Winter Day on the Farm

February 21, 1933  Mary, Jacob, and Corney went to get another load of kindling.  50 cents.  Mama walked to C. Dalkes.  I was sick, so I stayed home with the little boys, Henry and Elmer.  Strong south wind.

Today we see a routine day at the farm (and there were many of these).  It was winter, so most of the work was dedicated to maintenance, whether maintenance of human life by making food, clothes, and quilts or fixing things on the house and car or keeping warm.  They kept the animals alive so that they would be ready for another season.  And they fixed farm equipment so that it would be ready for spring.  Only when warmer weather arrived in spring did a farm family swing into production mode where they worked to produce more crops and animals.

This day the three older children, Mary, Jake, and Corney got another load of kindling.  It was a Tuesday, and on the Saturday before they got a load of kindling.  They must have found a place where they could pay a little for scrap lumber or tree branches to heat the house.  They paid 50 cents for the load, which would be like $9 today.  John did not help, so he must have been in school.

Wife Margaret walked to Cornelius Dalkes, which was about a mile to the northeast.  At that time it was common to walk a mile or even a few miles to see someone instead of driving.  It does not say why, but he had been deathly sick since at least the 16^th.  She probably went to comfort her sister and help around the house, since her sister Anna would have been busy taking care of her husband.  His children had even come home, which indicates that they expected him to die.  He was already 68 years old, and by 1933, he was one of the few people left who had been born in Russia.  But he recovered well and lived until 1950.

Finally, Cornelius was sick, probably with pain from kidney stones, so he stayed home with his little sons, Henry (22 months) and Elmer (11 months). 

Of course the wind was blowing.  It would not have been a routine day otherwise.