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!