Lessons Learned

Sincere apologies for the long silence; I have had a month of transition that included two simultaneous moves, a frustrating housing search, a nine-hour flight to Germany for a long weekend, terrible sleep and jet-lag but good family fun, another twelve-hour flight back to Los Angeles, another flight to Des Moines with my wife, negotiating housing, moving into a house, a road trip to Chicago for Pre-Service Orientation and back, and starting a new position in a town where I don't know anyone except my wife. So I've been busy and stressed. But I've managed to endure and overcome. Maybe not worth an Oscar-winning screenplay epic, but it was hair-raising nevertheless. I have had the meat of this post ready to go since the middle of October when I was nearly finished with my time at the Living History Farms, but got hung up on the editing and picture selection. In light of the end of the LHF season, I think it is probably a good time to stop and reflect on what I've learned and maybe gain some insights into what that means for how I do interpretive presentations.

Feeding the separator machine

When I originally set out to do a blog, I had intended it to be much more of a daily journal of "Wow, I got to do this today at Living History Farms!" and describe what it was that I was doing. I had never worked on a farm, so everything was new and great and every new day was a new experience that I had to learn and adapt to. It didn't help that I decided to start a blog about these experiences after a few months of working at the farms so it wasn't as new or as exciting as it was at the beginning of the season, which explains the far fewer posts on farming than I would have liked to have posted. As a result, this post will address most of this as a retrospective rather than a fresh look.

Farming is hard work. It requires strength, skill, and knowledge in order to be successful and for the most part, I think I was successful. We describe our work as "9 to 4 farming", meaning on a true farm that you lived on for your livelihood, you would be up before dawn doing chores and asleep not long after dusk, whereas "9 to 4 farming" means I start work after I clock in, well after daybreak and finish the last of my chores about 3:45; a good 3-5 hours before dusk. Not exactly the natural cycle most of America knew during the time periods we represent. Chores are the biggest routines of the farm and they involve caring for the animals.

Harnessing for work

The horses that we have are one-ton hairy equine teenagers. Each have their own distinguishing quirks and attitudes. At first, I had the hardest time telling them apart. But as I got to know them, their traits and descriptions became more noticeable. The Percherons are generally a gentle breed, but the more slack you give on their line, the more room they will take in doing what they want, so cinch up close under their chins and lead. Then they follow you, not their own wills. However, I will tell you when a horse puts up its will, it's better to let them go than get dragged or rope burned.

Cows, like sheep, are ruminants and do not have upper teeth in front, which is why cows "lick" the grass into their mouth rather than bite. Horns can be on both males or females; it depends on the breed. The proper way to milk a cow is to adopt a forefinger-thumb "OK" grip and ripple motion squeeze down the teat to the end with the rest of the fingers. Steers must be trained about 4 years before they are considered "oxen" for driving. Since cattle will eat whatever grass you have, they are ideal for frontier living; with horses, you must supplement their diet with complex carbohydrates. Like all horses, the draft breeds were

introduced to North America about the middle of the 19th century which is another reason why oxen were the preferred draft animal for most of the United States' frontier areas. Oxen are also difficult to steer and take time to comprehend the driver's calls. Cattle like to be rubbed under their chin and behind the ears but not the forehead, the seat of aggression. Herding animals isn't too hard if you have a pretty good idea on how animals react to humans, essentially go right so they go left, left to go right. Never stand or approach an animal in their blind spot or they can kick.

Most of the animals, like the horses, cows, and pigs must be fed in the morning, and again in the evening with the chickens and ducks. All of the water must be refilled, even if they immediately knock over their water dish after two slurps. Pigs are jerks like that. To riff on Steve Zissou from A Life Aquatic, "Pigs are supposedly intelligent, but I've never seen any evidence of it." More often then not, they are busy trying to find a way out, for no other reason than the joy of escape. Pigs have rings put into their snouts so they don't root and undermine plants and fences. Most of the farms in Iowa were hog or pig farms because they had a higher price per hundredweight. Piglets are also heart-meltingly cute.

Cuteness overload

Picking up Polish chicks

Chickens come in many breeds. My favorite were the Polish varieties (buff laced) and I had great success in training one to eat out of my hand and being content to be touched, held, and propped on a shoulder. People eating duck meat isn't uncommon, so ducks are often raised along with chickens.

Sheep are dumb. I've known this, but now I can say with some authority that sheep are dumb.  They tend to follow whoever has the most original idea, human or sheep. I've seen sheep come galloping in

from an acre away for grain with a sheep call. Sheep are also ruminants and will eat whatever you have, which also makes them great for frontier farming. Sheep are sheared in spring so their coats will not be thick in summer but thick enough by winter. Their woolly coats are spun into wool thread for clothing.

Fall is here!

Maintaining crops is tough too. We had numerous problems with deer, bugs, erring lawnmowers, and rains and the resulting weeds that came up. Corn is prominent throughout the farms here. I was proud that my rows of corn were the nicest looking rows, but they still suffered from the same problems mentioned above. Corn is grown in hills done in checks. In other words, it looks like military grave stones with enough space in between them to always appear in a row, and that is because the space between hills is gone over with a cultivator which is like a set of mini-plows that dig up soil and root out weeds. Corn hills typically have about 4-7 kernels of seed corn with a mix of other plants that help return nutrients that the corn need or plants that will mutually benefit, like string beans to climb up the stalks, and big leafy plants shade out the weeds like squash, pumpkin or watermelon. Corn cobs are saved after the corn has been dried and ground off with and corn sheller and used for a quick, hot heat and excellent for frying. Corn is mostly used for animal feed but must be ground for the chickens to use and ground finer still for corn meal. Hay is a grass; alfalfa, timothy and clover are examples of hay. Grains have heads like wheat, barley, and oats. Most "hay bales" are actually straw bales; straw is the leftovers from threshing, mostly stalks and has little nutritional value for animals and so are used for bedding and insulation, Hay bales are animal feed. Both are baled by awesome machines that have special mechanism that tie them together as they are made. Once hay is cut, it has to dry for a few days before putting it up otherwise wet hay runs the risk of catching fire in the barn. I'm not even joking. Here's some info on it Wet hay can cause barn fires. We harvested hay on the windiest day I can recall. We used a hay rack (a cart) and a hay loader (a large portable elevator that scoops up hay from the windrow) the basic method was to move the hay to the farthest corners first (the driver's side" and slowly start going up until it is too difficult to pick up the hay below you and go to the barn for storage.

Haying against the wind, from LHF's Facebook Page

Preformed by someone who knows how to scythe

At the Implement Dealership in town, I learned a thing or two about farming and tools. Treadmills were used for harnessing animal energy long before electricity and engines started doing the work. Farm tools were originally painted bright colors for marketing purposes, like cars today. Using a scythe sucks; the Grim Reaper carried a primitive lawnmower. The Industrial Revolution set off a spin-off Agricultural Revolution. Although most of the experimentation was done from 1790s-1850s being able to mass produce patented machinery was what made the money and allowed farming to be bigger and faster. Threshing sucks too; it involved beating grain with a staff with a section of rope to a small club. Hay forks are for lifting hay but many other varieties of tools could be used for lifting hay, baled or loose like the hay screw and hay harpoon. In addition to living the life, I have fuller understanding of farming terms, because you reap what you sow.

Having fun!

Over all, it has been a great experience and an adventure I will probably never forget. Thank you all for being a part of it, "You-know-who-you-all-are." I hope to visit again sometime, hopefully before my membership runs out next year. In the meantime, I've accepted a position with the Americorps VISTA program to go up to Waterloo for a year. Just because my job will not be involved in interpretation in any way that I can imagine right now, I will try to continue to publish as time and ability allow.