When I was in high school, we always got a nice long vacation over Christmas. During my senior year, we were to start our Christmas vacation two days before the holiday. My friend, whose dad owned the farm that I worked for during the summers, came up to me and asked if I would be interested working over Christmas. He said that both of the winter helpers wanted off, so they were in need of help.
Boy, I didn’t know what to say. I was really looking forward to the time off, but remember, I was also greedy. So, I asked him what the hours would be and he said whatever I could do would be appreciated. So, I said OK.
The morning of Christmas Eve was just like any other morning that I worked on the farm. I started with cleaning the milking parlors and then over to the hog pens to clean them. That takes me to about 11:00 and I thought about leaving. As I was getting my stuff together, the owner comes up to me and asked if I would be able to fill the grain bins and bring in 30 bales of hay from the other barn. That meant that I would have to hitch the trailer to one of the tractors, which I really liked to drive. So, I told him sure, I would do it.
I went over to the JD (John Deere) and nothing. Dead battery. So, now I have to go get the battery charger, hook that up and try another tractor. The Farmall tractor was sitting next to the JD, so I jumped on it and prayed that it would start and it did. Ok, the wagon is hooked up and I’m on my way to the barn to get the hay. No more problems, I hope.
When I opened the doors to the other barn, I saw the ducks (there were 2 of them) huddled in a corner. The ducks never go into the barns, so I found my friend and asked him if he wanted me to put them back out. He told me that his one sister puts them in the barn when it is supposed to get real cold at night, so put them outside and he would put them back in before he went inside for the night.
When I got back to the barn and was going to move the ducks, they were quacking up a storm. The one duck wouldn’t get up and the other one was trying to intimidate me. I finally figured it out that the duck that wouldn’t get up was probably sitting on eggs. I got my friend to come over to the barn and check it to see if I was right. I was. We made the decision to leave them alone. The owner also was onboard with our decision to just leave the ducks alone. These were domesticated ducks, so we checked and found out that the eggs would need about 28 days to hatch.
The ducks were in luck. The area in which the ducks selected to lay their eggs wasn’t an area where it was going to be in anyone’s way for a month. I then backed the trailer into the barn (my first time backing up a trailer, so that took awhile), and unloaded the hay. At that point, it was now 2:00 in the afternoon and time to leave. Tomorrow is Christmas Day.
The only problem is that cows do not get a day off. They still need milked and all the animals need fed. The owner asked me if he would be seeing me in the morning. What am I going to say, NO? I could see that they were short on help and with all that needed done, I wasn’t going to let them hang. I told the owner that I would come over in the morning, but only do what really needed to be done and then leave. He said he understands. I would get there by 7 in the morning and work 4-5 hours and that’s the way it went for the rest of my “vacation.”
BTW, I did get 2 full days off of work before going back to school and on my last day of working on the farm during my Christmas vacation, which was a Friday, (I believe), the owner handed me a $20.00 bill. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but remember, this was back in 1970, so $20.00 wasn’t all that easy to come by. I also got a paycheck, but that got mailed to me.
As I look back at those days, I think how much I wanted to be off and hanging with my friends, but I think I did the right thing for both the farm and myself. My dad was really proud of me telling all his friends that his “boy” is working down at the Farm over Christmas. That was a big deal to those guys.
Boy, I didn’t know what to say. I was really looking forward to the time off, but remember, I was also greedy. So, I asked him what the hours would be and he said whatever I could do would be appreciated. So, I said OK.
The morning of Christmas Eve was just like any other morning that I worked on the farm. I started with cleaning the milking parlors and then over to the hog pens to clean them. That takes me to about 11:00 and I thought about leaving. As I was getting my stuff together, the owner comes up to me and asked if I would be able to fill the grain bins and bring in 30 bales of hay from the other barn. That meant that I would have to hitch the trailer to one of the tractors, which I really liked to drive. So, I told him sure, I would do it.
I went over to the JD (John Deere) and nothing. Dead battery. So, now I have to go get the battery charger, hook that up and try another tractor. The Farmall tractor was sitting next to the JD, so I jumped on it and prayed that it would start and it did. Ok, the wagon is hooked up and I’m on my way to the barn to get the hay. No more problems, I hope.
When I opened the doors to the other barn, I saw the ducks (there were 2 of them) huddled in a corner. The ducks never go into the barns, so I found my friend and asked him if he wanted me to put them back out. He told me that his one sister puts them in the barn when it is supposed to get real cold at night, so put them outside and he would put them back in before he went inside for the night.
When I got back to the barn and was going to move the ducks, they were quacking up a storm. The one duck wouldn’t get up and the other one was trying to intimidate me. I finally figured it out that the duck that wouldn’t get up was probably sitting on eggs. I got my friend to come over to the barn and check it to see if I was right. I was. We made the decision to leave them alone. The owner also was onboard with our decision to just leave the ducks alone. These were domesticated ducks, so we checked and found out that the eggs would need about 28 days to hatch.
The ducks were in luck. The area in which the ducks selected to lay their eggs wasn’t an area where it was going to be in anyone’s way for a month. I then backed the trailer into the barn (my first time backing up a trailer, so that took awhile), and unloaded the hay. At that point, it was now 2:00 in the afternoon and time to leave. Tomorrow is Christmas Day.
The only problem is that cows do not get a day off. They still need milked and all the animals need fed. The owner asked me if he would be seeing me in the morning. What am I going to say, NO? I could see that they were short on help and with all that needed done, I wasn’t going to let them hang. I told the owner that I would come over in the morning, but only do what really needed to be done and then leave. He said he understands. I would get there by 7 in the morning and work 4-5 hours and that’s the way it went for the rest of my “vacation.”
BTW, I did get 2 full days off of work before going back to school and on my last day of working on the farm during my Christmas vacation, which was a Friday, (I believe), the owner handed me a $20.00 bill. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but remember, this was back in 1970, so $20.00 wasn’t all that easy to come by. I also got a paycheck, but that got mailed to me.
As I look back at those days, I think how much I wanted to be off and hanging with my friends, but I think I did the right thing for both the farm and myself. My dad was really proud of me telling all his friends that his “boy” is working down at the Farm over Christmas. That was a big deal to those guys.