Summertime

By: Dr. Don Kuehle

“Summertime —and the livin’ is easy; Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high…” So wrote George Gershwin. I remember summertime! I grew up on a farm — and the livin’ was not easy! I remember summertime! Cultivating acres of corn. Cutting wheat with a Binder and putting the bundles of wheat into shocks; later, threshing the wheat and hauling the grain to the grainery. Cutting, raking, and hauling hay; putting the loose hay up into the hay-loft in 90 degree weather. Tending the garden: plowing, hoeing, weeding and watering. Morning and evening: feeding the horses, milking the cows, slopping the hogs. Repairing the machinery when it broke down. Cooking meals over a wood stove. I remember summertime! The work went on from sun-up till sun-down. The livin’ was not easy!

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal