Bl4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 31,1983
Holidays and Farming:
KIMBERLY HERR
QUARRYVILLE - It’s that time
of year again when families and
friends gather together to share
the holidav season.
For many, it is a time when
families travel from far and wide
to be with their parents or brothers
and sisters for Christmas and New
Year’s Day, but for the Clair
DeLong family, the distance
traveled is a lot less.
It simply means driving down a
lane, or, in nice weather, walking
across a field, at least for Clair and
Miriam’s three sons, Jim, Ken and
Gerald.
All three of the DeLong sons now
farm land which adjoins their
parents’ farm. The DeLongs own
ibout 450 id nt id-
Clair and Miriam DeLong have made farming a family
tradition. Their three sons farm land that borders their farm.
Miriam's kitchen table is the scene of another family tradition
during the holidays. Every other year, she has her family over
for Christmas dinner. During alternate years, the family gathers
on Christmas Eve.
iriam DeLong always accompanies husband, Clair, on hunting trips. While he’s
hunting she does handcrafts. Shown above are some of her handmade quilts and a
knitted Christmas stocking.
Two Family Traditions
ditional 100. They own me real
estate and their sons do the far
ming. Their operation consists of
dairy cows and farrow to finish
hogs.
So, while the holidays are still a
special family time for the
DeLongs, every day sees the
family working together.
“As we bought the land, the boys
expressed a desire to keep far
ming,” Clair said. “This is another
reason why we bought the land
when it came available.”
Clair and Miriam explained that
they bought their first farm one
year after they were married.
Then in 1966, they bought a
neighboring farm of 125 acres. Two
years later, according to Clair,
thr ' other ' ;hbor ; '
farm of 109 acres. Within one year,
30 additional acres were added.
And then in 1974, they bought the
farm Clair and Miriam now live
on, which was Miriam’s home as a
child. “I lived her until I was 21,”
she said.
Clair explained why he en
couraged all three of his sons to
continue in farming.
“I think it’s a good way of life,”
Clair said of farming. “It takes
skill to be a farmer and you have to
be able to make do for yourself.”
With the high cost of operating,
equipment and land, I think it is
the only way young couples can get
startpfl in farming today, with the
support of their parents,” Clair
said.
And Miriam explained how
having the boys on the neighboring
farms has helped their whole
farming operation.
“With farming the way it is
today, we can utilize all their (her
sons) skills,” she said.
But, regardless of how close the
family is there are always dif
ferences of opinion.
“It takes a lot of giving and
taking, being able to cooperate
with each other,” Clair said.
Even their family Christmas
celebration requires planning and
cooperation.
The DeLongs plan it so that
Miriam has Christmas Day dinner
every other year, and during
alternate years the family gets
together for Christmas Eve at one
of the children’s houses.
During the holidays, there is only
one member of the family that has
to do more than walk to the next
farm. Clair and Miriam’s
daughter, Susan DeLong Stoltzfus,
lives in Cochranville with her
husband, Marvin, and their two
sons, Chad and Devin.
A Christmas Day at the DeLong
household starts out with doing the
milking and “necessary chores,”
according to Clair. Then, everyone
gathers at the large table in
Miriam’s kitchen for a dinner of
capons. And this Christmas, dinner
was followed by some presen
tations from the grandchildren.
Jenny, age eight, who is the
daughter of Jim and Martha
DeLong, gave a reading, while
Chad, age four, recited a poem he
had learned in church. Then three
year-old Jonathan, Ken and
Eleanor DeLong’s son, and Devin,
age two, joined in to sing Christ
mas carols.
“This is a tradition I want to
keep doing,” Miriam said.
Resulting In
Better Resolutions!
Well, the new year is dawning.
This year it really seemed to sneak
up on me I think the fact that it
comes on a Sunday makes it seem
earlier.
This time of year, the traditional
greetings include, “Are you ready
for the New Year?” or “Are you
ready to make your resolutions for
1984?” Well, what improvements
have you made from last years
resolutions? Quite honestly, I can’t
even remember what mine were. I
guess that’s some indication of my
success.
It is traditional to spend some
time at the close of each year
looking over the past twelve
month’s events and making some
plans for the coming year. This
might be especially enjoyable as a
family time activity. Try recalling
some special events and family
times that occurred during the
past year.
I’m sure that New Year’s
resolutions started out as a very
noble deed. It is really not a bad
idea to evaluate oneself and make
some concrete plans for change in
the new year. But, alas, all is for
naught, if your New Year’s
Resolutions are like mine. They
never seem to last through the
month of January, let alone the
next eleven months.
In evaluation, I realize that
much of my problem is in the scope
of my resolutions. My latest
resolution is to make a better list!
If your list of resolutions is longer
than two typed pages or resembles
an instruction manual, it is the
This caribou from Quebec hangs in the Delong's family
room. Clair explained that the only way he could take a
vacation was to get away from the farm. He explained that his
main hobby was hunting.
Other traditions include getting
together with Clair’s family the
night after Christmas. There are
usually about 40 family members
in attendance, and everybody
brings a food dish of some kind.
When New Year’s Day rolls
around, the DeLongs do not have
the traditional Lancaster County
pork and sauerkraut. Instead,
Miriam usually makes fried
oysters, fish and shrimp. How do
the DeLongs celebrate the first day
of the new year?
By Michelle S. Rodgers
Lancaster Extension
Home Economist
tune to prioritize the list. “I will
never be late”, is one resolution I
would eliminate. I haven’t
achieved that yet, and it’s doubtful
that one more listing this year will
help!
Another shortcoming in
resolution writing is when we
make them so vague that it is
impossible to feel any success. One
such example is, “I will not get
uptight as much.” As much as
what? Of course you mean you will
feel less stress than last year, but
do you have electrodes monitoring
your stress level?
Then the other extreme is
making resolutions too specific. “I
will do the laundry every Thur
sday,” Terrific! You now have 52
chances to blow it. That’s not very
good odds. Realistically, every so
often would be more practical for
me.
Try to set achieveable goals and
make room for mid-year amend
ments. If you are planning to save
$500.00 this year, you should
probably amend that if you receive
a $4,000 raise in July.
So with the coming year, 1984,
our New Year’s Resolutions should
be ones that are concrete,
measurable, realistic, achievable
and amendable.
Does this sound like too much
bother? Well, if we really want a
new year of prosperous personal
growth, we need to set some goals.
Whether we set our goals on
December 31, June 5, or October 30
makes no difference. But what else
would we do this New Year’s Eve?
Have a Happy 1984!
“Some go hunting, some watch
football games,” Clair laughed.
While New Year’s Day is a time
for family members to do what
each of them enjoy doing, most of
the year sees the family working
together.
“All things work together for
good,” Miriam said, quoting
Romans 8:28 from the Bible. This
and Psalms 46, which reads “God
is our refuge and strength,” are
verses that Miriam and her family
live by.