tell to this day is the time Blaine didn’t turn on the Bulk Tank after we were done milking. The next day father brought me in and explained that the milk was ruined. I pleaded with him it was Blaine who had finished up in the Milk house and that it was his fault. Dad gave me an important lesson that day by informing me I was the oldest and I was the one who was in charge. At that point he made me dump out the milk and clean the bulk tank explaining that the mistake would put financial burden on our family now. WOW I will never forget that lesson in responsibility.

I remember going to the house with two one gallon buckets of milk. Mom was half way to the house and had just turned to yell at me to hurry. I was at that moment walking under the grain elevator we had in the silo house, when Boom lightning hit the elevator. All I remember is dropping both buckets of milk and running like crazy to the house.

I remember chasing the cows from the barn to the feed bunk area when I was attacked by the bull we had on loan at the time. All I remember is Blaine grabbing a pitch fork and attacking the bull immediately without hesitation. I got out from underneath the bull and remember jumping the barbwire fence and collapsing on the other side. I knew from that day forward I could always count on my brother Blaine to have my back no matter what the adversary, even a one ton bull, without regards for his own safety.

I remember going fishing with Grandpa Ober to the lake next to Uncle Albert’s place. All the grand kids were catching fish faster than we could real them in. What an awesome experience, I have never had that much success since when it comes to fishing.

I remember the snow being so deep that Mom had to go out and dig a tunnel for the heifers to be able to get to the water. This was next to the chicken coop.

I remember that Dad was always there as a protector. Whether it be Lauren Granda beating me up on the bus or the kids at swimming lessons snapping me with towels. He went in and confronted the adversary head on and was truly my HERO. As I get older I realize it takes a lot of initiative to stand up for our children and wow what a great DAD.

I remember cousin BUZZY coming to the farm and helping out when he was thirteen. All of us kids loved him and he was the notorious TICKLE CLAW. I also remember when we got news that he had been killed in a car accident and how much that really hurt.
I remember when grandpa and grandma Silvestri got mom her first Dish washer on the farm what a cool memory.

I remember Sister Earl, our seminary teacher, “the big O leads to the big E”
Obedience = Eternal Life.

I remember after haying during the summer Dad and Mom would let us take the Blue Ford down to Sandy Lake so we could swim. We always looked forward to that.

I remember staying with uncle Les and Aunt Delores when Mom and Dad went to conference. Aunt Delores always had Smuckers grape Jelly for our Toast that was an awesome treat.

I remember Mom going to California and Dad having to feed us kids and we thought it was really great when he made us Chocolate Oatmeal for breakfast.

I remember Grandpa and Grandma Reed Staying with us when Mom and Dad went to conference. Grandma Reed made awesome homemade applesauce.

I remember Grandpa Silvestri coming to the farm and we would all sit on his lap as he told us stories making us the main characters, that was so cool.

Well if anyone wants to edit this that would be great.

Pictures

Over Thanksgiving Brad scanned a ton of farm pictures into the computer at Mom and Dad's house. Now the question is what to do with them . . . We could post them all like this, which would be nice because you would be able to right click and save them to your own computers to use in future posts or just to save for yourselves. It would take a lot of room however. Or as stories come in we could post just the pictures that kind of go around that event, like the collage of motorcycle pictures I put into Kay's post. Does anyone have a preference? Edit this post, leave a comment, or send an email if you do!

Motorcycle Fun!

Since the age of 5, for me motorcycles had been a huge part of the entertainment around the farm. Dad came home one day with a honda 50 dirt bike for me just my size. That was so cool. I could now go riding with the rest of the boys without having to just ride on the back. (Though a few times riding on the road with Dad wasn't bad) But I didnt appreciate wiping out on the 250 with Bobby driving out in the back field trying to go down the hill. Anyway, We had the Rupp, the 90 the big 250 street legal one of dads and finally a little one for me. That thing could go anywhere. I would go all over the farm, doing many laps around the fields. Sometimes we would go into Merle's field trails and go past Aunt Delores and Uncle Les' house careful not to get caught by the deer gun at night that just was there to scare the deer or Merle and his real gun both of which scared me. I just followed my brothers and listened to my elders no matter who it was--Jim, Blaine, Shawn, Bobby, cousin Chad. At age 6,7,8 you can be very impressionable. And swarn to secrecy very easily. (parents keep that in mind) There were many times when we would also go to the gravel pit. That was lots of fun. We would try and go up the piles of gravel or make jumps. I am suprised we never ended up in the hospital for some of the things we did to have fun out there. But mom would not let us go without our helmets. Safety first. Always. After the 50 I never really graduated to the larger motorcycles as much as I did that one. I don't know why maybe it was because of the 3 wheeler but during those years I sure had lots of fun.

