Stories

Growing up before our time was a strength that our parents taught us. My parents were very avid planners for a garden in the summer time. In fact, we planted seeds in places that one would have thought nothing would grow! Mother was a great cook and she always canned at least 200 quarts in the summer time after the growing season. I can remember just north and west of the cattle barn, dad felt that we needed to have a large garden in this area. Certainly, placing a fence around it was the proper thing to do and that fence kept the cattle out most of the time. We then planted trees around the outer-side near the fence and soon we had a good winter break. I imagine that the potatoes were the big thing. The rows were at least 200 foot long and dad planted at least 40 rows. Potatoes bugs were the big thing and we need to spray them often. We would get a brushy bush and tie the stems together and then get the potatoes spray and mix it with water. We would take the hand made sprayer and place it in the bucket and then sprinkle the potatoes plant. By golly it worked and was cheap too. We planted about 20-30 rows of sweat corn. About every two days we would plant a row so that we would have corn for a long time. The raccoons loved to raid the garden and they sure did. Dad would try any and everything. It took tin cans and place a wire through the can and then would string up several hundred. His unique plan was to make a noise when the wind blew. This did not do much for the raccoons though as they took what they wanted during the night. We planted green bean, and most other garden things that could be canned.

The big item was growing water melon and cantaloupe. I remember that at our Creek pasture we had a lake and dad used this to irrigate the melons. Nothing in a small quantity normally a melon garden that was at least 200 foot long and 100 foot wide. My brother Bruce and I could be classified as a journeyman now for all the hoeing that we accomplished during the summer. We would just get through the potatoes then it would be time to start on the melons. As kids, we did enjoy the fruits of our labor though. When dad hit it big on melons, we had the best in the west. We would take wagon loads to the house when they became ripe and some we would take to Valentine to sell. These were the good old days. Getting potatoes out of the ground was a big task. We had a potatoes fork and it took several weeks to get the potatoes to the storage area. The area that we stored the potatoes in was our storm cellar. We had about 10 bins and that was the storage area for the potatoes. In the late fall months, it was our duty to take the sprouts off the potatoes. We would start on a bin and work our way around until we were done. This would take about two weeks as I remember. Most of our summers were spent working in the hugh, hugh, and hugh garden(s) and then mother would can many items. The corn, green beans, tomatoes and other items were great to eat during the winter months. We stored these items in the cellar and the shelves were loaded most of the time. Dad would always correct us when we hoed the garden - he would say "keep your fanny behind you and hoe ahead of you and what not to cut off the plant", what a trick to learn. Once in awhile I would chop off a plant. At the end of the growing season, you could count the plants that had been hoed off. We never ran out of canned good during the winter months. This saved a great deal of money and seemed much better then the good that you could buy from the Valentine stores. Everything we did with the garden was hauled with a team of horses and a wagon. Mike and Jim were the two large roans that helped with this work task. Bruce Sr. said that they weighed about 1600 pounds each and they stood at least 16 hands tall. We even helped harness them to get the work done. Today - we buy most of our good from the local store. We drive our vehicle to the store, then home, use an electric opener to get the lid off, eat the product and discard the can. The good old days, we would un-screw the lid, break the seal, empty the corn or beans then use the jar another year. Wasn't that neat - we re-cycled with system and with not much waste. How about that! Another story of the good old days - from Claude Reyman growing up on a cattle ranch in Cherry County. Bye for now. See ya at sunrise for another day's work!