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.