One more mystery!

During the winter I came home from grocery shopping, put the grocery away and had a brown paper bag with four loaves of bread in it. The freezer was full so I left them on the floor in the office. The office was a remodeled porch with no heat. It stayed very cold during the winter so the bread would be just fine. The next day went to get a loaf of bread and to my surprise two loaves of bread were eaten straight down so that half the loaves standing straight up was gone. We never did solve this mystery.

Christmas Candy Mystery

Every Christmas Eve before I went to bed I would set up a table of goodies. The chocolate candy box would be open, fruit in a nice bowl, and goodies arranged on a serving plate, all awaiting the eager eyes of the kids. This was a tradition every year. This particular year morning came with the same excitement and delight. Presents opened and all was going well until I looked over at the goody table. To my surprise the opened box of chocolate candy was gone. 3 lbs on three layers of plastic slotted for each piece of candy trays was empty. I asked in an insensitive way, “Who took the candy?” Everyone played innocent. I was not happy. I was sure someone had taken all that candy to play a joke or something. No one had seen any chocolate candy. So all we had was an empty box with the plastic trays still undisturbed. That day we never did find the candy. That night I put mouse poisoning on the table. The next day it was gone. For three or four months went by and one day while cleaning the couch, I opened it up (fold open couch for bed), in the crease of the sofa were the chocolate candy and the mouse poisoning pellets. What a waste. Each piece of chocolate was in good shape except for a slight indention where teeth had been and worst part was I had to throw out every piece. Our mystery was solved sort-of, we never found out what it was that worked so hard thatChristmas Eve night.

Halloween Blizzard of 1992

The snow storm start about “trick or treat” time. Brad would crawl under the pick-nick table each day of the three days of snow measuring the depth of the snow. The snow covered the pick-nick table. We had hayed the week before and did not have the all the equipment put away. Grandpa Reed’s truck was parked in the yard and we had to dig it out and work to get it into the machine shed. The snow stayed until late spring. We finally found all the tools sometime in April. This was a long winter.

One month of misery.

Blaine, Jim and Dad were opening up the silo to be able to start feeding the cows from the silo. Dad and Blaine were up inside the silo with pitch forks pushing dry moldy silage into the silo unloader, Jim was on the ground slowly cranking down the silo unloader when the crank slipped out of his hands tore open his upper arm. Ran toward house, I heard him screaming ran to meet him and put him on the ground because I wasn’t sure what was wrong I just saw blood. Before he could tell me what happened he said, “Can I still be an astronaut?” When the silo unloader fell Blaine and Dad were not under it and no one else got hurt. Jim spent the night in the hospital. Didn’t brake anything.When Jim got home from the hospital the next day Dad had Jim out on tractor cultivating corn. To teach him how Dad was standing on the cultivator as Jim drove the tractor. At the end of a row Dad told Jim to lift the cultivator which he did and Dad’s foot was riding right where the cultivator and PTO shaft barely missed each other. Dad’s toe was in the way and thus that is how Dad has 9 toes instead of 10. He was lucky it was a middle toe as this did not effect his balance.We took Dad to the emergency room at Moose Lake and the doctor who was not our regular doctor treated Dad and sew the skin on around the toe bandaged him up and sent him home with a gallon of Iodine solution to soak his foot in. Grandma Ober was down in Milltown and came up to help. She looked at his toe and said it looked ok, we had concerns about how it would heal. The next day the toe looked like it was rotting. Another trip to Moose Lake and saw Dr. Christensen (family doctor). He looked at it and called Duluth and talked to a speacialist who told Dr. Christensen to cut off the toe right below the joint, this way it could heal properly and their would be no stub, all worked out great. Dad was laid up for a while and the kids and I farmed while Dad gave directions from the couch.Grandma Silvestri then came out to help with everything. She stayed for about a month and then Grandpa came and visited and took her home. I am so grateful for the help and support of the family. Those days of Dad’s recovery would have been almost unbearable.

First Year on the Farm

Wall furnace

Blaine walking to the barn barefooted about 3 yrs: On Dec. 19, 1971, temp -19° We were doing evening chores as usual. We were pleased that we had finished building a new milk house door that would shut tight and latch. Jim and Blaine were in the barn with us as usual as we were milking and feeding cows. Blaine got tired and wanted to go to the house, which he had done in the past. I was busy milking, so Dad left his feeding chores and took Blaine to the house. Dad took Blaine’s clothes off except for his underpants (Blaine was used of running around in only shorts when we lived in Arizona) so that Blaine would not try and come down to the barn by himself later, the barn was about 100 yards from the house. Dad came back down to the barn and we were both busy milking cows when our puppy got stepped on by a cow and ran into the milk house yelping in pain. I went into the milk house to check on the puppy and heard a noise outside the milk house door. I opened the door and to my horror, found Blaine standing there in the snow crying with just underpants on, no coat, shoes, socks, gloves or anything to keep him warm. I picked him up, cried out to Dad and he came running. I had no idea how long Blaine had been standing outside the milk house door. Having no idea what to do Dad took Blaine from me and ran to the house while I stayed to finish milking. Dad put cool water into the tub and placed Blaine in it. If he had used warm or hot water Blaine would not have been able to stand the pain as his little feet and hands were froze and had to be thawed out slowly. Blaine was in such pain. After chores were done I went to the house to find Blaine still in the tub. As soon as I could I held Blaine to try and comfort him. The only way I could comfort him was to lay on the floor with my knees up and Blaine laying on my stomach put his feet on my knees. This kept the blood from settling in the feet and the pain was eased. We were awake most of the night. The next day I took Blaine to the Doctors in Moose Lake (20 miles away). The Doctor treated the bottom of Blaine’s feet and finger tips the same as a bad burn. We were instructed to watch carefully for infection and put clean bandages on regularly. We were told that Blaine would be very sensitive to cold from now on. Blaine’s feet and fingertips blistered but slowly healed. Blaine proved the doctors wrong and never complained about his feet hurting because of cold. After this experience I was ready to go back to Arizona or California, any where away from the extreme cold and the harsh farming life. How could we expose our boys to such a cruel life? It took a long time for me to adjust to farming life.Power lines to barn broke/repairing – garden hose repaired it in blizzard. I was so tired and so cold I could just lay down and go to sleep1st year making silage- piled on ground with silage blower and drove tractor over it. Had a spot attached on top of a tall pole. Had to change direction of spot and climbed up and while adjusting leg got caught and hung there until Blaine showed up (about 6?). Blaine went and got dad from field to rescue me.Looking for cows and calves in the 20 acre woods – 7 people and 2 dogs, couldn’t find. About two weeks later calf came out of the woods with mother. Calf very wild and hard to catch.Day bdfore Kayleen was born – out fixing fence with boys – came I to find Elder & Sister Tanner doing my dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. They thought I had gone to the hospital to have Kayleen – I was very embarrassed.When the children were little they would ride tractor with us. We would make a seat for them (no safety belts) and they would spend hours upon hours riding. When they would get tired, if big enough, we would just let them down and they would walk home.

What a nightmare.Jim was to hold a calf with a rope around its neck while we were trying to catch more and Jim tied the rope around his waist – I was so scared!

No TV on Sunday’s!

We had a family home evening lesson on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We talked about things we could do as a family to help us keep the Sabbath Day Holy. One of the suggestions was no TV on Sunday. We discussed this at great lengths. We decided that this had to be a unanimous decision. So that no could know if someone voted against this we did a silent vote. Each of us wrote on a piece of paper yes or no and took turns putting our vote in the bowl. To our surprise it was unanimous that we would not watch TV on Sunday. For the next few Sundays as we got home from Church the usual was walking over to the TV and turning it on but no one turned on the TV. We found out latter everyone was hoping someone else would turn on the TV but it was not going to be them. We broke the habit which became one of my greatest joys.

How I loved Sunday’s, No TV on Sunday’s, no field work or extra farm work. We were able to spend Sunday afternoon’s and evenings together as a family. Enjoying quite games, reading together, FHE lessons, and just sharing time together without work. Yes chores still had to be done, like feeding the animals and milking. Only when the ox was in the mire was there extra work

Marie